Indicating and analysis the interrelation between terms – visual: management, control, inspection and testing

The multitude of concepts and methods of management and control related to the word “visual” in the area of production and quality management may cause difficulties with their perception, proper understanding and use of these terms by researchers from various backgrounds (not necessarily related to production) and countries, including Poland. In particular, the noticed inaccuracies in the use of terms with the word “visual” concern such terms as visual: management, control, inspection, and testing, where, for example, in the Polish language the first three different terms in English are named with the same phrase, which sometimes causes some confusion. The aim of the article was an attempt to distinguish, sometimes “troublesome” definitions, to indicate the area of their application, to define possible relations between them, which is a peculiar novelty. The article is an analysis of the literature related to these concepts, systematizes the types of visual concepts and methods in the area of production and quality. It defines in what context the indicated terms should be used by researchers and what is the relationship between them, and under what conditions they can be used separately or jointly. The article is an attempt to indicating and analysis of the interrelation between concepts in which the word “visual” appears concerning production practice. Concepts visual: management, control, inspection, and testing, as the author proves in the article, they should be translated into English with due diligence, due to the differences between them. It has been shown that there is a strong relationship between type definition pairs as visual management & visual control and visual inspection & visual testing, where it is not a mistake to use them interchangeably, and cases, where all these concepts can intertwine, are also given.