| Concurrent engineering | Emphasizes cross-functional integration and concurrent development of a product and its associated processes.
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| Contract manufacturer | An organization capable of manufacturing and/or purchasing all the components needed to produce a finished product or device.
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| Core competency | The one thing that a firm can do better than its competitors. The goal is to have a core competency that yields a long-term competitive advantage to the company.
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| House of quality | A matrix that helps a product design team translate customer requirements into operating and engineering goals.
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| Quality function deployment (QFD) | A process that helps a company determine the product characteristics important to the consumer and to evaluate its own product in relation to others.
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| Value analysis/value engineering (VA/VE) | Analysis with the purpose of simplifying products and processes by achieving equivalent or better performance at a lower cost.
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