The activities and processes used in making tangible products: also called production.

The making of identical interchangeable components or products.

The activities and processes used in making both tangible and intangible products.

The resources -- such as labor, money, materials, and energy -- that are used to produces goods, services, or ideas.

The goods, services, and ideas that are produced by organizational resources.

The creation of an item in self-contained units, or modules, that can be combined or interchanged to create different products.

Making products to meet a particular customer's needs or wants.

The maximum load that an organizational unit can carry or operate.

Brings all resources required to create the product to a central location.

Groups related transformation process together into departments.

Breaks processes down into relatively simple tasks assigned to workers, who are usually positioned along an assembly line.

Uses continuously running assembly lines, creating products with many similar characteristics.

Uses a central location for coordinating resources because it is typically involved in large, complex projects such as construction or exploration.

Manufacturing that employs specialized computer systems to actually guide and control the transformation processes.

The direction of machinery by computers to adapt to different versions of similar operations.

A complete system that designs products, manages machines and materials, and controls the operations function.

The assignment of required tasks to departments or even specific machines, workers, or teams.

Connecting and integrating all parties or members of the distribution system in order to satisfy customers.

A philosophy that uniform commitment to excellence in all areas of an organization will promote a culture that will meet the customers' perceptions of quality.

A system of using smaller quantities of materials that arrive for expedient use in the transformation process and therefore require less storage space and other inventory management expense.

A system that schedules the precise quantity of materials needed to make the product.

A system in which management collects and analyzes information about the production process to pinpoint quality problems in the production system.

The sequence of operations through which the product must pass.

The processes an organization uses to maintain its established standards of excellence.

The buying of all the materials needed by the organization; also called procurement.