| Value-chain management | The development of a set of functional-level strategies that increase the performance of the operating system a company uses to transform inputs into finished goods and services.
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| Total quality management (TQM) | A management technique that focuses on improving the quality of an organization's products and services.
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| Quality circles | Groups of employees who meet regularly to discuss ways to increase quality.
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| Inventory | The stock of raw materials, inputs, and component parts that an organization has on hand at a particular time.
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| Just-in-time (JIT) inventory system | A system in which parts or supplies arrive at an organization when they are needed, not before.
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| Facilities layout | The process of designing the machine-worker interface to increase production system efficiency.
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| Flexible manufacturing | The set of techniques that attempt to reduce the costs associated with an operating system.
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| Process reengineering | The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvement in critical measures of performance such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
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| Boundary spanning | Interacting with individuals and groups outside the organization to obtain valuable information from the environment.
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| Gatekeeping | Deciding what information to allow into the organization and what information to keep out.
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