is integral part of success of many companies and differs significantly depending on the industry.

is 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.

an organization that performs manufacturing and/or purchasing needed to produce a product or device not for itself but as a service to another firm.

some firms define and follow a precise and detailed development process, while other may not even be able to describe their processes.

the same organization may follow different processes for different product groups.

phase 0: Planning

phase 1: concept development

phase 2: system-level design

phase 3: detail design

phase 4: testing and refinement

phase 5: production ramp-up

a firm begins with a new proprietary technology and looks for an appropriate market in which to apply this technology. (the technology pushes development)

for these products, the production process has an impact on properties of the product so that product design cannot be separated from the production process design. (process-intensive products are produced at very high volumes and are bulk)

Built around a preexisting technological subsystem (a technology platform)

slight variation of standard configurations and are typically developed in response to a specific order by a customer.

developing these products consists primarily of setting values of design variables such as physical dimensions and materials