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Notes that rapid IT development changes the way of handling product data in sales, design and methods engineering (the specification process), and raises the important question, how to engineer systems for managing product data in order to utilise the IT possibilities. Presents, as a result of a project and a case study, concepts and methods for analysing the specification process and setting up a vision for an improved process. The theory bases for the project are; systems theory as applied in Wickam Skinner’s “manufacturing task”, concepts and methods from business process re‐engineering, and product data technology. The task concept is used for developing the specification process, where the functional demands to the specification process are outlined during an analysis of the so‐called “specification task”. As the task concept is used for another domain new descriptional dimensions for describing the specification task will be presented. Based on an analysis of the specification task the specification process is re‐engineered and a vision for the future process to be is formulated, evaluated, and a plan for the implementation set up.

The protection of Geographical Indications (GIs) supports producers to define common quality standards while highlighting the geographical origin of food products with specific qualities. Adaptations of quality standards are driven by international competition, new production technologies or environmental change. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the modifications affecting European Union (EU) Protected Designation of Origin-Protected Geographical Indication. It specifically compares the share of amendments in diverse product class, years and countries, illustrates specific cases and identifies the factors explaining the probability to amend product specifications.

Official documents of the DOOR Database provide the material for an analysis of changes in product specifications. They also supply the data for four illustrative cheese cases and a logistic regression of all EU amendments.

Amendments of GI product specifications are very frequent: 17 per cent of all 1,276 EU GIs had at least one amendment. This happens in particular for processed products (42 per cent more often than for unprocessed ones) and specific countries (GIs in Italy are six times, Spain five times and France four times more likely to have an amendment compared to GIs from other EU countries). As illustrated by contrasting cheese amendments, the diverse modifications in the product specifications range from more flexibility and innovation on the one hand to stricter rules for strengthening the product’s identity on the other hand.

For EU and national authorities, GI producers and scholars, this first systematic EU-wide analysis of amendments demonstrates that protected food GIs have to be conceptualised as evolving institutions and not as statically protected food production systems.

Strategy Question: How do I get the right product/service specification defined in timely fashion?

Summary: Potential projects have now been suggested for action. Getting the right specification in timely fashion is now critical. Many companies take months to define a specification, and when done suffer because an “everything is #1” mentality hamstrings the development team. QFD is a powerful yet expensive and time-consuming method to defining specification attributes. The Poor Man’s QFD Tool incorporates the intended rigor, but in a timely and resource friendly fashion. This tool provides a powerful way to define a specification for a product/service development project, especially when there is no prioritization clarity for the improvement parameters. For each feature attribute, a specification is developed by a multi-functional team considering market and business needs. Those line item attributes are then “forced ranked” against each other. Compromises in each line item specification, if necessary, are made respecting the rank order chosen, with lower ranked items giving way to those of higher rank. The resulting prioritized list of feature attributes defined is then used to manage the development project. The chart also serves as an excellent one-page management summary highlighting status against both the given specification and performance relative to the best competition.

This research compares consultants' and contractors' professional practices and perspectives on the use of specifications in the engineering of built environment projects.

The study initiates with a review of literature, toward realizing (1) the need for inclusion of specifications, throughout the projects' stages (design, tender, construction and handing over), as well as the (2) causes and effects of defective specifications in design and execution of engineered projects. Additionally (3) the study investigates the challenges and causes of specification variations to projects' design and execution. The systematic methodology adopted in this research utilizes frequency indicators, to rank and correlate the perspectives of 60 professionals, who are experienced in consulting and contracting of mega public and private projects.

The research considers the uncertainties and differences that could be present in engineering developments and use of design specifications for projects' execution and handing over. The two groups of experts' (consultants and contractors) perspectives are usually observed as conflicting, in practice. Practices comparison of their experiences with engineering projects' specifications usability provides unique empirical findings. The analysis and assessment of the experts' knowledge, this research addresses gaps identified in the literature, providing valuable insights.

The study provides in-depth recommendations and discusses possible trends and methods for enhancing specifications' usability in design engineering and execution of built environment projects. The analysis and recommendations present and assess experts' knowledge while bridge gaps identified from the literature.

High-specification food products that reach prices or expert reviews above average, results from buyer-supplier engagement in quality management. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main attributes of the coffee industry supply chain that deals with high-specification products. Coffee may be included in this category of consumption goods that has increasing importance at consumption level around the world. Several groups of high-quality food products such as wine, coffee, spirits and cheese seem to have a very similar supply chain.

This study was based on multiple case studies. Three research techniques were used in the investigation: secondary data analysis, direct observations and interviews with coffee company’s managers and experts. The within-case and the cross-case analyses made it possible to find the main attributes of a high-specification product supply chain.

The cases studies pointed out differences between the two groups of coffee shops in relation to their supply chain strategies. The first group can be called Independent Coffee Shops, since they are focussed on the coffee preparation business. The second group can be called Integrated Coffee Shops, due to the fact that these organizations are responsible to manufacturing activities in addition to the coffee preparation activities. Despite this supply chain configuration difference, both groups have a similar perception about their role for the final consumer, to provide a premium experience with coffee.

The main limitation of this research comes from the fact it was possible to interview only one person in each organization. Only the commercialization of the supply chain was analyzed, if the agricultural production was also analyzed, this paper could have broader implications.

The results of this research show the configuration of a supply chain that handles a high-specification product. They are set to transform the trade of a product that has a component of volatility in its quality attributes into a trade of a product that embodies all the desirable attributes preferred by a specific group of costumers. The logic of a supply chain that deals with commodities is different, since in most of the cases it will try to accommodate the variations on quality that comes from nature. This paper describes the market based strategy of 12 organizations and their supply chain configuration in order to offer a premium product.

The problem that original design manufacturing (ODM) companies encounter with the request for quotation (RFQ) process is that there is no effective and efficient methodology for them to formulate accurate and profitable RFQs. The purpose of this paper is to present a quality function deployment (QFD)‐, concurrent engineering (CE)‐, and target costing‐based methodology for ODM companies to formulate accurate and profitable RFQs.

From eight Taiwan electronics ODM companies, 15 people are interviewed to understand their current methods for formulating RFQs and the problems of these methods. Based on the interview results, it was decided to make use of the merits of QFD, CE, and target costing by integrating them into the proposed methodology.

A case study is presented to illustrate a successful application of the proposed methodology in a case company. The case study shows integrating QFD, CE, and target costing into the proposed methodology allows the authors to effectively and efficiently formulate an accurate and profitable RFQ for the case company.

The interview sample quantity of this study is limited to eight Taiwan electronics companies, which is insufficient to represent all ODM companies in various industries. For the future research, it is suggested researchers collect more samples from different industries in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in ODM companies from different industries.

This paper aims to integrate QFD, CE, and target costing to come up with a systematic ten‐step approach that can accurately formulate the three parts of an RFQ: the product specifications proposal, the product price quotation, and the product development schedule. By adopting this methodology, ODM companies can provide accurate and profitable RFQs to ODM customers, thus increasing their chances of obtaining ODM business.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology that determines vehicle-level specifications for new-car program by balancing market environments and engineering feasibility in the early stages of the vehicle development processes using statistical analysis of historical data.

The proposed methodology effectively captures the interplay among key factors in preliminary vehicle planning: engineering feasibility constraints, market demands, and economic conditions. Engineering design constraints, derived by statistical analysis of historical data, define the strategic feasible space. Within the defined design space, the methodology determines a set of specifications that maximize the customer utility which is built as a function of preferences on each attribute of a vehicle.

The present paper develops an “extrapolation” approach using historical vehicle data, rather than attempt to model a complex system with limited information. In doing so, the proposed approach avoids the difficulties of understanding an entire complex system by determining only the moderate level of specifications. Moreover, its quantification of revealed customer preferences as expressed in sales data resolves the confusions in vehicle planning arising from the translation of customer requirements to engineering specification.

The proposed methodology can provide feasible prediction values with a new, historical-data-based statistical approach that effectively surmounts the difficulty of mechanically understanding complex systems. Moreover, through quantification of the target market's customer requirements as well as effects of market-environmental changes, the methodology enables designers to plan complex products for new concept in objective and reasonable manner.

The role of market information is critical to the success or failure of new product introduction. The challenge of bringing market information to design engineers throughout the design process is addressed, using an information modelling approach. This allows valuable quality function deployment (QFD) information to be captured alongside other product design information, within an object‐oriented database. An environment that facilitates the collection, modification and evaluation of information for QFD analysis is provided. This integrated software environment allows valuable market information to be shared between multi‐discipline project team members. Use of the decision support system is demonstrated through a case study.

This paper is a response to a consultative document by the Personal Investment Authority (PIA), the UK financial services industry regulator. The PIA exists, not because the industry is a monopoly or concerned with health or safety, but because of the unsatisfactory quality it has provided to its customers. The approach of the paper is to examine if the quality management principles developed in manufacturing during past years could be useful in addressing this problem. The paper appears in two parts; the second part proposes a different type of regulatory system.

This paper presents a database system developed to provide a computerized environment for requirement management during the product definition phase. The scope of this database system is to facilitate and demonstrate a methodology for product definition by recognizing and adopting functional requirement patterns from previous product designs so as to address a broad spectrum of domain‐specific customer requirements and organize requirement information for product specifications. The database system improves the product definition process during design and redesign efforts by integrating customer and design information all together and by reusing this information. A prototype requirement management database system is implemented on a PC platform using Microsoft Access.