It is the family of standards published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) often referred to collectively as the “ISO 9000 series ” or ” ISO 9000 family “
An organization within the United Nations to which all national and other standard setting bodies (should) defer. Develops and monitors international standards. There are many ISO standards covering many different types of processes.
When either a physical or cycle count is performed. For example, if the percentage of SKU’s are counted and nine of 10 match the recorded volumes, then the accuracy is 90%.
The cost of keeping inventory on hand, including the opportunity cost of invested funds storage and handling costs, taxes, insurance, shrinkage, and obsolescence-risk costs. Firms usually state an item’s holding cost per time period as a percentage of the item’s value, typically between 20-40 percent per year.
An equity partnership in which the parties form a single balance sheet entity, also known as a merged in-source solution. This model can take different legal forms, from buying a service provider, to becoming a subsidiary, to equity-sharing joint ventures. Equity-based partnerships often are born out of a company’s need to acquire mission-critical goods and services. Also, these partnerships often require the strategic interweaving of infrastructure and heavy co-investment. Most equity partnerships are in place on a continuing basis and often conflict with the desires of many organizations to create more variable and flexible cost structures on a company’s balance sheet.
A concept introduced by Adam Smith in 1776 that says society benefits as a whole from a multiplicity of trading transactions as competition drives fairness and honesty.
A list of goods or services sent to a purchaser showing information including prices, quantities and shipping charges for payment.
Mostly known as ISO 9001. It is an international standard that gives requirements for an organization’s quality management system (QMS). These standards help to improve quality and minimize problems with products and services, reduce waste, improve customer service and implement continuous improvement in operations.
A comprehensive set of process and procedure quality management standards developed by the international Standards Organization. Suppliers selling to firms that have adopted ISO 9000 standards must produce their products using processes and methodologies that employ the quality management standards specified by ISO 9000.
For example, the company’s employees
Information Technology Outsourcing or ITO is a company’s outsourcing of technology based work to other companies. The most common forms of ITO are programming, software development and maintenance.
A Joint Venture (JV) covers a wide range of collaborative arrangements in which two or more businesses decide to share costs, management, and profits with a common goal. A JV is a legally binding business arrangement where each party contributes capital, intellectual property, personnel and other resources to design and implement a new business.
One of Vested’s 10 Ailments describing when the decision to outsource usually means jobs are lost as the work and jobs transition to the outsource provider. Employees hunker down and stake territorial claims to processes that “absolutely must” stay in house.
The basic JIT concept is an operations management philosophy whose dual objectives are to reduce waste and to increase productivity. Operationally, JIT minimizes inventory at all levels; materials are purchased, transported, and processed “just in time” for their use in a subsequent stage of the manufacturing process.
A contract clause that spells out requirements for the supplier and/or buyer to name key positions or even individuals in the contract as “key” (or essential) to the success of the relationship. Often a key man contract clause states certain individuals should stay in a role ranging from 18 
month to 48 months.