ISO 9000: 2008 provides a model for quality assurance programs. It requires an entity to demonstrate its ability to increase customer satisfaction through improving the QMS and ensuring conformity with requirements.

A target price is the expected market price of a product, given the company's knowledge of its customers and competitors. Hence, under target pricing, the sales price is known before the product is developed. Subtracting the unit target profit margin determines the long-term unit target cost. If cost-cutting measures do not permit the product to be made at or below the target cost, it will be abandoned.

CIM entails a holistic approach to manufacturing in which design is translated into product by centralized processing and robotics. CIM can help an organization reduce costs of spoilage, increase flexibility, and increase productivity. Flexibility is the key benefit. A traditional manufacturing system might become disrupted from an emergency change, but CII1 will reschedule everything in the plant when a priority requirement is inserted into the system.

Electronic data interchange is the electronic transfer of documents between businesses. EDI was developed to enhance just-in-time JIT) inventory management. Advantages include speed, reduction of clerical errors, and elimination of repetitive clerical tasks and their costs. A multinational company has an agreement with a value-added network VAN) that provides the encoding and communications transfer for the company's electronic data interchange EDI) and electronic funds transfer EFT) transactions. Before transfer of data to the VAN, the company performs online preprocessing of the transactions. The internal auditor is responsible for assessing preprocessing controls. In addition, the agreement between the company and the VAN states that the internal auditor is allowed to examine and report on the controls in place at the VAN on an annual basis. The contract specifies that access to the VAN can occur on a surprise basis during the second or third quarter of the company's fiscal year. This period was chosen so it would not interfere with processing during the VAN's peak transaction periods. This provision was not reviewed with internal auditing. The annual audit plan approved by the board of directors specifies that a full audit would be done during the current year.

Voice recognition input devices provide an alternative to keyboard input. These systems compare the speaker's voice patterns with prerecorded patterns. Advanced systems now have large vocabularies and shorter training periods. They allow for dictation and are not limited to simple commands.