CTMA key terms

A planning method that links market needs, product goals, and the technologies required to reach them over a multi-year horizon, showing timing and dependencies so investment decisions stay aligned with strategy.

Managing a set of technology investments like a financial portfolio, balancing risk, return, and strategic fit, and deciding where to fund, hold, or divest research and development efforts.

A nine-point scale describing how mature a technology is, from basic research principles to proven operation in its intended environment, used to judge risk before committing to development or adoption.

A structured innovation workflow that moves a project through defined stages separated by decision gates, where managers review evidence and choose to continue, revise, pause, or cancel the effort.

Testing a physical or digital model against requirements to confirm the design works as intended, exposing technical and usability problems early when changes are still inexpensive to make.

A bundle of skills and knowledge that is hard for competitors to copy, adds clear customer value, and can be extended into new products or markets, forming the basis for sustained advantage.

Choosing whether to develop or produce something internally or obtain it from an outside supplier, weighing cost, capacity, quality control, intellectual property risk, and strategic dependence.

A statistical method for planning tests that vary several factors at once, so the effects of each factor and their interactions can be estimated efficiently with limited runs.

A scheduled, documented examination of a design by a cross-functional team to verify requirements are met, risks are identified, and issues are resolved before the next development phase begins.

An equipment strategy that involves operators in daily care and small repairs so machines stay reliable, aiming to eliminate breakdowns, speed losses, and defects caused by equipment condition.

A single measure of equipment performance computed by multiplying availability, performance rate, and quality rate, showing how much of the theoretically possible good output is actually achieved.

The available production time divided by customer demand for that period, giving the pace at which a unit must be completed to meet demand without overproducing or building backlog.

The elapsed time from starting one unit to completing it, or the interval between successive units leaving a process, used to compare actual pace with takt time and capacity.

The constrained step whose capacity is lowest in a process, limiting total output; improving anything else without relieving it yields little gain in throughput.

A management approach holding that every system has one limiting constraint; improvement focuses on identifying, exploiting, and elevating that constraint rather than optimizing everywhere at once.

A production philosophy that removes activities customers do not value, reduces waste and inventory, and relies on pull signals and continuous improvement to shorten lead times and improve quality.

A visual tool that charts the material and information flow for a product family, marking value-adding and wasteful steps so improvement efforts target the largest delays.

A signaling system that authorizes production or replenishment only when downstream consumption frees capacity, capping work in process and exposing problems quickly.

Making and delivering items in the quantity and timing required by the next step or customer, minimizing inventory and the costs and risks that stored stock creates.

Using control charts and sampling to distinguish normal random variation from special causes, so operators act on real signals rather than adjusting stable processes unnecessarily.

A measure of how well a stable process's output fits within specification limits, commonly expressed as Cp or Cpk, indicating the defect rate customers are likely to experience.

Assigning tasks to workstations so their workloads are roughly equal and match takt time, reducing idle time, excess work in process, and uneven flow along the line.

The ability of a supply network to anticipate disruptions, absorb shocks, and recover quickly, achieved through redundancy, visibility, flexible sourcing, and tested contingency plans.

The full lifetime cost of acquiring and using an item, including purchase price, installation, energy, maintenance, downtime, training, and disposal, used to compare alternatives fairly.

A structured team method that lists how a product or process could fail, rates severity, occurrence, and detectability, and prioritizes actions to reduce the highest-risk failure modes.

A disciplined investigation that traces a problem back to its underlying cause rather than its symptoms, often using structured questioning or cause-and-effect diagrams before corrective action.

A formal process for fixing the cause of a detected nonconformity and for eliminating the cause of potential ones, documenting changes and verifying they actually prevent recurrence.

A formal procedure for proposing, reviewing, approving, and recording modifications to a design, process, or system, ensuring impacts are assessed before changes take effect.

The practice of identifying, documenting, and controlling the versions and relationships of product components and their documentation so that everyone works from the same approved baseline.

The probability that an item performs its required function without failure for a stated period under stated conditions, often described by failure rate or mean time between failures.

Designing workstations, tools, and tasks to fit human physical and cognitive limits, reducing strain, injury risk, and error while improving comfort and productivity.

A documented, agreed method for a task that specifies sequence, timing, and key quality points, providing a baseline that makes variation visible and improvement measurable.

The process of evaluating and ranking long-term investments such as equipment or facilities, using payback, net present value, or internal rate of return to decide which projects to fund.

Selecting and tracking indicators that reflect progress toward goals, using balanced financial and operational metrics so decisions are informed by more than short-term cost.

The structured approach to preparing people for a new process, system, or structure, addressing communication, training, sponsorship, and resistance so the change is adopted and sustained.

Identifying the people and groups affected by a decision, assessing their influence and interests, and planning engagement so key supporters are leveraged and objections are addressed early.

A short authorizing document that states a project's purpose, scope, objectives, key stakeholders, and constraints, giving the project manager formal authority to proceed and a reference for scope disputes.