General Need Description and Product Specifica .
Next, the buyer determines the needed item's general characteristics and required quantity. For standard items, this is simple. For complex items, the buyer will work with others engineers users-to define characteristics such as reliability, durability, or price. Business marketers can help by describing how their products meet or even exceed the buyer's needs. The buying organization now develops the item's technical specifications, often, the company will assign a product-value-analysis engineering team to the project. Product value analysis (PVA) is an approach to cost reduction that studies whether components can be redesigned or standardized or made by cheaper methods of production without adversely impacting product performance. The PVA team will identify overdesigned components, for instance, that last longer than the product itself. Tightly written specifications allow the buyer to refuse components that are too expensive or that fail to meet specified standards. When HP won ISRI's first Design for Recycling Award through an application of PVA methods, it received this accolade: HP has worked for many years to design products that are easier to recycle. The firm operates several recycling facilities, which allows it to determine the most effective design features to facilitate product recycling. HP has developed standards that integrate clear design guidelines and checklists into every product's design process to assess and improve recyclability. Hewlett-Packard's design process includes: Using modular design to allow components to be removed, upgraded, or replaced; eliminating glues and adhesives by us ing, for example, snap-in features; marking plastic parts weighing more than 25g according to ISO 11469 international standards, to speed up materials identification during recycling; reducing the number and types of materials used; using single plastic polymers; using recy- cled plastic; using moulded-in colours and finishes instead of paint, coatings, or plating suppliers can use product value analysis as a tool for positioning themselves to win an account important to eliminate excessive costs. Mexican cement giant Cemex is famed for Regardless, it "The Cemex Way," which uses high-tech methods to squeeze out inefficiencies.