Dictionary of Procurement Terms

The amount of a product producers will produce and sell at a specific price. Consumer demand influences producer production and pricing.

Possessing a partially legislative character by having the right to make regulations and rules that carry the force of law.

A corporation owned and run by a government (e.g., telephone companies, oil and gas, water authorities, and electric light companies).

An advantage or favor given or expected in exchange for something else. Latin phrase meaning, "this for that" or "something for something."

An allotment such as a quantity of a good or service that may be allowed (imports) or required (piecework) over a set period of time.

A statement of price, terms of sale, and description of goods or services offered by a supplier to a prospective purchaser; may be non-binding if solicited to obtain market information for planning purposes.

An informal purchasing process that solicits pricing information from several sources.

A wireless system with tags that communicate identifying and other information via radio waves to a nearby reader.

A technique that results in a representative subset of a population whereby each element has the same chance of being selected as every other element in that population (e.g., selecting items from an inspection lot so each item in the lot has an equal chance of being included in the sample). Random sampling is a form of quality assurance often used in modern polling, market research, and manufacturing.