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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Function (engineering)</span></span>
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<p>In <a href="Engineering" title="Engineering">engineering</a>, a <b>function</b> is interpreted as a specific <a href="Process_(engineering)" title="Process (engineering)">process</a>, action or <a href="Task_analysis" title="Task analysis">task</a> that a <a href="System" title="System">system</a> is able to perform.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="In_engineering_design">In engineering design</h2></div>
<p>In the <a href="Enterprise_life_cycle" title="Enterprise life cycle">lifecycle</a> of engineering projects, there are usually distinguished subsequently: <i><a href="Requirements" class="mw-redirect" title="Requirements">Requirements</a></i> and <i><a href="Functional_specification" title="Functional specification">Functional specification</a></i> documents. The <i><a href="Requirement" title="Requirement">Requirements</a></i> usually specifies the most important attributes of the requested system. In the <i>Design specification</i> documents, physical or software processes and systems are frequently the requested functions
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="In_products">In products</h2></div>
<p>For advertising and marketing of technical products, the number of functions they can perform is often counted and used for promotion. For example a <a href="Calculator" title="Calculator">calculator</a> capable of the basic mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, would be called a "four-function" model; when other operations are added, for example for scientific, financial, or statistical calculations, advertisers speak of "57 scientific functions", etc. A wristwatch with stopwatch and timer facilities would similarly claim a specified number of functions. To maximise the claim, trivial operations which do not significantly enhance the functionality of a product may be counted.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">R.Barker, C. Longman, Case Method: Function and Process Modelling, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1992.</span>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Process_(engineering)" title="Process (engineering)">Process</a></li>
<li><a href="System" title="System">System</a></li>
<li><a href="Utility" title="Utility">Utility</a></li></ul>
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