A2A:
Anything-to-Anything:
complete connectivity (systems term), e.g. A2A EDI.
ABB:
See
Activity Based Budgeting
ABC:
Activity Based Costing:
common accounting method used, for example, where there are a number
of different clients in a shared warehouse (see also ABM, ZBB). Also "ABC
Analysis" or "ABC Classification": the classification
of different stock items in a warehouse in accordance with their importance
(e.g. individual sales volumes) - where Class A contains items with the highest
volume and Class C the lowest (aka "Distribution by Value").
ABC
Inventory Control: An
inventory control approach based on the ABC classification.
ABM:
Activity-Based Management. The application of activity-based costing
to improve business performance.
ABP:
See
Activity Based Planning
ABP:
Asset-Based Provider
Absorption
Costing: In
cost management, an approach to inventory valuation in which variable costs
and a portion of fixed costs are assigned to each unit of production. The
fixed costs are usually allocated to units of output on the basis of direct
labor hours, machine hours, or material costs. Synonym: Allocation
Costing.
Acceptable
Quality Level (AQL): In
quality management, when a continuing series of lots is considered, AQL represents
a quality level that, for the purposes of sampling inspection, is the limit
of a satisfactory process average. Also see: Acceptance
Sampling.
Accessory:
A
choice or feature added to the good or service offered to the customer for
customizing the end product. An accessory enhances the capabilities of the
product but is not necessary for the basic function of the product. In many
companies, an accessory means that the choice does not have to be specified
before shipment but can be added at a later date. In other companies, this
choice must be made before shipment.
Accountability:
Being
answerable for, but not necessarily personally charged with, doing specific
work. Accountability cannot be delegated, but it can be shared. For example,
managers and executives are accountable for business performance even though
they may not actually perform the work.
Accounts
payable (A/P): The
value of goods and services acquired for which payment has not yet been made.
Accounts
receivable (A/R): The
value of goods shipped or services rendered to a customer on whom payment
has not yet been received. Usually includes an allowance for bad debts.
Accreditation:
Certification
by a recognized body of the facilities, capability, objectivity, competence,
and integrity of an agency, service, operational group, or individual to provide
the specific service or operation needed. For example, the Registrar Accreditation
Board accredits those organizations that register companies to the ISO 9000
Series Standards.
Accredited
Standards Committee (ASC): A
committee of ANSI chartered in 1979 to develop uniform standards for the electronic
interchange of business documents. The committee develops and maintains U.S.
generic standards (X12) for Electronic Data Interchange.
Accumulation
bin: A
place, usually a physical location, used to accumulate all components that
go into an assembly before the assembly is sent out to the assembly floor.
Syn: assembly bin.
Accuracy:
In
quality management, the degree of freedom from error or the degree of conformity
to a standard. Accuracy is different from precision. For example, four:
significant-digit numbers are less precise than six-significant-digit
numbers; however, a properly computed four significant- digit number might
be more accurate than an improperly computed six-significant digit number.
Acknowledgment:
A
communication by a supplier to advise a purchaser that a purchase order
Acquisition
Cost: In
cost accounting, the cost required to obtain one or more units of an item.
It is order quantity times unit cost.
ACR
All:
Commodity Rate
Activation:
In
constraint management, the use of non-constraint resources to make parts or
products above the level needed to support the system constraint(s). The result
is excessive work- in-process inventories or finished goods inventories, or
both. In contrast, the term utilization is used to describe the situation
in which non-constraint resource(s) usage is synchronized to support the needs
of the constraint.
Active
Inventory: The
raw materials, work in process, and finished goods that will be used or sold
within a given period.
Activity:
Work
performed by people, equipment, technologies or facilities. Activities are
usually described by the "action-verb-adjective-noun" grammar convention.
Activities may occur in a linked sequence and activity-to-activity assignments
may exist. 1) In activity-based cost accounting, a task or activity,
performed by or at a resource, required in producing the organization's output
of goods and services. A resource may be a person, machine, or facility. Activities
are grouped into pools by type of activity and allocated to products. 2)
In project management, an element of work on a project. It usually has
an anticipated duration, anticipated cost, and expected resource requirements.
Sometimes "major activity" is used for larger bodies of work.
Activity
Based Budgeting (ABB): An
approach to budgeting where a company uses an understanding of its activities
and driver relationships to quantitatively estimate workload and resource
requirements as part of an ongoing business plan. Budgets show the types,
number of and cost of resources that activities are expected to consume based
on forecasted workloads. The budget is part of an organization's activity-based
planning process and can be used in evaluating its success in setting and
pursuing strategic goals.
Activity
Based Costing (ABC): A
methodology that measures the cost and performance of cost objects, activities
and resources. Cost objects consume activities and activities consume resources.
Resource costs are assigned to activities based on their use of those resources,
and activity costs are reassigned to cost objects (outputs) based on the cost
objects proportional use of those activities. Activity-based costing incorporates
causal relationships between cost objects and activities and between activities
and resources.
Activity
Based Management (ABM): A
discipline focusing on the management of activities within business processes
as the route to continuously improve both the value received by customers
and the profit earned in providing that value. ABM uses activity-based cost
information and performance measurements to influence management action.
Activity
Based Planning (ABP): Activity-based
planning (ABP) is an ongoing process to determine activity and resource requirements
(both financial and operational) based on the ongoing demand of products or
services by specific customer needs. Resource requirements are compared to
resources available and capacity issues are identified and managed. Activity-based
budgeting (ABB) is based on the outputs of activity-based planning.
Activity
Level: A
description of types of activities dependent on the functional area. Product
related activity levels may include unit, batch, and product levels. Customer-related
activity levels may include customer, market, channel, and project levels.
Activity
Ratio: A
financial ratio used to determine how an organization's resources perform
relative to the revenue the resources produce. Activity ratios include inventory
turnover, receivables conversion period, fixed-asset turnover, and return
on assets.
Actual
Cost System: A
cost system that collects costs historically as they are applied to production
and allocates indirect costs to products based on the specific costs and achieved
volume of the products.
Actual
Costs: The
labour, material, and associated overhead costs that are charged against a
job as it moves through the production process.
Actual
Demand: Actual
demand is composed of customer orders (and often allocations of items, ingredients,
or raw materials to production or distribution). Actual demand nets against
or "consumes"the forecast, depending upon the rules chosen over
a time horizon. For example, actual demand will totally replace forecast inside
the sold-out customer order backlog horizon (often called the demand time
fence), but will net against the forecast outside this horizon based on the
chosen forecast consumption rule.
ADP:
Automatic
Data Processing
ADPE:
Automatic Data Processing
Equipment
Advanced
Planning and Scheduling (APS): Techniques
that deal with analysis and planning of logistics and manufacturing over the
short, intermediate, and long-term time periods. APS describes any computer
program that uses advanced mathematical algorithms or logic to perform optimization
or simulation on finite capacity scheduling, sourcing, capital planning, resource
planning, forecasting, demand management, and others. These techniques simultaneously
consider a range of constraints and business rules to provide real-time planning
and scheduling, decision support, available-to-promise, and capable-to-promise
capabilities. APS often generates and evaluates multiple scenarios. Management
then selects one scenario to use as the "official plan." The five main components
of APS systems are demand planning, production planning, production scheduling,
distribution planning, and transportation planning.
Advanced
Shipping Notice (ASN): Detailed
shipment information transmitted to a customer or consignee in advance of
delivery, designating the contents (individual products and quantities of
each) and nature of the shipment. May also include carrier and shipment specifics
including time of shipment and expected time of arrival. See also:
Assumed Receipt
Aggregate
Inventory: The
inventory for any grouping of items or products involving multiple stock keeping
units. Also see: Base Inventory Level.
Aggregate
Inventory Management: Establishing
the overall level (dollar value) of inventory desired and implementing controls
to achieve this goal.
Aggregate
Plan: A
plan that includes budgeted levels of finished goods, inventory, production
backlogs, and changes in the workforce to support the production strategy.
Aggregated information (e.g., product line, family) rather than product information
is used, hence the name aggregate plan.
Aggregate
Planning: A
process to develop tactical plans to support the organization's business plan.
Aggregate planning usually includes the development, analysis, and maintenance
of plans for total sales, total production, targeted inventory, and targeted
customer backlog for families of products. The production plan is the result
of the aggregate planning process. Two approaches to aggregate planning exist:
production planning and sales and operations planning.
Agility:
The
ability to successfully manufacture and market a broad range of low-cost,
high quality products and services with short lead times and varying volumes
that provides enhanced value to customers through customization. Agility merges
the four distinctive competencies of cost, quality, dependability, and flexibility.
AGM:
Annual General Meeting:
also EGM.
AGV:
Automated Guided Vehicle:
also AGVS ("Automated Guided Vehicle System").
AGVS:
Automated guided vehicle system.
AI:
See Artificial Intelligence.
AIDC:
Automatic Identification and data capture. A general category of technology
including bar coding and RFID.
aka
also known as
Alignment:
The relative position and orientation of a scanner to a bar code.
Allocated
item: In
an MRP system, an item for which a picking order has been released to the
stockroom but not yet sent from the stockroom.
Allocation:
Assignment of quantities of products to specific orders before they
are released for picking/delivery, particularly for items in short supply.
Often refers to the breakdown of a bulk shipment into many shipments to specific
stores.
Alphanumeric:
Character set containing letters, numbers, and punctuation marks:
not just numbers.
Alternate
Routing: A
routing, usually less preferred than the primary routing, but resulting in
an identical item. Alternate routings may be maintained in the computer or
off- line via manual methods, but the computer software must be able to accept
alternate routings for specific jobs.
American
National Standards Institute:
See ANSI.
American
Society for Quality (ASQ): Founded
in 1946, a not-for-profit educational organization with 144,000 members who
are interested in quality improvement.
AMP:
Advertising,
Marketing and Promotion
AMT:
Arm-Mounted
Terminal: RF terminal.
ANSI:
American National Standards Institute. A clearinghouse for electronic
data standards in the USA. ANSI itself does not develop standards; industry-
and technology-specific standards committees do. ANSI's retail standards include
X.12 for electronic data interchange (EDI) and X.400 for electronic mail.
AOC:
Agent
of Change
API:
Application Programming Interface. A piece of software code written
for integration of an application with other applications.
APICS:
Educational
Society for Resource Management, formerly ‚ American Production and Inventory
Control Society
Application
Service Provider (ASP): A
company that offers access over the Internet to application (examples of applications
include word processors, database programs, Web browsers, development tools,
communication programs) and related services that would otherwise have to
be located in their own computers. Sometimes referred to as & "apps-ontap",
ASP services are expected to become an important alternative, especially for
smaller companies with low budgets for information technology. The purpose
is to try to reduce a company's burden by installing, managing, and maintaining
software.
APR:
Adjustable Pallet Racking.
Also "Annual Percentage Rate".
APS:
Advanced
Planning & Scheduling: manufacturers'
approach to planning and scheduling that deals directly with the constraints
of production capacity and materials availability. Often used in connection
with such software. See also MRP, ERP.
AQL:
Acceptable Quality
Level
AQR:
Any
Quantity Rate:
a
fixed rate for transport, with no discount available for larger shipments.
AR:
Automatic Replenishment:
an extension of QR and CR (q.v.) where suppliers assume responsibility
for retail inventories and replenishment (aka "Profile Replenishment").
Artificial
Intelligence (AI):
Software that uses abstract reasoning, pattern recognition, "learning,"
and/or problem-solving to approach tasks.
AS/RS:
Automatic Storage and Retrieval System. Automated, robotic system for
storing and retrieving items in a warehouse.
ASC:
Advance
Shipping Confirmation
ASCII:
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard code
that allows interchange of 128 alphanumeric and related characters between
different information systems.
ASN:
Advance Ship Notice. An EDI transaction sent ahead of a shipment. The
ASN lists contents and shipping information.
ASP:
Appleton
Service Providers
ASP:
Application
Service Provider: application hosting and online network infrastructure
for software vendors and end-users.
ASRS
Automated Storage
and Retrieval System: automated warehousing.
ASS:
Automatic
Storage and Retrieval System
Assemble-to-order:
A
production environment where a good or service can be assembled after receipt
of a customer's order. The key components (bulk, semi- finished, intermediate,
subassembly, fabricated, purchased, packing, and so on) used in the assembly
or finishing process are planned and usually stocked in anticipation of a
customer order. Receipt of an order initiates assembly of the customized product.
This strategy is useful where a large number of end products (based on the
selection of options and accessories) can be assembled from common components.
Synonym: finish-to-order. Also see: Make-to-Order,
Make-to-Stock.
Assembly
Line: An
assembly process in which equipment and work centres are laid out to follow
the sequence in which raw materials and parts are assembled.
Assortment
Planning:
A decision-making process to determine the selection of merchandise
SKUs that will optimize sales and margin.
Assumed
Receipt: The
principle of assuming that the contents of a shipping or delivery note are
correct. Shipping and receiving personnel do not check the delivery quantity.
Used in conjunction with bar codes and an EDI-delivered ASN to eliminate invoices.
ATM:
Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A
fast, digital communications technology for linking computer networks. Also,
Automatic Teller Machine for banking and dispensing cash remotely.
ATM
Card:
Automatic Teller Machine Card. Also called a debit card.
ATP:
See Available-to-promise.
ATS:
Automatic Transportation System
Attributes:
A
label used to provide additional classification or information about a resource,
activity, or cost object. Used for focusing attention and may be subjective.
Examples are a characteristic, a score or grade of product or activity, or
groupings of these items, and performance measures.
A-Type
Warehouse: A public Customs Warehouse (i.e. where
goods are not subject to excise duty) in which anyone can store anything.
See also C, D, E.
Audit
Trail: Manual
or computerized tracing of the transactions affecting the contents or origin
of a record.
Auditability:
A
characteristic of modern information systems, gauged by the ease with which
data can be substantiated by trading it to source documents and the extent
to which auditors can rely on pre-verified and monitored control processes.
Authentication:
1) The
process of verifying the eligibility of a device, originator, or individual
to access specific categories of information or to enter specific areas of
a facility. This process involves matching machine-readable code with a predetermined
list of authorized end users. 2) A practice of establishing the validity
of a transmission, message, device, or originator, which was designed to provide
protection against fraudulent transmissions.
Autodiscrimination:
The ability of certain bar-code reading devices to recognize and decode
more than one bar code symbology (e.g., it reads both UPC-A product bar codes
and UCC 128 shipping container bar codes).
Automated
Call Distribution (ACD): A
feature of large call centre or "Customer Interaction Canter" telephone
switches that routes calls by rules such as next available employee, skill-set
etc.
Available
Inventory: The
on-hand inventory balance minus allocations, reservations, backorders, and
(usually) quantities held for quality problems. Often called beginning available
balance. Synonym: beginning available balance, net inventory.
Available
to Promise (ATP): The
uncommitted portion of a company's inventory and planned production maintained
in the master schedule to support customer-order promising. The ATP quantity
is the uncommitted inventory balance in the first period and is normally calculated
for each period in which an MPS receipt is scheduled. In the first period,
ATP includes on-hand inventory less customer orders that are due and overdue.
Three methods of calculation are used: discrete ATP, cumulative ATP with look
ahead, and cumulative ATP without look ahead.
Avoidable
Cost: A
cost associated with an activity that would not be incurred if the activity
was not performed (e.g., telephone cost associated with vendor support.
AWB:
Air
Way Bill