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Glossary of Manufacturing - Manufacturing terms Category: Agriculture and Industry Date & country: 27/04/2011, USA Words: 2096

ABC Classification:
The division of products in a group into three sub-groups: Group A, Group B and Group C. Division is usually accomplished by the following three step process: (1) the calculation for each product of its annual value, this being its "annual usage x its unit value"; (2) the ranking, or ordering, of all the products into an order based on t...

ABC:
In costing, Activity Based Costing (qv).

ABCD Checklist:
The late Oliver Wight, and, through him, the MRP training company that bears his name, have established an assessment and scoring system whereby companies that have installed MRPII can judge how well they have succeeded. Originally, there were 20 or so criteria, and the rating of a company (Class A, Class B, Class C and Class D) was simply a bit o...

Abnormal Demand:
See Non-Consuming Demand and Unreasonableness Checks.

Absenteeism:
This phenomenon relates to employee absence from work which, so far as the employer is concerned, is unauthorised and therefore unanticipated. A company analysing absenteeism among its employees may distinguish between absence due to illness, supported by medical evidence, and absence due to other reasons. For a company department, a percentage me...

Absorption Costing:
See Costing (Absorption).

ACAS:
Advisory, Conciliation & Arbitration Service, a UK Goverment body with branches throughout the country, offering advice and assistance on matters to do with employer/employee law and relations. Visit http://www.acas.org.uk.

Acceptable Quality Level (AQL):
If a supplier sends parts to a buyer, then the two parties may agree that a sampling plan should be used by the buyer to validate their quality on receipt. Among other things, the sampling plan will be selected on the basis that the incoming parts are to be at an agreed quality level of "p%" or better. Naturally, the supplier of the item...

Acceptance (of Goods):
A formal acknowledgement by a recipient that goods which have been physically delivered are satisfactory with regard to their identity (ie type), quality, quantity and other matters of central concern in the contract. By the Sale of Goods Act 1979, goods which are merely delivered are not deemed to be accepted until the recipient has been given a ...

Account (An):
A logical grouping of either receipts, expenditures, stocks or transactions relating to some particular activity having financial consequencies. Examples of accounts are: the VAT account; the wages account; the copper raw materials account; the fuel expenditure account etc. (The term "accounting" originally meant the management of these ...

Accounting Equation:
In financial accounting, the accounting equation relating to a company's finances is: (assets + expenses) = (capital + liability + revenue). The effect of the equation may be summarised thus: if there is an increase in the company's assets, or if there is an incurrence of an expense, the increase must be balanced by a corresponding increase in lia...

Accounts (Type of):
Asset accounts, expense accounts, liability accounts, capital accounts and revenue accounts.

Accuracy
(of a measurement). A measurement process that has a small variability is said to have high precision. This does not mean, however, that the measured value is the true value. If the measured value is M and the true value is T, then the total error = M - T. This expression can be split into Total Error = (M - dx) + (dx - T). The first expression (M...

ACE:
Automated Commercial Environment.

Ackoff, Russ:
see Systems Thinking.

ACSI:
American Customer Satisfaction Index - a metric devised by the ASQ and others attempting to express and track customer satisfaction as delivered by a wide range of companies and government institutions.

Action Date:
The day that the next action on a part is scheduled to take place.

Activity Based Costing (ABC):
A costing procedure devised by Robert Kaplan (*) and Robin Cooper in 1988 whereby the costs incurred in manufacturing are not accumulated by geographic area, and then assigned to products based on a simple "cost driver", such as the number of employees in the area, but instead are accumulated by type of activity undertaken. Examples of a...

Ad Valorem:
A customs duty levied according to the value of the goods.

Adaptive Exponential Smoothing:
Devised by Derek Trigg originally in connection with the tracking of the Nylon 8 process at ICI in Wilton, Co. Durham, Adaptive Smoothing is the only naive forecasting technique to incorporate a built-in ability to adapt its own behaviour as circumstances change. The exponent alpha in single exponential smoothing is replaced by a variable "A&...

ADC:
Automated data capture.

Added Value:
see Value Added.

ADSL:
Assymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a methodology enabling a single copper wire carrying a telephone signal to transmit data at anything from 10x the normal rate to 40x the normal rate - ie it is a digital connection over a normal telephone line that is also capable of carrying high speed traffic. "Asymmetric" means that the user cannot ...

Advance Shipping Notice:
see ASN.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling:
See APS.

Advice Note:
A message from a supplier to a receiving company stating that goods ordered are in the process of being actually despatched. The advice note may be paper or electronic, and will include the relevant Order Number. An advice note is equivalent to an ASN.

AEG
: Allgemeine Elektricit

AEI:
Associated Electrical Industries.

AEN:
Ambient electromagnetic noise. The electrical and magnetic waves measured in decibels that are generated in the air by electrical devices - sortation systems, conveyors, alarm systems, radio VDUs etc.. A major problem with AEN lies in the installation of RFID - the radio waves generated and read by the RFID devices are interfered with by the AEN. ...

AEU:
Amalgamated Engineering Union.

AFI, Average Fraction Inspected
. This is defined as ATI / N, where N is the number of the incoming items.

AFI:
Average Fraction Inspected. A term used in quality and acceptance sampling to gauge the financial effectiveness, to a recipent of incoming goods, of a sampling inspection table or procedure. AFI is defined as ATI / N, where N is the number of the incoming items.

Agent (legal):
An employee is the "agent" of an employer, whose function it is to assist the employer in the fulfilment of a contract. The limit of the agent's contractual involvement is that a contract of agency exists between him and his employer, and it is from this that he derives his authority to act. Such authority may be express, implied, apparen...

Agile Manufacturing:
Agile is an adjective from the Manufacturing Consultant's Golden Lexicon - a powerful word suggesting immediately that a company that is not agile is inferior to one that is (but we are not to enquire in what way the non-agile company is inferior). If agile manufacturing does have a meaning, it is that the company responds to a customer's requirem...

AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle):
A computer controlled device used in materials handling and factory internal transportation.

AID:
Automatic Identification .... bar codes, RFID and contact memory buttons.

AIDAS:
The tasks which the salesman must undertake in selling have been summarised by the mnemonic AIDAS, as follows: A = attention (making contact); I = interest; D = desire (showing the potential customer how the goods will benefit him); A = action (closing the sale); and S = satisfaction (making sure the business is retained).

AIM:
(1) Application Integration Middleware; (2) Alternative Investment Market, a branch of the London Stock Exchange formerly known as the Unlisted Securities Market, launched in 1995 and having less stringent rules and regulations than the main stock exchange. The AIM was aimed at smaller, younger companies.

AIT:
Automatic Identification Technology (Auto ID) ... bar codes, RFID and contact memory buttons.

ALE:
Application Level Events (Standard). A software standard connected with RFID which deals with the collection, management and routing of data. (For example, an RFID reader is capable of multiple readings of the same RFID tag in a fraction of a second ... this "dirty data" must be filtered.) See also GEN2.

All Time Order:
See All Time Supply.

All Time Supply:
An expression coined by R. G. Brown to mean that quantity of stock that would just satisfy all remaining future demand for a product. Brown's use of the expression is in the calculation of the total potential remaining demand for a spare part related to a machine assembly, where the machine assembly itself has been discontinued by the manufacturer...

Allocation Basis:
See Cost Driver.

Allocation:
see Stock (Allocated).

Alpha Risk:
See Producer's Risk (in sampling).

Alphanumeric Code:
Alpha means allowing letters of the alphabet, and "numeric" means numbers 0 to 9. Thus an alphanumeric code is one potentially containing letters (A, B, C and/or a,b,c ...) and numbers (1, 2, 3 ...). The number on a UK car number plate is alphanumeric (eg R754ORX).

Alternative Investment Market:
see AIM meaning (2).

Amalgamated Society of Engineers:
A former craft trade union in engineering.

AMH:
Automated Materials Handling.

Amortisation:
synonymous with depreciation.

Analysis of Features:
In the design of a new product, "analysis of features" is a formal method, employing a matrix, for analysing competitive products. See also parametric analysis.

Ancestor:
A material anywhere within a product's bill of material at a lower level. Thus if A and B are used to make material C, A and B are C's ancestors. If D is used to make A, D is also C's ancestor.

Andon Board:
In Just-in-Time and lean manufacture, a large electronic board suspended from the ceiling in the workplace bearing constantly updated figures relating to achieved and target production. The andon is also used to communicate warnings on quality and production flow through a simple coloured light system

ANN:
Artificial Neural Networks.

Annual Stock Check:
Stock which is manufactured by a company is regarded from the financial viewpoint as an investment waiting to be sold. Consequently, in order to strike the balance sheet at the end of its financial year, the company must report its stock, valued at cost price, as part of its current assets (*). If the stock records are not reliable and there is no...

Annual Usage Value (AUV):
The quantity of a material used per annum, multiplied by its unit cost. The figure is widely used in ABC Classification, since it reflects both a material's commercial and manufacturing importance. See also DGR.

ANS:
Advanced Networks and Services.

ANSI ASC X.121 :
also known as X.12, a technical standard for the transmission of EDI messages over telecommunications links. The dominant standard in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

ANSI/ISO/ASQC Q9000:
The US terminology for ISO 9000 (qv).

ANSI:
American National Standards Institute.

Anticipated Delay Report:
A printout or VDU display showing which works orders will be completed later than their planned due dates.

Anticipation Stock:
see Stock (Anticipation).

ANX:
Automotive Network Exchange.

AOC:
Appelation d'origine controllee - 'designation of original hallmark', being a status granted by the French government to more than 300 food and drink products, mainly wines and cheeses. An AOC designation is an assurance that the product has come from a specified geographical area.

AOG:
Aircraft on (the) ground - the ultimate horror for stockists of aircraft spares, apparantly justifying the abandonment of scientific inventory principles and the storage of gross and wildly excessive levels of stock.

AOI:
Automated Optical Inspection.

AOQ:
Average Outgoing Quality. The quality level of parts which have been subject to sampling. The level will be affected by the probability that certain lots will be rejected, and that, as a consequence, these lots will be 100% inspected. Since there has been 100% inspection of some of the parts, with rectification of any defects found, the overall ou...

AOQL:
Average Outgoing Quality Limit. The worst possible outgoing quality associated with items that have been subject to a particular sample plan (see AOQ).

API:
Application Program Interface.

APICS:
The American Production and Inventory Control Society. Visit www.apics.org.

APO:
Advanced Planning & Optimisation.

Appellation Controllee:
see AOC.

APQP:
Advanced Product Quality Planning.

AQL Sampling Tables:
See Sampling Tables (AQL or Military).

AQL:
See Acceptable Quality Level.

Articles of Association:
along with the Memorandum of Association (qv), one of the two key founding documents of a company, the Articles setting out internal company rules and regulations as they affect shareholders and directors.

As is:
A statement that the supplier of goods will not be responsible for the condition or quality thereof after the buyer receives them. Note importantly, that the statement has no legal effect unless it was agreed between the supplier and buyer beforehand at the time the contract was formed. In other words, "received as is" has no validity if...

AS/RS:
Automated Storage & Retrieval System - a planned combination of materials handling devices and materials storage media forming a single integrated system. Depending on the vendor's specification, an AS/RS type might be a miniload AS/RS; a unit load AS/RS; an order picking AS/RS; a human-aboard AS/RS; or an end-of-aisle AS/RS.The typical functi...

asap:
as soon as possible - office jargon.

ASC:
Accounting Standards Committee.

Ascertained Goods:
Ascertained goods are a seller's stockholding of particular goods from which a buyer's order has already been picked or put to one side. That is, the goods have been identified and selected for sale. See also unascertained goods.

ASCII:
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A worldwide standard of 128 seven bit binary character codes used in computers to represent characters (ie numbers, the alphabet and punctuation marks etc.).

ASN:
Advance Shipping Notice, or Advance Shipping Notification. An Advice Note (qv) - a document sent either electronically or by some other means to a customer informing him that actual despatch of an accepted order has commenced. The data on an ASN will typically include the customer order number and purchase order number, and, for the goods despatch...

Assemble-to-Order:
see two-level master scheduling.

Asset (Current):
Assets which are expected to be turned into cash in due course, or consumed in the course of operations. Current assets are entered in the balance sheet in increasing order of liquidity (ie stocks, then debtors, then cash itself).

Asset (Fixed):
Buildings, land and equipment acquired by the company and which have a continuing use in its business. Fixed assets are entered in the balance sheet in descending order of permanence (ie land first, then buildings ...). Small items such as typewriters are usually omitted.

Asset (Intangible):
an asset having no physical existence but which is nevertheless identifiable and controllable - four examples of many are the ownership of licenses, patent rights, trademarks and brand names.

Asset (Monetary):
An asset having a stated, unequivocal value (eg cash and debts).

Asset (Non Monetary):
An asset which must be sold in the market, and therefore has a value that is not definite (its value depends on what the market will pay!).

Asset (Wasting):
A wasting or sinking asset is a fixed asset that is steadily declining in value, with no hope of recovery in its value. An example is a mine which is being gradually depleted of minerals as mining takes place.

Asset turns:
a measure of company performance, defined as (sales revenue)/(total assets). Thus with sales of

Assumption of Constancy:
The reasonable contention that the forces which lead buyers in the marketplace to purchase goods are rationally based, although liable to change. The rational behaviour of buyers ... the assumption of the constancy ... stands behind the validity of sales forecasting (and much else).

AT&T:
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Inc., with headquarters in New Jersey, affectionately known as Ma Bell.

ATP:
see Available to Promise.

ATR:
Automated Trouble Reporting.

Attenuation:
reduction. For example, the attenuation of a radio wave's power as the distance from its origin is increased. (In the case of a radio wave, the attenuation follows the inverse square relationship - ie as the distance doules, the original power falls to a quarter.)

Attribute Control Chart:
In quality and SPC, an "attribute" is a particular undesirable quality characteristic such as a blemish, spot, hole or crack in a manufactured object. One method of monitoring a manufacturing process with regard to the production of manufactured objects is to take a sample every so-often, and inspect each part for the presence of any und...

Audit Trail:
See Transaction Trail.

Autarky:
Self sufficiency (see Industrial Autarky).

AutoID:
Automatic Identification Technology ... bar codes, RFID and contact memory buttons.