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

Own Account:
In distribution, a company's own fleet of vehicles.

PA:
Personal Assistant, or Power Amplifier or Perpetual Audit (= cycle counting).

PAB:
see Projected Available Balance.

Pack from Make:
See Make and Pack.

Packaging Manager:
A manager connected with a consumer goods manufacturing or distribution organisation whose roles are: (1) to ensure that the company's packages meet the standards specified; (2) to develop new packages to fulfil new purposes or increase the competitive edge; (3) to investigate complaints of split or damaged packages, in order to confirm their vali...

Packaging Waste (Regulations):
Regulations concocted by European Union officials in 1997 to promote a reduction in the amount of residual wrapping and protection material associated with the carriage and protection of goods. Packaging is defined as primary packaging (eg a glass bottle containing Chateau D'Yquem), secondary (or grouped) packaging (eg a smart wooden box containing...

PAF:
prevention, appraisal, failure. An acronym for an approach to ensuring quality not unlike FMECA.

Pallet Cap:
a simple plastic object about 12" high, coloured bright yellow, devised by Hayley Shirley, placed on a pallet or structure, warning Fork Lift Truck operators not to stack further loads on top due to fragility.

Pallet:
A structure consisting of a top and a bottom platform, the dimensions of which are standardised in the UK as 1000mm x 1200 mm. The platforms are referred to as boards. They are 6" to10" apart, being joined and supported by blocks, bearers and stringers. A load is placed on the pallet's top board, and the tines (or forks) of a fork lift t...

Parameter:
In writing a program for general use, a software programmer will usually need to specify formulae or system functions in a general way ... for example, "calculate the total requirements over the next X weeks". X is specified in the program, literally, as the variable "X", but is then made a parameter. In this case, in order to ...

Parametric Analysis:
In product design and value engineering, the analysis of competitive products already on the market from the viewpoint of their physical characteristics (eg their capacity, speed, power, acceleration ...). Among other things, parametric analysis may reveal gaps in the market which the new product might fill. Parametric analysis is almost synonymou...

Parent:
(1) If product A is used to manufacture product B directly, product A is said to be product B's parent. See descendant. (2) In relation to company ownership, if Company Big owns all or most of the share capital of Company Little, Big said to be Little's parent (and Little is said to be a subsidiary of Big). Note that a quasi-subsidiary is a compan...

Pareto Analysis:
Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist and sociologist at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. In his treatise of 1924, he postulated that the consumer spent 80% of his income on 20% of the things he bought, and was indifferent as to the identity and type of the vast 80% of things accounting for only 20% of his income. This notion was taken ...

Parkinson's Law:
Put forward by C.Northcote Parkinson - Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. (Or as he might have said Stock expands to fill the space available for its storage!)

Part Number:
A unique code, perhaps being alphanumeric, assigned to a product or part for identification purposes. See also The Brisch Classification system.

Part Period Balancing:
a method of sequencing a required succession of manufacturing plans to allow for the unevenness over time in the net requirements of the product being planned. The term part period is the "carrying of one unit of stock for one period", and the technique involves arranging the sequence so as to minimise the total amount of stock carried a...

Part:
A manufacturing item different from all others.

Partial Requirements:
The gross requirements are the sum of all quantities of material needed to support higher level plans. Partial requirements usually means those requirements needed to support just one particular plan of the many higher level plans at the higher level. In the example given under the Glossary entry for "gross requirements" (qv), of the gro...

PASA:
The initials of the "Purchasing And Supply Agency" of the National Health Service.

PASCAL:
Programme Applique a la Selection et a la Compilation Automatique de la Litterature, a programming language having its origins in Guess Where.

Passing Off:
a legal term whereby a company adopts a name similar to the name of another firm in the same line of business, to cash in on the other's reputation. Passing off is a tort so that the other firm can sue in the courts for damages.

Passive Smoking:
see Smoking (Passive).

Pay Posture:
When reference is made to the external jobs market in determining the rate of pay for a company job, it will be found, naturally enough, that the external pay rates for the job vary from company to company. In other words, the external market pay rate is, in reality, a scale from lowest to highest. The point on this scale chosen by the company in s...

Pay Structure:
A succession of interlinked, self consistent grades of pay - for example, Grade 1 (bottom); Grade 2; Grade 3; Grade .... Grade 20 (top). It might be supposed that the top rate of pay at Grade 1 is just below the bottom rate of pay at Grade 2, and so on. In fact, the interlinking of the grades within the structure is complicated by two factors: diff...

Pay:
see reward management, pay posture, pay structure, variable pay.

PBT:
Persistant, Bioaccumulative and Toxic - ie a poison which builds up in the body and the levels of which in time become toxic. Two examples are arsenic and benzene. Benzene can be absorbed into the body over time through the skin, which is why those working in chemical laboratories are advised not to clean apparatus using benzene as a cleaning solve...

PCM:
Phase Change Material.

PCS:
Personal Communication Service.

PDA:
personal digital assistant, or portable data assistant.

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act):
PDCA is the so-called "circle of continuous improvement", especially as the term is applied to the effecting of improvements to the operation of a manufacturing process. Step 1 (P) of the cycle begins with stating the specific objective of this particular cycle of the improvement process. Examples of objectives are to conduct a survey of...

PDQ:
business jargon for "Pretty D-mn Quick!".

PDS:
See Product Design Specification.

PDSA:
Plan, Do, Study, Act - synonymous with PDCA, qv. Also, People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, a well-known UK charity.

PDT:
portable data terminal.

PE:
see Probable Error.

Pearl-Reed Curve:
see S-Curve.

Pegged Requirement:
in an overall materials plan, a material requirement that has been directly identified through the pegging process (qv) with the individual material plan that gave rise to it. Thus the word pegged simply means that a peg has been established (see pegging again). Note that a pegged allocation is a material kitted in readiness for use in a manufactur...

Pegging:
In connection with a materials planning system, the action of analysing the bill of materials either (1) to determine the earlier origin of present material requirements, by tracing down the bill to ancestor materials, or (2) to determine the ultimate use to which present material requirements will be put, by tracing up the bill to descendant mate...

Percentage Rejected Chart:
See Attribute Control Chart.

Personnel Management:
An alternative term for Human Resources management, qv.

PERT:
Program Evaluation and Review Technique. A technique for managing and evaluating progress in relation to a major project by Critical Path Analysis. The steps which constitute the project are drawn as a set of interlinked activities in chronological sequence (with "Start" at the extreme left and "Finish" at the extreme right). Th...

PEST Analysis:
analysis of the Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors affecting a company.

Pest Book:
An informal writing book maintained by the stores or warehouse manager in which "visits" by pests, such as rats, cockroaches, house moths, biscuit beetles, wasps and starlings are recorded. A sketch of the pest will be useful for the company called in to deal with it and, perhaps, for Health and Safety Executive staff.

Petal:
A circular transport route in which the individual destinations to be visited are spaced at relatively even intervals. Petal routes tend to be produced by route planning software. Contrast Stem-and-Cluster.

PFMECA:
potential FMECA - see FMECA.

PGA:
Pin Grid Array, or (US) Professional Golf Association.

PGP:
Pretty Good Privacy.

Phantom Part:
A term used in relation to assemble-to-order. Normally, in engineering production, a part that is manufactured is booked into stock for later issue in due course. In the Final Assembly Schedule (FAS), a part is made and then immediately further used in the on-going assembly process. That is, it has only a transitory life (perhaps a few minutes). C...

PI Checking:
Perpetual inventory checking - synonymous with Cycle Counting, qv.

Pick by Line:
synonymous with batch picking (wave picking).

Pick Deck:
see Issue Deck.

Pick Face:
The location in a stores or warehouse where actual (physical) picking takes place.

Pick List:
see Issue List

Pick to Light:
An alternative to voice directed picking. With light directed picking, a small light is illuminated at the places from which picking is to take place, speeding up the travelling process. The system is more expensive and less flexible than voice, qv..

Picking (Broken Case):
piece picking - ie the picking of individual items.

Picking (Piece):
the picking of individual items. Piece picking operations are usually characterised by their being many items from which to pick (often tens of thousands) and few items required, per picking instruction. An obvious examples is the picking of repair parts by automotve spares distributors.

Picking (Voice Directed):
see Voice Picking

Picking (Zonal):
The division of a stock area into a number of geographic zones, each zone having allocated to it a distinct range of stock. (A second consideration in allocating items to a zone should be each zone's picking load.) The picking of an order proceeds from zone to zone, the chargehand for each zone picking and assembling the stock on the order that is...

Picking List:
A list of items, their quantities and their locations, usually generated by computer and used by the storeman or warehouseman to direct the picking of stock. The items will typically be for a works order or a customer order. The list will usually be sorted in order of the locations to be visited and will also specify each item's name and, perhaps,...

Picking Performance:
Picking performance is usually taken to mean the speed with which stock is picked in a stores or warehouse, typically measured in minutes per order line. Thus if 7 orders each of 10 lines are picked in 280 minutes, this is 280 / 70 mins per line = 4 mins / line. A common breakeven point used as a yardstick to assess good or bad performance is 5 mi...

Picking:
Finding and removing stock from a storage area - generally found to be the most expensive activity in the operation of a stores or warehouse, due especially to the travelling time of the picker to reach the stock to be picked. See Wave Picking. Picking is a major concern in stores & warehouse operational management - see especially sub-section...

Picro- :
having a bitter taste or smell; also the names of derivatives of picric acid.

PICS:
The first ever MRP system, developed by IBM from 1965, and introduced to a number of manufacturing companies at the time in Racine, Wisconsin.

Piece Part:
Synonymous with Part (qv).

Pin Manufacturing:
see Manufacture of Pins.

PIP:
Partner Integration Process.

Pipelines and Pipeline Stock:
see Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline and Langelad Pipeline. Also see Stock (Pipeline).

Plan-Do-Check-Action:
See PDCA.

Planned Capacity:
The capacity required to manufacture the materials which are planned to be made at a work centre.

Planned Order:
A plan type in Closed-loop MRP, being any plan within the system generated by the planning logic, or arithmetical procedures, of the system itself. When MRP is re-run after the closed-loop transactions are fed back into the system, all existing planned orders are deleted and a new set is generated. However, the newly generated planned orders may b...

Planning Bill of Materials:
Just as a "physical" bill of materials (see Bill of Materials) is a representation of the structure and relationships among products and components as they exist in reality, a planning bill of materials is a representation purely to assist in materials planning. Examples of material representations that exist only for planning purposes a...

Planning Board:
In the past, a planning board was typically a white board on which were inscribed (down the left hand side) work centres, and across which was drawn a Gantt chart showing the identities of jobs scheduled to be manufactured over time (time being on the horizontal axis). The VDU output from a discrete event APS system emulates a planning board, but ...

Plastic Pallets:
Plastic pallets serve the same function as wooden pallets. An advantage of them, however, especially those of the 'closed top' (or 'closed deck') design, is that they are capable of easy, thorough cleaning and disinfection. For that reason, their use may be insisted on by food manufacturers. Before choosing plastic pallets, an assessment should be...

Plumley Brick:
The geographical area of the UK has been divided by one Plumley into a large number of small, square sub-areas not dissimilar to post code sub-areas, each one categorised for sales and marketing purposes according to such characteristics as retail spending power, industrial use etc.. This division (ie into Plumley Bricks) allows the sales company ...

POF:
Plastic Optical Fibre.

Point Solution:
The use of a stand-alone Finite Scheduler for manufacturing scheduling, rather than a more comprehensive APS system (qv).

Point-Factor:
A quantitative job evaluation methodology. When a rate of pay is to be established for a company job, the employment of a "point-factor"system for evaluating it is particularly appropriate. (Market pricing is all very well, but even though a job within the company may have the same job title as an external job, individual jobs within indu...

Poiseuilles Law:
A law of physics relating to viscosity and liquid flowing through a pipe. The law relates the rate of volume of flow to the radius of the pipe (dv/dt = vpr**2).

Poisson Distribution:
A statistical distribution developed by Simeon Poisson. The Poisson law is also known as the law of small numbers, and may be derived from the binomial theorem.

Poka Yoke:
(Japanese = fool-proof) A formal definition of poka yoke is the engineering of a machine, process or activity so as to make it incapable of supplying a defective product or service. Thus poka yoke is in practice a procedure and small canon of design rules (originally formulated by Shigeo Shingo) to make equipment mistake-proof in operation - ie to...

POLCA:
Paired-cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Automation, a detailed variation of Quick Response manufacturing.

Policy Stock:
see Stock (Policy).

POM:
Production Operations Management.

POOGI
: Process Of Ongoing Improvement (see kaizen).

POQ:
See Period Order Quantity.

POS:
Point Of Sale - see EPOS.

Post deduction Relief:
See Backflushing.

Postponement Centre:
A node within a supply and distribution network where material in transit through the supply chain may be held for a very short time so as to allow last minute, planned product refinements to take place. Examples of refinements are the afixing, just prior to customer delivery, of customer-specific labels to boxes and cans, and the inserting, just p...

Posture
: see pay posture.

POTS:
Plain Old Telephone Service.

POU Stock:
Point of Use Stock (qv).

PPE:
Personal Protective Eqipment, used in industry when a hazard cannot be sufficiently guarded against by other health & safety measures.

ppm
). A measure of achieved quality. For example, if a manufacturing process produced 100,000 parts, and 90 of them were defective, or non-conforming, the quality rate would be 900 DPMO (*). Similarly, if 156 invoices were in errors out of 10,000 invoices produced, the DPMO rate would be 15,600 DPMO (*). The measure is often usefully used as a shortha...

PPM:
Parts per million, usually found in the context of a quality rating (ie 35 ppm = 35 non-conforming items per million produced). Nowadays, the term often preferred is DPMO (qv), defects per million opportunities, and the performance of a system is likely to be expressed as "so-many sigma" - say, 6 sigma (qv).

PPPP + S:
See Marketing Mix.

PPPP:
The four P's of change management - Purpose (reason for change); Picture (vision of how the new state of affairs will look); Plan (key elements of the change process); and People (what roles are to be played by employees).

precision
) equals dx / (x best). Note also that the percentage uncertainty = the fractional uncertainty x 100%. For an alternative explanation of the foregoing, see Accuracy.

Precision:
see Accuracy (also see uncertainty).

Predictive Maintenance:
A component of TPM. The principal means of obtaining warnings of possible impending machine failures is through SPC. However, the long-term collection of breakdown data and their analysis via maintenance software systems, as they relate to the numbers and types of adjustments made, the machine parts replaced, and so forth, are also valuable.

Preference Share:
a share issued on the foundation of a company, bearing a fixed dividend. See shares.