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

Receipt (of Goods):
When goods are delivered from the physical possession of a supplier or haulier to the physical possession of a customer, they are said to have been received by the customer. There is no legal significance in such receipt of goods beyond the duty of the recipient in common law to take reasonable care of them (ie not to damage them or store them in ...

Recipe:
A term used in the process industries to mean the immediate components (ie ingredients) of a manufactured product, including the usages of each of them. Not surprisingly, there are a number of terms relating to the bill of materials which differ as between engineering and process industries - for example: yield v. scrap; usage v. quantity per; rec...

Recoveries (in Materials Planning):
A product may take part in a manufacturing process, but may then be either wholly or partly recovered at the end of it. Examples are solvents (perhaps 97% recovered) and catalysts (100% recovered).

Recruitment:
In human resource management, the act of identifying groups of personnel, either elsewhere in the company or, more usually, in the external labour market, and presenting them with the opportunity to apply for vacant jobs within the company. Recruitment requires knowledge of advertising effectiveness and costs, and, after due consultation with local...

Recursion:
Recursion occurs when a computer program calls itself - that is, there is an instruction in Program X which states "Call Program X". Recursive programming is widely used in analysis of the bill of materials - for example, the programming action to be taken at one level of the bill is precisely the same as the action needed to be taken at...

Redundant Stock:
see Stock (Redundant).

Re-engineering (of a company):
A concept developed by Michael Hammer and James Champee in the 1990s predicated on the ideas that the company (1) should widen the span of control of its managers, and (2) should seek to reduce the extent of its bureaucracy (for example, by reducing the number of tiers of its hierarchical structure). In short, re-engineering the company, according...

Regenerative MRP:
After the input of transactions in the closed-loop MRP system, perhaps at the end of each day, a regenerative MRP system will automatically recalculate the entire materials plan. Planned orders will be rescheduled, and open and firm orders may generate rescheduling instructions. Contrast Net Change.

Regio im Oberland ('Regio'):
a type of schwundgeld originating in January 2005 in Wolfsratshausen, southern Germany.

Release:
The action of authorising a works order to proceed to the shop floor to commence manufacture. In closed-loop MRP, the release of either a planned order or a firm planned order will change the order's status to that of "open" (ie to that of a scheduled receipt). Other activities will also be initiated, such as the generation of shop paper...

Reliability:
The tendency of a product to continue to work and perform satisfactorily despite chance events and changes in its operating environment. The achievement of reliabilty in the product is a prime objective in product design, and is investigated formally through FMECA (qv). See also Failure Rate, Failure Mode and Product Availability.

Remnant Stock:
see Stock (Remnant).

Re-Order Point:
See Order Point.

Repairable Item:
A tool, fixture or other item used in manufacture, and which is repaired or refurbished prior to its reuse. Repairable items have associated with them repair leadtimes.

Replenish to Demand:
See Make to Order.

Reporting Logic:
The messages output by closed-loop MRP advising the planner as to the need to reschedule open and firm planned orders, in order to restore the equilibrium of demand and supply within the materials plan.

Representation (legal):
A statement made by one party regarding some aspect of a bargain or sale, although the matter that is represented is not itself directly incorporated in the contractual terms - see Misrepresentation.

Rescission (legal):
Rescission means the rescinding of a contract - ie the repudiation and abrogation of a contract. Such action is often taken by one party following the discovery that the other party has misrepresented the facts, and to do so, the rescinding party must communicate the fact to the other party. If possible, the rescinding party should be returned to ...

Resource Requirements Planning:
The initial stage in the formulation of a master production schedule is termed "sales and operations planning" (qv). Since there is no direct check of the viability of the sales and operations plan at the point it is created, in terms of capacity or other resources such as manpower, an after-the-event estimation is made of the plan's do-...

Response:
The reaction of a system to a stimulus. The reaction is manifest in the form of a response variable, defined as an observed, quantifiable outcome of an experiment or test. Such an outcome is usually a quality characteristic or other performance measure of a process or system. A response plot or response diagram is a simple graphical plot illustrat...

Retail Audit:
the conduct of market research in the retail market. Researchers typically take inventories of the shelves and stock rooms of shops and supermarkets (with permission - and usually paying a small premium to do so). Well known market research companies conducting retail audits are A.C.Nielson and Dun & Bradstreet.

Retail:
The practice and sale of goods through shops and markets frequented by everyday consumers.

Retention Clause:
A provision in a contract, typically involving large scale construction or the purchase of a major piece of equipment made to order, which permits the buyer to hold back part of the payment until the project is deemed to have been satisfactorily completed or the equipment is deemed to be operating as it should. The amount retained is typically 5% ...

Retrofitting:
the fitting of a part to a sub-assembly after the logical sequence in which the part should have been fitted, usually because of the part's unavailability at the correct time.

Returns Management:
To varying degrees of generosity, retailers and others have long operated "open returns policies", whereby dissatisfied, or sometimes dishonest, customers may return goods for refund or exchange. Reasons for returns may be that goods are faulty, or that they do not comply with the customer's home environment (colour, size ...) or that th...

Reverse Sampling:
In dispensing items from a store by weigh counting, suppose a storeman needs to pick 500 units of an item which he calculates will have a weight of w1. Suppose that a case of 1200 of these items is available and has a weight of w2, including the tare weight. To pick 500 units from the case, units are picked from it until its weight falls from w2 t...

Reward Management:
The control and administration of the systems and procedures devised by the company for determining the pay of all those who work for it. Reward management is a major topic within the manufacturing company and within human resources generally. Essential requirements of the systems and procedures developed are as follows: (1) they must cover all jo...

RF:
Radio Frequency.

RFDC:
Radio Frequency Data Communications.

RFID:
Radio Frequency Identification. The attachment to a product of a transponder bearing the product's code and other data, to enable the product's identity to be recorded on an electronic scanner positioned some way from it. RFID tags and labels are being increasingly used for the identification of stocked items in industry the way that bar codes are...

RFP:
Request for Proposal - a proposal may be solicited from, say, a contractor or capital goods supplier, the proposal then forming the basis of a subsequent contract. Pitfalls in preparing an RFP are: (1) making it too simplistic, omitting the detail that would enable the vendor to prepare an accurate reply; (2) basing the RFP on wildly inadequate fo...

RGB:
Red, Green and Blue.

RIBA:
Royal Institute of British Architects.

RIDDOR:
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurences Regulations 1995; these regulations require employers to notify the Health & Safety Executive of fatal and major workplace accidents and those causing more than 3 days incapacity, of work related diseases and of any dangerous occurrence (whether there was an injury or not.

Rights Issue:
a company may wish to raise money other than at its foundation in order to expand its business. It may do so by issuing new shares, offering them in the first instance to existing shareholders, usually at a preferential rate. See shares.

RISC:
Reduced Instruction Set Computer.

RISE:
A problem solving methodology comprising four steps. R = Recognition (what is the problem?); I = investigation (find the root cause of the problem); S = Solution (fix the root cause - permanently!); E = Evaluation (what has been learned that can be transferred elsewhere?)

RIU:
Regulatory Impact Unit (formerly the Better Regulation Unit) ... a government organisation connected with the HSC/HSE (who else?) with a name to make you weep.

RMS:
root mean square, the root mean square of a group of numbers being identical to their standard deviation.

Robot:
A machine controlled through a computer program, inputs to the program usually emanating from sensory devices attached to the robot itself (video, audio and tactile). The robot typically comprises devices and attachments capable of performing the functions particular to its own design - say, gripping; picking and placing; moving; and so forth. The...

Robotics:
The technology of applying robots in the performance of tasks previously undertaken directly by human beings. The usual aim of robotics application in manufacturing industry is to eliminate manual tasks which are dangerous, monotonous or especially arduous.

ROC:
Return On Capital, usually defined for an individual company as (net profit)/(value of assets), where assets are the sum of fixed assets and current assets. Thus with a profit of

Rodger's Seven Point Plan:
A procedure put forward in 1970 by Alec Rodger for assessing a job candidate at an interview. See also Fraser's Five Point Plan.

RoHS:
Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. Hurrah! - another EU directive from Europe and the Health & Safety Commission which becomes law in July 2006, to make us all a little safer and to make Britain a little less competitive. The RoHS regulations ban the sale in the EU of new electrical an...

ROI:
Return On Investment.

ROIC:
Return On Invested Capital.

Roland:
a type of schwundgeld launched in October 2001 in Bremen, Germany.

RON:
Research Octane Number.

RONA:
Return On Net Assets.

Root Mean Square:
the RMS of a group of numbers is identical to their standard deviation.

ROP:
Re-Order Point - see Order Point.

Rotational Tool:
A tool or or device that can be repeatedly restored to its original condition after use in a production job. The elapsed time for restoration must be taken into account in scheduling, and, as far as equipment maintenance is concerned, the fact must be accepted that the tool does in fact gradually deteriorate.

Rough Cut Capacity Planning:
The schedule itself which constitutes the Master Production Schedule is generated by an arithmetical procedure which takes no account direct or otherwise of the resources and capacity either to make the planned material or to make the components needed to support final manufacture. Consequently, before the final release of the Master Schedule as a...

Route Planning:
Route planning as it is meant here is not the finding of a particular map route from A to B, as might be required by an everyday motorist. Here, it is the application of a computer algorithm for planning the routes of a number of vehicles to many destinations in such a way as to minimise the total distance travelled or to minimise the total travel...

Route:
A sequence of operations - and the locations where they are to be performed - which is followed in the course of manufacture of a specific shop floor job. A route will be given an identification number and will specify the work centre / machine / operation of each step along the way, and also the identity of any special tools needed. Routes are re...

Router:
in communications technology, a device which connects a computer to the Internet and which permits such things as the sharing of broadband connection with other computers throughout a building.

Routing, Blanket:
a routing that lists a group of operations etc which are needed to produce a family of manufactured parts. The parts may have small differences in size, times and tool requirements, but each uses the same sequence of operations. See Routings File.

Routing, Composite:
a routing that lists a group of operations etc needed to produce a family of manufactured parts, but all of which operations are not used for all of the parts. (The operations used by a specific part will depend on its particular characteristics.) See Routings File.

Routing, Rework:
a routing that shows further work needed to be done over and above the normal operational steps in order to correct a quality fault. Usually, a rework route is raised on an ad hoc basis as circumstances arise. However, where there is a permanently high reject rate in manufacturing, the rework route may be made permanent. See Routings File.

Routings File:
A file, each record of which holds the details relating to a particular route (qv). The accuracy of the routings file was not a critical matter under MRP; with an APS, however, the routings file must be 100% accurate, since an APS specifies the details of the hour to hour work to be performed. Obtaining and maintaining 100% accuracy can be a probl...

ROV:
return on value (= return on capital).

RP:
Repairable Period - the elapsed period from the point in time when an item of equipment breaks down to the point when it is returned and reinstalled after repair.

RPM:
Revolutions Per Minute.

RPN:
Risk Priority Number, a term encountered in FMECA. The RPN is obtained by multiplying the Risk Severity score (1 - 10), by the Probability of Occurrence score (1 - 10), by the Risk Detectability score (1 - 10). Problems which are more serious incur a higher RPN. The sum of all RPNs gives the total risk figure for the process or service under consi...

RRM:
Rapid Response Manufacturing.

RRP:
See Resource Requirements Planning.

RSC:
Retail Service Centre.

RTD:
Research and Technical Development.

RTLS:
Real Time Locator System. A system in which the location of an object is revealed by the attachment to it of an RFID tag.

RTRT:
Repair Turn Round Time - see Turn Round Time.

RTY:
Rolled Throughput Yield, a measure used in Six Sigma. See also DPMO.

Ruhr:
A major coal, iron and steel area of Germany.

Rumsfeld, Donald H. :
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (1932 - ) is a senior US politician and figure, educated at Princeton University and 13th US Secretary of Defense. Among the many "Rumsfeldisms" is included Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We a...

Run Time:
The duration of a manufacturing job's leadtime is comprised of a number of distinct activities. One such activity is actual, literal manufacture on the machine - ie running the job. Thus run time is the time needed for actual, physical manufacture, from start to finish.

Runners:
Shop floor jargon for products made on a frequent basis.

Rush Order:
A job usually accepted to be done in far less than the normal leadtime, often as a favour to a valuable customer. The job is assigned constant high priority and is given maximum attention by the supervisor.

Rx
: receive

SAB:
Starting available balance, a term sometimes used in materials planning to mean what it says - ie stock on-hand which is available for immediate use (as opposed, say, to stock on-hand which has been allocated to a specific job).

Safety Stock:
see Stock (Safety).

Safety Time:
(1) one meaning is the duration of time between the date on which materials are planned to arrive and the date it is calculated that they will actually be needed - for example, a 'safety time' of 5 days might be placed on a raw material required date of Day 12, so that the raw material is actually ordered for Day 7. Hopefully, the safety time will...

Sale of Goods Act:
There have been very many 'Sale of Goods' Acts passed in the UK. A particular instance of an Act is normally suffixed with the corresponding year: for example, The Sale of Goods Act (1893). A complete discourse on these Acts should be read in a legal textbook, but see the free on-line 'course' on purchasing at this site.

Sales Demand:
See Demand (Sales)

Sales Forecasting:
Companies do not usually forecast sales, they forecast demand. What they sell will depend on demand, stocks and the master production schedule. This is not a pedantic point - see the Glossary definitions of Demand (Latent) and Demand (Patent). Also, see especially Demand Forecasting which gives a short list of prominent forecasting software package...

Sales Order Processing (SOP):
The activities which are put in train on receipt by the company of a customer's order are quite critical. How well procedures are carried out directly determines the perception of the company in the customer's eyes - their smoothness and efficiency, and the correctness of the clerical work, for example. They also lead to the (hopefully) efficient ...

Sales Replenishment System:
synonymous with Fixed (Re-)Order Point System, qv.

Sample Mean:
Suppose some characteristic is measured in relation to an item - eg the item's diameter. Then, if a sample of, say, 5 such items is withdrawn from the "population" of them, and the chosen characteristic measured for each of the 5 members of the sample, the sample mean is the mean or average of the 5 measurements taken.

Sampling (Double):
Randomly selecting a specified (*) quantity of n1 units (the first sample) from an incoming lot of materials of size N, and 100% inspecting it. If the number of non-conforming parts in the sample is less than or equal to acceptance criterion c1, the incoming lot is accepted at once (ie a second sample is not taken). If the total number is greater ...

Sampling (Single):
Taking a randomly chosen quantity n units (the sample) from an incoming lot of materials of size N, and 100% inspecting the sample so taken. If the number of non-conforming items in the sample is less than or equal to the "acceptance criterion" c, the incoming lot is accepted. If not, it is rejected. The values of N, n and c are obtained...

Sampling by Attributes:
The normal method of sampling, whereby a sample is taken and the number of items with one or more non-conforming attributes is counted. Contrast Sampling by Variables.

Sampling by Variables:
A major variation of sampling involving the assessment of the distribution of a quality characteristic in the incoming parts, in a similar way to the assessment of such a characteristic over a period of time which is the subject of a variable control chart. Sampling by variables requires close co-operation between supplier and consumer regarding th...

Sampling Table:
The data that constitute sampling tables are calculated through probability theory and, in particular, through the use of the binomial theorem. In broad terms, a sampling table requires the user to specify (1) a desired or expected quality level of incoming parts, p, and (2) the size of the incoming lot, N. If single sampling is to be employed, th...

Sampling Tables (AQL, or Military):
These are sampling tables devised in the 1940s and 1950s, and are intended to give a high probability of acceptance of incoming lots which are at a designated level of quality. Since 1959,the tables have been modified so as to give a 95% probability that a lot at a declared quality level will be accepted.

Sampling Tables (Dodge-Romig):
These sampling tables were devised by Harold Dodge and Harry Romig of AT&T in 1959, and are geared to the LQL - ie they are geared to providing a high probability to the consumer that an incoming lot that he accepts will be equal to or better than the quality level he aims for. See "Acceptable Quality Level".

Sampling:
the taking of a small number of units (the sample) from a large population of units, the sample being as representative of the population as possible (ie by avoiding bias in selecting the members of the sample). The relationship of the characteristics of the sample to the characteristics of the population as a whole can be computed by statistics, ...

Savings Criterion:
A principle used in route planning software by which it can be shown that the greatest savings in total journey distance will be made by taking elongated routes of a "petal" shape (see Petal), rather than a "stem-and-cluster" routes (qv).

Scale:
Scales, used in weighing and measuring, can be stand-alone or incorporated into materials and handling equipment (for example, into the forks of a fork lift truck). Scales come in a variety of configurations determined by the required capacity, required accuracy, specific process and the characteristics of the load to be weighed - all the way from...

Scheduled Customer Order:
see customer order.

Scheduled Receipt:
See Open Planned Order.

Schwundgeld:
German, for a monetary script or specie. Most often, the term is used for a form of money that has originated locally (ie not nationally) from highly local, social needs. Perhaps the first modern emergence of a type of schwungeld was in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. Nowadays, several schwungelden have arisen in Europe as a result...

Scientific Management:
see Taylorism.