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

Spoilage:
The degree to which units manufactured are rendered unfit due to the maloperation of the process. (Rarely, spoilage might mean the percentage of non-conforming items produced by a process not inherently capable of manufacturing 100% conforming parts.) See Scrap Factor.

Spoiled Work Order:
A manufacturing job which is having to be reworked to correct errors made in the original machining - see Rework.

SPS:
Standard Procurement System.

SPT (Shortest Processing Time):
A job despatching rule in which the highest priority is given to jobs with the shortest expected processing time (*). Thus of two jobs A and B with respectively 5 hours of processing time and 12 hours, Job A would be prioritised over Job B. SPT is a static despatching rule (qv) and has only two merits: (1) it wins computer simulation competitions ...

SQC:
See Statistical Quality Control.

Square Mile:
synonymous with the City of London (qv).

Squeaky Wheel, The:
If one is riding in a vehicle and one of the wheels is squeaky, he stops and fixes the wheel with a drop or two of oil. The analogy is used in manufacturing to mean that when a problem becomes readily and obviously apparent, the manager gives it his attention. In other words, the manager is reactive. But he should be positive and methodical. The sq...

SRAM:
Static Random Access Memory.

SRM:
Supplier Relationship Management, qv.

SSAP:
Statement on Standard Account Practice, these being issued from time to time by the Accounting Standards Committee. An example is SSAP9, issued in 1975 relating to stock valuation.

SSP:
Statutory Sick Pay.

SSSSS(The 5 Ss):
The Japanese and lean manufacturing philosophies are insistent on the need for order and cleanliness in the workplace. The 5 Ss are derived from transliterations of Japanese words as follows: (1) Seiri (clearing out unwanted material and simplifying); (2) Seiton (locate material in its place correctly - a place for everything and everything in its ...

St Swithin's Day:
July 15th: St Swithin's day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain. / St Swithin's day if thou be fair For forty days 'twill rain na mair. (Found on analysis to be utter nonsense, of course.) A follow-up verse is All the tears St Swithin can cry, / St Bartholomew's mantle wipes them dry. (St Bartholomew's day is August 24th).

Staff Department:
a company department providing ancilliary or support services, but which does not generate revenue or handle materials. See Line Department.

Stag:
see under bear.

Stage Deliveries:
A buyer is not obliged to accept the delivery of material in stages unless he has agreed beforehand. If stage deliveries are made, a question then is, as to whether the contract is severable or non-severable. Stage deliveries made under a severable contract are usually those where the buyer must pay for each delivery separately; if so, and if a spe...

Stage Payments:
Where large structures are to be purchased, such as major items of plant or substantial buildings, both contractor and purchaser may wish to arrange stage payments. The contractor may require the staging of payments for cash flow reasons and the purchaser may prefer the arrangement so that he is able to withhold payment until the undertaking has p...

Staging:
Either assembing materials on the despatch dock to check its readiness, prior to its distribution to an external customer, or accumulating material in a temporary holding area to ensure that sufficient of it physically exists to begin a manufacturing job (and that it is thereby kept safe from allocation to other jobs which might need similar items...

Standard Cost:
See Cost (Standard).

Standard Deviation:
a mathematical measure of the dispersion (ie degree of spread) of a group of numbers. The standard deviation of a frquency distribution is customarily denoted by the symbol sigma (small Greek s). It is the square root of the variance, qv.

Standing Capacity:
Jargon for the maximum capacity of a machine or work centre.

Start Date:
See Date (Start).

Static Despatching Rule:
A rule whereby the priority of a job is calculated based purely on the factors inherent in the job itself, rather than on its current timeliness of progress through the shop. A prime example of a static despatching rule, or static priority rule, is Johnson's Rule. Johnson's Rule dictates that jobs in a queue should be released for manufacture in th...

Stationarity:
The pattern of sales demand in which the level of demand is constant from period to period. (The consultant of this Glossary may protest that demand is never constant from month to month! If however the only deviations from level demand are random fluctuations, the pattern of demand is stationary and that should be the basis of the forecast. The f...

Statistical Process Control 1:
When a manufacturing process is stable and under control, the units of output produced show tiny variations one from another due to the "common causes" of variation inherent in the process' operation. The central limit theorem now states that, so long as the process remains stable and under control (with only common causes of variation p...

Statistical Quality Control 2:
The assurance by statistical means that manufactured parts will conform to requirements . When the parts are actually under manufacture, statistical process control (SPC) is used. When parts have already been made and are being sent out to a customer, statistical methods include breakeven point analysis (qv) and sampling (qv). Also see section 5.1...

Statistics:
Statistics has been defined as applied probability theory, but also as the art of obtaining a quart of information from a pint of numbers!

Steering Committee:
A group of middle or higher managers, perhaps even including one or more company directors, responsible for monitoring in a broad way the activities of a project team and giving general strategic guidance where necessary. The steering committee is likely to meet only infrequently.

Stem and Cluster:
A transport route made up of a single long haul to a particular point, followed by a number of short journeys from the point to various local delivery/collection destinations. Often preferred by drivers in contrast to a petal route.

Step Change:
In sales demand, the sudden rise or fall in the level of demand to a new level, such a change being permanent. Strictly, if the change takes place over one or two periods, the phenomenon should be referred to as slope change.

STEP:
Standard for The Exchange of Product model data, an international standard for the communication of product data by EDI.

Stepping Stone:
A term used in the transportation algorithm.

Sterntaler:
a type of schwundgeld originating in April 2004 in Ainring, southern Germany.

Stillage:
a metal cage, usually tall, used for the temporary storage and movement of materials within a factory and between manufacturing sites. Originally, stillages were used in brewing as stands for casks and to keep materials off the ground. Stillages are used in their hundreds of thousands within motor car manufacturing - there may be 300 stillages in ...

Stochastic Model:
Synonymous with Probabilistic Model, qv.

Stock (Active):
Any product or component which is currently in regular use (used, say, at least once in the past six months).

Stock (Allocated):
That part of stocked material which has been set aside (whether physically or merely by categorisation on the stock record) on behalf of specified, identified works orders. Stock so allocated may be either (i) a standard allocation (or soft/normal allocation), or it may be (ii) a firm (or specific/hard/frozen allocation). Standard allocated stock ...

Stock (Anticipation):
Stock manufactured or acquired well before it is actually needed, in order to overcome otherwise likely later problems of insufficient manufacturing capacity. For example, stock may be made in Autumn ahead of the Christmas selling rush.

Stock (Average):
In an order point system, or Min/Max, system, the average stock holding. This level is encountered half way between the arrival of each replenishment, and is calculated as (R/2 + S), where R = replenishment lot size and S is the safety stock amount.

Stock (Buffer):
Usually synonymous with Stock (Safety), but sometimes used to mean Stock (Policy) .

Stock (Build):
Synonymous with Stock (Anticipation).

Stock (Co-Managed):
A variation of a consignment stock arrangement, but where stock replenishments from the supplier must be specifically agreed or placed by the buyer.

Stock (Consignment):
A large quantity of stock agreed to be consigned by a supplier into the custody of a purchasing company, to enable the purchaser to make small individual withdrawals from it from his own premises as it is needed. That is, consignment stock is paid for and owned by the supplier, with the buyer financially responsible only for housing and insurance. ...

Stock (Cover):
Either (1) the current stock divided by the average weekly demand or (2) the number of days the stock on hand will last, based on past average weekly demand. (This last is clearly days cover.)

Stock (Cycle):
Stock resulting from the lot sizes of manufacture of end products - ie the stock resulting from lot sizes in excess of immediate requirements.

Stock (De-Coupling):
When the output from one manufacturing process is dependent on the demand of a second process, production planning and control can be very complex if both processes must be planned as if they were operating simultaneously- see Make-and-Pack and Co-Products. However, if output from the first product can be planned in isolation and can be assumed to...

Stock (Economic):
Within the company, the sum of the stock actually present plus raw materials ordered but not yet delivered, less the stock of goods sold but not yet despatched.

Stock (Effective):
Synonymous with Stock (On-Hand).

Stock (Fluctuation):
An old term meaning working stock to provide against uneven rates of demand.

Stock (Free):
That part of stocked material which is able to be allocated as the occasion arises for any purpose including future works orders. Stock which has not been reserved. See also Stock (Allocated).

Stock (Inactive):
Stocked items which have not been sold or used in production for so-many months (or weeks).

Stock (Maximum):
In an order point system, or Min/Max system, the maximum stock level is theoretically reached just after the arrival into stock of a new replenishment. The quantity is then R + S (where R is the replenishment lot size and S is safety stock).

Stock (Minimum):
In an order point system, or Min/Max system, the minimum stock level occurs theoretically just before the arrival of a new replenishment. The quantity is then S (ie the safety level).

Stock (MRO):
Maintenance, Repair and Operating stock - inventory carried to maintain equipment, including spare parts. Other items of stock connected with housekeeping operations may also be included in this category. MRO stock may be entered on the balance sheet as current assets, rather than fixed assets. It is likely to be disregarded in considering such ma...

Stock (Negative):
see Negative Stock.

Stock (Obsolescent):
Stocked items which are shortly destined to become obsolete, unless they can be used up or sold beforehand, or items which will become obsolete after a certain date in the future. Reasons for obsolescence include an impending bill of materials change (for example, the introduction by the company of a new model); the expiry of a "best before&q...

Stock (Obsolete):
Stocked items which are no longer used in the company, and which will have to be disposed of. Stock may have become obsolete because the bill of materials was changed without proper inventory planning, or because of poor record keeping (ie not knowing it was there). See SLOB.

Stock (On-Hand):
Stock of a given product recorded as being present in the stores or complete and available on the shop floor. In planning, the stock of the product currently being manufactured on the shop floor and expected to be completed in the next so-many days will be considered to be "on hand".

Stock (Pipeline):
Pipeline stock is stock in a distribution chain, and is usually taken to mean stock actually in transit or waiting to be loaded for despatch, or unloaded. For a distribution operation covering a particular area (say, the UK), the quantity of pipeline stock is virtually independent of the number of depots in the area. It should be noted, however, t...

Stock (Policy):
Material provided for to protect its availability, and safeguard the company's position, in the event of a defined disaster. For example, policy stock may be held by a pharmaceutical company manufacturing a unique, life-saving drug in order to guard against the destruction of its factory by fire or earthquake. As the name says, policy stock is not...

Stock (Quarantine):
Usually, on-hand stock from a supplier, or the shop floor, which has been set to one side until it can be inspected with regard to quality. (An example of waste.)

Stock (Redundant):
Stock made obsolete by a change in the bill of materials.

Stock (Remnant):
An expression sometimes used to mean the stock remaining from a stock delivery or a manufactured lot after the quantity needed for immediate purposes has been removed.

Stock (Safety):
Safety Stock is material planned for over and above what is forecast to be required, so as to provide stock availability (and hence customer service) despite forecast requirements being less than actual customer demand. The need for a safety stock arises self-evidently because the forecast of product demand is in error - ie the forecast on which th...

Stock (Slow Moving):
Stock which has not been the subject of a withdrawal or deposit for more than a specified number of days. The time period must be decided on by the inventory controller. Slow moving stock is singled out since it may be liable to physical deterioration or may be in the process of becoming obsolete. If its circumstances are considered in good time, ...

Stock (Strategic):
Stock from a vital but vulnerable source, held in a large quantity in case supply is disasterously curtailed or terminated - eg raw material produce from a sub-Saharan country. See also Stock (Policy).

Stock (Transit):
In distribution, stock in transit on vehicles or waiting to be loaded on / off vehicles.

Stock (Vendor Managed):
Usually simply termed "vendor managed inventory". Stock held by a supplier (vendor) on behalf of a buyer in which the schedule of replenishment is directly determined by the supplier himself. Usually, the stock so held is paid for by the buyer, even though it has not yet been delivered. In this respect, it contrasts with consignment stock...

Stock (Work in Process):
Preferred US terminology for the British Work in Progress.

Stock (Work in Progress):
There are two definitions of WIP - financial and operational. Neither of them are straightforward - see importantly WIP.

Stock (Working):
Stock arising from a manufacturing lot size, the lot size being in excess of immediate needs and having been made for reasons of production efficiency.

Stock Exchange:
The City of London market dealing in company stocks and shares.

Stock Out Percentage:
The total number of orders which were either lost or placed on backorder, due to stock-outs, divided by the total number of orders actually received, as a percentage. Stock out percentage might be used as a measure of achieved customer service in a make-to-stock company.

Stock Out:
Having no stock. During a stock out, demand for a product must either be turned away or, if the customer will agree, put on backorder. Alternatively, with an available-to-promise capability, the customer's order can be accepted for future delivery in accordance with the ATP rules. (It is true that available-to-promise is normally associated with ma...

Stock Records Accuracy:
The accuracy of a single record relates to the quantity of stock recorded as being present apropos the quantity of stock which is actually physically present in store or in the warehouse. Thus the accuracy of a group of records is usually defined as a percentage, as follows: (number of records correct) / (number of records in the group) x 100% (th...

Stock Rotation (FIFO):
The practice of "first in, first out" (FIFO) - ie of ensuring that stock which has been in a stores or warehouse for the longest time is despatched first, in preference to newer stock. LIFO (last in, first out) is sometimes the practice when goods are non-perishable and it is convenient to stack recently arrived units on top of those alre...

Stock Turns:
There are a number of definitions, so that it is important to discover which is meant when a figure is produced. Four such definitions are as follows, of which the last is probably the most common: (1) (the number of working days in the year) / (the number of days of forward stock cover); (2) (annual sales valued at cost price) / (the cost value o...

Stock, Cost of Holding:
(Cost of carrying stock etc): The cost imputed to the holding in storage of one unit of inventory. The individual costs making up the total fall into two categories. (1) Operating and administrative costs including insurance, housing, general stock management and obsolescence, and (2) capital costs, relating to the fact that the stock which has be...

Stock, POU:
Point-of-Use Stock. Stock which is held at the place it will be consumed (eg in the plant, on the shop floor, or, perhaps, in the assembly shop), rather than in stores. POU stock can create a problem in cycle counting and general control. For example, on the stock record, its manufacturing location must be correctly held. It is important to distin...

Stock:
Material usually held in readiness for some future use. Also, material undergoing transformation of its physical form (ie being processed). The circumstances in which the material has been made or the reasons for its retention give rise to very many alternative stock categorisations - see many entries below.

Stockyard:
(1) An outdoor storage area, usually used for storing building materials, but sometimes for storing dangerous chemicals in drums or large metal structures (such as pumps). Issues in the management of a stockyard include the requirement for a one-way traffic system, because of the size of vehicles; a good surface (concrete, with drainage, rather tha...

Stores (see also Warehouse):
An area or room furnished with racks, shelves, bins and so on, for holding stock needed to support the operations of a factory. The stores is a service function, and the services provided include : the acceptance of deliveries from suppliers (ie the receipt of bought-in parts); the receipt and timely issue of material for the factory floor (ie kit...

Strangers:
Parts which are found in the production schedule only rarely - contrast "runners".

Strategic Management:
The operation and control of a company with regard to its resources, capabilities and energy so as to attain a sustainable advantage over its competitors in one or more areas of business.

Strategic Stock:
see Stock (Strategic).

Streaming:
the broadcast of audio and video data over the Internet, in real-time and on demand by a customer.

Stretch Goal:
a target beyond what is generally agreed as being realistic. Stretch goals are set by management perhaps to encourage staff to put in extra effort but also to gain an edge in achievement. They appear, however, to be in conflict with planning and the acceptance that one should "work to the numbers". The conflict is resolved by pointing ou...

Structured Walkthrough:
Following the tentative design of a computer system by IT staff, it is prudent and necessary that the design should be explained to potential users and others having operational expertise in the area concerned and who will be impacted by its installation, so that they can examine and criticise it. One method of explaining the design being mooted i...

Student's t test:
a statistical test performed to determine whether or not one set of continuous data is statistically independent of or dependent on another set of continuous data. The workings out hinge on whether the distributions of the populations of the two sets of data from which samples are drawn are normal or not. The test is one of many that might be used...

Sub-Assembly:
See Assembly.

Suggestion Scheme, Employee:
see Kaizen Teian.

Sunk Costs:
costs which have been incurred and are utterly unable to be recovered.

Super Bill of Materials:
A planning bill of materials having (1) an entry at the top (ie at level 0) which is a single representative of a very large number of alternative configurations of the final product able to be specified by customers, and (2) lower level option variants with usages, or "quantities per", given as decimal fractions. Such usages are based on...

Super Item:
The product at the top of the super bill of materials is merely a representation, present for planning and conceptualisation purposes, of all the combinations of option variants which can be assembled at the final assembly stage. For example, a Ford Focus is a single representation of all possible Focuses, each with its particular engine specifica...

Super Super Bill of Materials:
It may be convenient where there are many "not relevant" entries in a super bill of materials to restructure the bill so as to create families within the total structure. An example is the restructuring of a previous super bill for "lawnmowers", to create a lawnmower super super bill containing three 3 super bill families: (1) ...

Super Super Item:
The entry at the top of a super super bill. See Super Item.

superbrands
, a superbrand being a brand that has established the finest reputation in its field, "offering customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages over its competitors". There exists a superbrands organisation operating in over sixty contries, which attempts to identify each nation's strongest brands by allocating a score to each ...

Supplier Accrediation Scheme:
In the management of a supplier relationship (qv), the buyer expects the supplier to send in 100% conforming product. In order to do so, the supplier must practice SPC (statistical process control) and operate a process for any given product with process technical limits narrower than the allowed product specification limits. Proof of the capabili...

Supplier Base Reduction:
see VBR.

Supplier to Government:
the UK government has instituted a website to assist suppliers to (and buyers from) government involved in small contracts under