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

Book(s) of Account:
Synonymous with Ledger (qv).

Bootstrapping:
In demand forecasting, the creation of forecasts for more than one period ahead, especially when the more distant forecasts are calculated by employing the near-in forecasts themselves. For example, the forecast for July may be calculated by averaging the three last months demand figures. If these were April 4 units, May 5 units and June 6units, t...

Bottleneck:
If a bottleneck is temporary, it is a work centre with insufficient capacity to meet a schedule. The phenomenon of "wandering bottlenecks", for example, arises when either (1) a large lot size of production causes a temporary bottleneck first at one plant, and then, when output has at last been achieved, at the next step along the way, o...

Bottom Up Re-Planning:
The solving of a capacity problem relating to a material lower in the bill of materials by examination of the materials and capacity situation at increasingly higher levels. For example, the requirements for a component lower in the bill will spring from the corresponding requirements to support plans for material higher up in the bill of material...

Bought Deal:
In the City of London, a merchant bank or major investment house may be engaged by a company to set the price of, and manage, an issue of new shares, the bank agreeing to underwrite the issue (ie agreeing to purchase any unsold shares itself). However, instead of proceeding in this fashion, the bank may buy the whole of the issue itself, usually a...

Box-Jenkins Technique:
A causal forecasting technique refined and described in the 1970s by George Box and Gwilym Jenkins in which current demand for a product is related to many past demands for the product (say, the past 8 months demand), the relationships being described by a set of autocorrelations. The key to the technique is similar to exponential smoothing, namel...

BPICS:
The British Production & Control Society. An organisation originally modelled after APICS, but which has now become The Institute of Operations Management, qv.

BPR:
Business Process Re-engineering. The examination of the processes and procedures which make up the operational activities of the company, and through which its products and services are delivered, such examination being conducted with a view to streamlining them to eliminate those which are wasteful (*) and to focus those which "add value&quo...

BRC:
British Retail Consortium, an organisation supported by the retail trade which, among other things, keeps track of monthly consumer retail spending.

Breach of Contract (legal):
In short, a breach comes about when one party or the other fails to filfil the terms laid down in the contract. In fact, the breach may be a breach of condition or a breach of warranty. (In the former case, the injured party may if it wishes terminate the contract; in either case, it may sue in the courts for damages.) Note that one party cannot, ...

Breakback:
local jargon for the explosion of the bill of materials (qv). The opposite of breakforward.

Breakbulk:
A node within a distribution network having a purpose opposite to that of a consolidation centre. For example, a full container load may be transported economically by a single vehicle to a distant breakbulk node, and the contents then split into a few small loads for local despatch to individual customers or to other subsidiary distribution depot...

Breakdown Maintenance:
also known as Corrective Maintenance.

Breakeven Analysis (in costing):
The 'breakeven' point is costing jargon for that point where the profits from sales are just sufficient to cover a company's fixed costs. (If the buyer can estimate elements of the supplier's costs, it may be most useful in a negotiation to work out his approximate sales breakeven point.) Thus if, over a particular period, if Q = quantity sold in u...

Breakforward:
synonymous with implosion (of the bill of materials). Thus as a verb, to breakforward, the manufacturer might determine that component X is eventually subsequently used in the manufacture of finished product Y by breaking forward X's bill of materials. As a noun, a breakforward is a statement or list of later stage materials and their usages in 1 u...

BRIC powers:
Brazil, Russia, India and China, emerging today as new economic "super nations".

Brief (The):
see Product Brief.

Brisch Classification System:
The Brisch system is a popular means of coding parts and components for engineering classification purposes. Such purposes typically include the filing of technical and drawings data, and the establishment of manufacturing "families" having common production routes. In the Brisch system, each item first has assigned to it a primary code,...

Broadband cable network:
an always-on (qv) direct connection to the Internet, provided through a fibre optic cable. An alternative to ADSL (qv).

Broadbanding:
The establishing of a company pay structure of successive grades, but with large grade differentials - say, 100% rather than the more usual 20% (see differential). The effect of large differentials is to reduce drastically the number of grades in the structure needed to accommodate the range of pay from from lowest to highest. (For example, to cov...

Brooks Wilson Cycle Counting:
A procedure suggested by Roger Brooks and Larry Wilson in their book Inventory Records Accuracy (*) for selecting the items to count each day in a cycle counting programme. Parts in a particular specified area are selected to count on a particular day if visual inspection of the area on that day shows they currently have very low stock (or that th...

Brown Goods:
An easy term for toasters, electric irons, kettles and similar small scale consumer items. Contrast "white goods".

BSA:
Birmingham Small Arms.

BSC:
See Balanced Scorecard (but formerly, BSC was the British Steel Corporation.)

BTF:
Build to Forecast.

BTO:
Build to Order - see make to order.

BTR:
British Tyre and Rubber.

Bucket:
Requirements calculated by a particular planning system are qualified by the times when the plans must start and when they must finish. The divisions of time on which the system is based are referred to as buckets (*). Thus a system which calculates plans to the nearest week is a weekly bucketed system; divisions of time to the nearest day means a...

Budget:
In the manufacturing company, there are various types of budget, used to plan and monitor from the financial angle the activities of different departments and groups. From the costing viewpoint, a budget is the sum of money it is calculated will be spent in a cost centre over a year in order to produce the "production forecast". The prod...

Buffer Stock:
see Stock (Buffer).

Buffett, Warren:
see sage.

Build to Order:
Synonymous with Make-to-Order, qv.

Bull:
see bear.

Bullwhip Effect:
The effect on inventory levels across a supply chain of delays in communicating changed requirements - see Forrester's Curves.

Burden:
In costing, the indirect cost element of a production cost. A term chiefly used in the US.

Burgerblute:
a type of schwundgeld launched in April 2006 in Kassel, central Germany.

Buyback:
In countertrade (qv), the agreement by the supplier of capital plant to take part of the plant's future output in part payment.

Cabotage:
If a vehicle delivers goods to a foreign point, and then picks up a new load for delivery to a second point within the foreign territory, the action is referred to as cabotage, not backhaul. (Backhaul applies only if the second point is back in the vehicle's own country.) Because cabotage is seen as threatening to the foreign country's haulage bus...

CAD:
See Computer Aided Design.

CAGR:
Compound Annual Growth Rate.

Calling Population:
See Queues (2)

CALS:
Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support, or Commerce At Light Speed.

CAM:
Computer-Aided Manufacture, or Customer Asset Management.

Campaign:
in the process industries - chemicals, glass, steel and so on - manufacture becomes increasingly efficient as more and more product is made on dedicated plant. That is, percentage yields increase from batch to batch and the operation of the plant by process workers becomes increasingly efficient. A campaign is the manufacturing undertaking from th...

CAMU:
Computerised Assembly Mock Up.

Cando:
(Literally the English phrase able to do something). A Japanese inspired technique, in English standing for C Clean Up (get rid of what is unnnecessary); A Arrange (organise the workplace); N Neatness (ensure everything is in its right place); D Discipline (conform to standard procedures); O Ongoing Improvements (look for ways to make procedures m...

Capability Index:
A succinct measure of the capability of a process to manufacture parts of given upper and lower specification limits. If the standard deviation of the spread of a variable is s, one possible capability index may be defined as (Upper Specification Limit - Lower Specification Limit) / 6s. If the capability index is 1.0, then 99.73% of the output of ...

Capable to Promise:
With Available-to-Promise (qv), what is available (to promise to a customer) is the anticipated production currently in the Master Schedule less what has been actually already been sold, or promised. With capable to promise, however, what is deemed to be "available" is the maximum output that could be manufactured (less what what has bee...

Capacity Available to Promise:
As with Available-to-Promise (qv), if customer orders are to be delivered on the dates promised, such orders must not exceed the company's commitment to future manufacture. With ordinary available-to-promise, a portion of the available master schedule effort is allocated to each customer order as it is accepted. With capacity available-to-promise,...

Capacity Requirements Planning:
a means of evaluating the work centre capacity demands of a materials plan. After the time-phased material requirements have been determined, a so-called "capacity database" is accessed to find the work centres where the materials are manufactured and the durations that will be required to do so. For example, Material X (requirement 600 ...

Capital Equipment:
Machinery, equipment, tools and so on entered on the company's asset register along with its financial value, and so included in its fixed assets on the balance sheet. Note that small items of equipment such as fax machines or typewriters are usually lumped together under current assets.

Capital Reconstruction:
With the permission of its shareholders and creditors, a company may vary its shareholders' rights and alter its capital structure (issued share capital, debentures, debts etc) as a means of "relaunching" itself with fresh funds and without the burden of existing debt.

Capital Value (of a Company):
A company's assets less its liabilities, as deduced from the Balance Sheet. This is a strictly arithmetical view of a company's capital - it does not include, say, its prospects or the know-how of its staff.

Capital:
synonymous with finance, or money.

Capitalisation Issue (of shares):
a company may believe that certain financial entries within its accounts are in reality permanent, and that a more accurate view might be taken of its finances if they were indeed made permanent. It may therefore issue share capital covering the sum concerned, issuing the share capital free to existing ordinary shareholders and removing the financi...

CAPOSS-E:
Capacity Planning and Operations Sequence Scheduling - Extended. A very well thought-of IBM finite capacity planning system current in the 1980s.

CAR:
Capital authorisation request - a request by a manager or department in the form of a formal proposal that the company should purchase an item of equipment or build a new facility etc.. The proposal will be supported by a financial evaluation in the form of DCF calculations, qv..

Carat:
the unit of weight by which diamonds are reckoned. One carat = 0.2 grams. The word 'carat' originated in the carob tree (ceratonia siliqua). The small seeds of this tree are well known for their uniformity and consistency of weight; because the weight of a seed, or a few seeds, was well matched to the weight of a diamond, diamonds were weighed aga...

carbon label
, a public declaration of an organisation's carbon footprint.

Cardinal Number:
a fundamental number - thus 1, 2 and 3 are the first three cardinal numbers, as opposed to an ordinal number ... first, second, third etc..

Carlo:
a type of schwundgeld originating in January 2005 in Karlsruhe, southwest Germany.

Carousel (Horizontal):
An electromechanical storage and stock-to-picker stock retrieval device consisting of numerous stacks of trays or receptacles. All of the stacks move horizontally in relation to each other along a continuous rectangular circuit. Carousels are expensive items of equipment and are usually associated with the storage of small, expensive and frequentl...

Carousel (Vertical):
An electromechanical storage and stock-to-picker stock retrieval cabinet, smaller ones being about 10' to 15' high, especially suitable for small objects. The vertical carousel itself consists of stacked trays ascending or descending within the body of the device on a continuous pulley.The shelving within the cabinet of a vertical carousel rotates ...

Carrying Cost:
Normally, the cost to the company of supporting the holding of stock (whether in the form of raw materials, components or finished goods). The cost is usually expressed as a percentage per annum of the value of the stock concerned and may be estimated at 25% pa. This percentage is arrived at by adding (i) the percentage to be applied to the money ...

Cartel:
A group of companies that have conspired to fix prices of some product or service, contrary to the spirit of competition and free trade. Cartels are illegal in most first world countries.

CASE:
Computer Aided System Engineering.

Cash Book:
An account kept of cash at the bank, cash on hand and the receipts and payments of money.

Cash Cows:
A humorous marketing term for products on the selling range with high market share but low market growth (see also Dogs!).

Cash Flow:
Estimations of cash incomings set down alongside corresponding estimations of cash outgoings, both estimations being over future time. Companies typically prepare several types of cash flows: operations, taxation, assets etc.. Cash enables the company to proceed with its day to day operational activities.

CATV:
Community Antenna Television (ie Cable TV).

Causal Forecasting:
. (See also, by way of contrast to Causal Forecasting, Naive Forecasting. Also particularly see the overall subject of Demand Forecasting) Causal forecasting encompasses a small but powerful family of forecasting techniques based on the application of regression statistics. Normally, in the application of statistics, regression is used to investig...

CBO:
Common Business Object.

CBOT:
Founded in 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade is the world's largest commodity market.

CBSA:
Component Based Solution Assembly.

CBT:
Computer-Based Training.

CC:
Cost Centre - see below.

CCAS:
Component Commonality Analysis System - a method developed by William Tallon for determining which component parts within a family of alternative assembled structures are common and which are unique. By "family" might perhaps be meant (say) a range of pumps or a range of motor cycles. Tallon's method involves a computer search of the fam...

CCB
:Change Control Board - see Engineering Change Committee.

CCC:
In banking and finance, the attributes the lender should look for in a person wanting to borrow money - ie Capital (ie the would-be borrower's!); Competence (or Capabiliy); and Character. It is a pity these principles were abandoned by the greedy Banks responsible for the American 'sub-prime' fiasco of 2007 and the consequent global liquidity squee...

CCCC:
In Health & Safety management, the four attributes looked for in the management and ethos of an organisation - that is: Control (the allocation of responsibilities and the securing of commitment); Competence (the provision of training and advice); Co-operation ( ... between individuals and working groupp); and Communication.

CCCCCC:
The six Cs are a notion of the quality guru Philip Crosby and represent Comprehension, Commitment, Competence, Communication, Correction and Continuance.

CCD:
Charged Coupled Device. Bar code "imaging" scanners which are less expensive than the traditional laser scanners. The CCD is in effect a tiny digital camera which takes a digital photograph of the bar code.

CDE:
Common Desktop Environment.

CE Mark:
The CE mark placed on a particular product is a self-declaration by the manufacturer that the product on which the mark is placed meets all the provisions of the relevant legislation implementing certain EU directives. The initials "CE" stand for "Communaute Europeean", and, as stated, are a declaration of compliance with EU pr...

CEDAC:
Cause-and-Effect Diagram with Additional Cards - a continuous improvement methodology involving many participants.

Cell Manufacture:
In Just-in-Time or lean manufacture, the company's plant must be laid out so as to permit the frequent manufacture of small quantities of product. To achieve this economically, plant must be rearranged to create mini flowlines, each one dedicated to the production of a few families of parts. (A "family" comprising parts having similar sh...

Central Limit Theorem:
Suppose that, from a large population of parts, or items, we were to take a number of samples of the same size, and measure some given characteristic of each part in each sample. Suppose further that we were to calculate the mean, or average, of the measurements relating to each sample (which we now refer to as the sample-mean). Then the central l...

Centre of Gravity Method:
See Location of Distribution Depots.

CEO:
Chief Executive Officer. US terminology for the managing director.

Certainty of Terms (legal):
All of the stipulations needed to perform a contract must be known to the contracting parties before the contract is agreed between them (or before the contract can come into existence).

Certificate of Incorporation:
a legal document issued by Companies House, Cardiff, which in effect brings a company into existence.

CFAR:
Collaboration Forecasting and Replenishment.

CFC:
Chlorofluorocarbon - a class of chemical compound.

CFM
: Continuous Flow Manufacture.

CFO:
Chief Financial Officer. US terminology for the financial director.

CG:
Consumer Goods.

CGE:
Compagnie G

CGI:
Common Gateway Interface.

CGMP:
Current Good Manufacturing Practice.

Chaku-Chaku:
A Japanese term for the conduct of single piece manufacturing flow, whereby the machine operator personally conveys the object under manufacture from one work station to the next, setting up and running each machine at each step along the production route.