Essential Supply Chain and Operations Terms

Every supply chain and operations student and manager should have a good understanding of these essential terms. These are marked with the symbol at the end of the short definitions in this encyclopedia.

5S

8 wastes

A3 Report

ABC classification

acceptance sampling

Activity Based Costing (ABC)

affinity diagram

appraisal cost

assemble to order (ATO)

automation

balanced scorecard

bathtub curve

benchmarking

bill of material (BOM)

bottleneck

break-even analysis

bullwhip effect

capacity

carrying charge

carrying cost

causal map

cellular manufacturing

commodity

commonality

control chart

control plan

core competence

cost of quality

critical path

Critical Path Method

customer leadtime

cycle counting

cycle stock

cycle time

decision tree

Delphi forecasting

demand

demand management

Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

direct labor cost

diseconomy of scale

distribution

distribution channel

Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR)

Economic Order Quantity

economy of scale

economy of scope

effectiveness

efficiency

employee turnover

engineer to order (ETO)

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)

ergonomics

error proofing

exponential smoothing

facility layout

facility location

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

financial performance metrics

finished goods inventory

flexibility

focused factory

forecast error metrics

forecasting

Gantt Chart

half-life curve

industrial engineering

inspection

inventory management

inventory position

inventory turnover

Ishikawa Diagram

jidoka

job design

job enlargement

job shop

Just-in-Time (JIT)

kaizen

kanban

leadtime

lean sigma

lean thinking

learning curve

learning organization

linear regression

Little’s Law

logistics

lotsizing methods

make to order (MTO)

make to stock (MTS)

make versus buy decision

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)

manufacturing order

manufacturing processes

mass customization

Master Production Schedule

Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)

Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)

Mean Absolute Percent Error (MAPE)

median

min/max inventory system

modular design (modularity)

moment of truth

moving average

muda

Murphy’s Law

Net Present Value (NPV)

New Product Development (NPD)

newsvendor model

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

normal distribution

normal time

offshoring

on-hand inventory

on-order inventory

open order

operations management

operations performance metrics

operations research (OR)

operations strategy

opportunity cost

outsourcing

overhead

Pareto Chart

Pareto’s Law

Parkinson’s Laws

part number

PDCA

periodic review system

periods supply

picking

postponement

preventive maintenance

probability density function

probability distribution

process

process capability and performance

process design

process improvement program

process map

product design quality

production planning

productivity

product-process matrix

program management office

project charter

project management

pull system

purchase order (PO)

purchasing

push-pull boundary

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

quality management

queuing theory

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

reorder point

respond to order (RTO)

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

safety stock

Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)

SCOR Model

service failure

service guarantee

service level

service management

service quality

service recovery

setup cost

setup time reduction methods

setup time

shop floor control

simulation

slack time

sourcing

standard cost

standard deviation

standard time

standardized work

starving

Statistical Process Control

stockout

Strategic Business Unit

strategy map

sunk cost

supplier

supply chain management

sustainability

switching cost

system

takt time

tampering

Theory of Constraints

time series forecasting

time study

time-based competition

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Transportation Management System (TMS)

trend

utilization

value added ratio

value chain

value stream map

variance

vendor managed inventory

vertical integration

voice of the customer

wait time

warehouse

Warehouse Management System (WMS)

work breakdown structure

work measurement

Work-in-Process (WIP) inventory

x-bar chart

yield

yield management