M
Machine
Downtimes: Time during which a machine cannot
be utilized. Machine downtimes may occur during breakdowns, maintenance,
changeovers, etc.
Macro
Environment: The environment external to a
business, including technological, economic, natural, and regulatory forces that
marketing efforts cannot control.
Maintenance, Repair, and Operating Supplies (MRO): Items used in support of general operations and
maintenance, such as maintenance supplies, spare parts, and consumables used in
the manufacturing process and supporting operations.
Major
Carrier: A for-hire certificated air carrier
that has annual operating revenues of $1 billion or more; the carrier usually
operates between major population centers.
Make-or-Buy Decision:
The act of deciding whether to produce an item internally or buy it from an
outside supplier. Factors to consider in the decision include costs, capacity
availability, proprietary and/or specialized knowledge, quality considerations,
skill requirements, volume, and timing.
Make to Order (Manufacture to Order): A manufacturing process strategy where the trigger to begin
manufacture of a product is an actual customer order or release rather than a
market forecast. For make-to-order products, more than 20% of the value added
takes place after the receipt of the order or release, and all necessary design
and process documentation is available at the time of order receipt.
Make to Stock (Manufacture to Stock): A manufacturing process strategy where finished product is
continually held in plant or warehouse inventory to fulfill expected incoming
orders or releases based on a forecast.
Management of All Logistics: The effective management of all costs associated with
logistics functions and activities so as to minimize their sum across the
product supply chain.
Manufacture Cycle Time:
The average time between commencement and completion of a manufacturing
process, as it applies to make-to-stock products.
Calculation: [Average # of units in
WIP]/[Average daily output in units]
Manufacturer's Representative: One who sells goods for several firms but does not take
title to them.
Manufacturing Calendar:
A calendar used in inventory and production planning functions that
consecutively numbers only the working days so that the component and work
order scheduling may be done based on the actual number of workdays available. Synonyms:
M-Day Calendar, Planning Calendar, Production Calendar, Shop Calendar
Manufacturing Execution Systems
(MES): Programs and systems that
participate in shop-floor control, including programmed logic controllers and
process control computers for direct and supervisory control of manufacturing
equipment; process information systems that gather historical performance
information, then generate reports; graphical displays; and alarms that inform
operations personnel what is going on in the plant currently and a short
history into the past. Quality control information is also gathered - a
laboratory information management system may be part of this configuration to
tie process conditions to the quality data that are generated. Thereby,
cause-and-effect relationships can be determined. The quality data at times
affect the control parameters that are used to meet product specifications,
either dynamically or offline.
Manufacturing Lead Time:
The total time required to manufacture an item, exclusive of lower-level
purchasing lead time. For make-to-order products, it's the length of time
between the release of an order to the production process and shipment to the
final customer. For make-to-stock products, it's the length of time between the
release of an order to the production process and receipt into finished goods
inventory. Included are order preparation time, queue time, set-up time, run
time, move time, inspection time, and put-away time. Synonym: Manufacturing
Cycle Time.
Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP-II): A method for the effective planning of all resources of a
manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units,
financial planning in dollars, and has a simulation capability to answer
what-if questions. It consists of a variety of processes, each linked together:
business planning, production planning (sales and operations planning), master
production scheduling, material requirements planning, capacity requirements
planning, and the execution support systems for capacity and material. Output
from these systems is integrated with financial reports, such as business plan,
purchase commitment report, shipping budget, and inventory projections in
dollars. Manufacturing resource planning is a direct outgrowth and extension of
closed-loop MRP.
Marginal
Cost: The cost to produce one additional
unit of output. The change in total variable cost resulting from a one-unit
change in output.
Marine Cargo Insurance - Average: A term in marine cargo insurance signifying loss or damage
to merchandise.
Marine Cargo Insurance - FPA (Free of Particular Average): A provision in a marine cargo insurance policy that no
claim shall be paid for damage to goods in the course of a voyage unless a loss
is sustained that totals or exceeds a certain percentage of the value as
specified in the policy. The object of such a provision is the avoidance of
petty claims.
Marine Cargo Insurance - General Average: A loss arising out of a voluntary sacrifice made of any
part of a shipment or cargo to prevent loss of the whole and for the benefit of
all persons concerned.
Marine Cargo Insurance - Open
Policy: A cargo insurance policy that is an
open contract; i.e. it provides protection for all of an exporter's shipments
afloat or in transit within a specified geographical trade area for an
unlimited period of time, until the policy is cancelled by the insured or by
the insurance company. It is "open" because the goods that are
shipped are also detailed at that time. This is usually shown in a document
called a marine insurance certificate.
Maritime Administration (Mar Ad): A U.S. government agency, not actively involved in vessel
operation, that administers laws for maintenance of a merchant marine for the
purposes of defense and commerce.
Market
Demand: In marketing, the total demand that
would exist within a defined customer group in a given geographical area during
a particular time period given a known marketing program.
Market
Dominance: The absence of effective
competition for railroads from other carriers and modes for the traffic to
which the rail rate applies. The Staggers Act stated that market dominance does
not exist if the rate is below the revenue-to-variable-cost ratio of 160
percent in 1981 and 170 percent in 1983.
Market-Positioned Warehouse: Warehouse positioned to replenish customer inventory assortments
and afford maximum inbound transport consolidation economies from inventory
origin points with relatively short-haul local delivery.
Market
Segment: A group of potential customers
sharing some measurable characteristics based on demographics, psychographics,
lifestyle, geography, benefits, etc.
Marks
and Numbers: Marks and numbers placed on goods
used to identify a shipment or parts of a shipment.
Marquis
Partners: Key strategic relationships. This
has emerged as perhaps the key competitive advantage and barrier to entry of
e-marketplaces. Get the big players in the fold first, offering equity if
necessary.
Mass
Customization: The creation of a high-volume
product with large variety so that a customer may specify his or her exact
model out of a large volume of possible end items, while manufacturing cost is
low because of the large volume. An example is a personal computer order in
which the customer may specify processor speed, memory size, hard disk size and
speed, removable storage device characteristics, and many other options when
PCs are assembled on one line and at a low cost.
Material Acquisition Costs: One of the elements comprising a company's total supply
chain management costs. These costs consist of the following:
1. Materials (Commodity) Management
and Planning: All costs associated with the
supplier sourcing, contract negotiation and qualification, and the preparation,
placement, and tracking of a purchase order - including all costs related to
buyer/planners.
2. Supplier Quality Engineering: The costs associated with the determination,
development/certification, and monitoring of suppliers' capabilities to fully
satisfy the applicable quality and regulatory requirements.
3. Inbound Freight and Duties: Freight costs associated with the movement of material from
a vendor to the buyer, including all associated administrative tasks. Duties
are those fees and taxes levied by government for moving purchased material
across international borders. Customs broker fees should also be included in
this category.
4. Receiving and Put Away: all costs associated with taking possession of material and
storing it. Note - inventory-carrying costs are normally covered in a separate
worksheet. 5. Incoming Inspection: All costs associated with the
inspection and testing of received materials to verify compliance with
specifications.
Materials
Handling: The physical handling of products
and materials between procurement and shipping.
Material
Index: The ratio of the sum of the
localized raw material weights to the weight of the finished product.
Materials Management:
Inbound logistics from suppliers through the production process. The movement
and management of materials and products from procurement through production.
Materials
Planning: The materials management function
that attempts to coordinate materials supply with materials demand.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP): A decision-making methodology used to determine the timing
and quantities of materials to purchase.
Matrix Organizational Structure: An organization structure in which two (or more) channels
of command budget responsibility, and performance measurement exist
simultaneously. For example, both product and functional forms of organization
could be implemented simultaneously; in other words, the product and functional
managers have equal authority and employees report to both managers.
Maximum Order Quantity:
An order quantity modifier applied after the lot size has been calculated that
limits the order quantity to a pre-established maximum.
m-Commerce: Mobile commerce applications involve using a mobile phone
to carry out financial transactions. This usually means making a payment for
goods or transferring funds electronically. Transferring money between accounts
and paying for purchases are electronic commerce applications. An emerging
application, electronic commerce has been facilitated by developments in other
areas in the mobile world, such as dual slot phones and other smarter
terminals, and more standardized protocols which allow greater interactivity
and therefore, more sophisticated service.
Median: The middle value in a set of measured values when the items
are arranged in order of magnitude. If there is no single middle value, the
median is the mean of the two middle values.
Merge
In Transit: The process of "merging"
shipments from suppliers and going directly to the buyer or to the store,
bypassing the seller. A "drop shipment" from several vendors to one
buyer.
Merger: The combination of two or more carriers into one company
that will own, manage, and operate the properties that previously operated
separately.
Message: The EDIFACT term for a transaction set. A message is the
collection of data, organized in segments, exchanged by trading partners
engaged in EDI. Typically, a message is an electronic version of a document associated
with a common business transaction, such as a purchase order or shipping
notice. A message begins with a message header segment, which identifies the
start of the message (e.g., the series of characters representing one purchase
order). The message header segment also carries the message type code, which
identifies the business transaction type. EDIFACT's message header segment is
called UNH; in ANSI X12 protocol, the message header is called ST. A message
ends with a message trailer segment, which signals the end of the message
(e.g., the end of one purchase order). EDIFACT's message trailer is labeled
UNT; the ANSI X12 message trailer is referred to as SE.
Micro-Land Bridge: An intermodal movement in which the shipment is moved from
a foreign country to the U.S. by water and then moved across the U.S. by
railroad to an interior, non-port city, or vice versa for exports from a
non-port city.
Mileage
Allowance: An allowance, based upon distance,
that railroads give to shippers using private railcars.
Mini-Land
bridge: An intermodal movement in which the
shipment is moved from a foreign country to the U.S. by water and then moved
across the U.S. by railroad to a destination that is a port city, or vice versa
for exports from a U.S. port city.
Minimum
Weight: The shipment weight the carrier's
tariff specifies as the minimum weight required to use the TL or CL rate; the
rate discount volume.
Mixed
Loads: The movement of both regulated and
exempt commodities in the same vehicle at the same time.
Modal
Split: The relative use that companies
make of transportation modes; the statistics include ton-miles,
passenger-miles, and revenue.
MSDS: See Material Safety Data Sheet.
Multi-Currency: The ability to process orders using a variety of currencies
for pricing and billing.
Multi-Language: Pertaining to the ability to process orders in many
different country-specific languages using voice and text.
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