Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "I"

I

ICC: Interstate Commerce Commission (U.S.).

Igloos: Pallets and containers used in air transportation; the igloo shape fits the internal wall contours of a narrow-body airplane.

IMB: See International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

IMO: See International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Import: Movement of products from one country into another. The import of automobiles from Germany into the US is an example.

Importation Point: The location where goods will be cleared for importation into a country.

Import/Export License: Official authorization issued by a government allowing the shipping or delivery of a product across national boundaries.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "H"

H

Handling Costs: The cost involved in moving, transferring, preparing, and otherwise handling inventory.

Hard Copy: Computer output printed on paper.

Harmonized Commodity Description & Coding System (Harmonized Code): An international classification system that assigns identification numbers to specific products. The coding system ensures that all parties in int'l. trade use a consistent classification for the purposes of documentation, statistical control, and duty assessment.

Haulage: The inland transport service which is offered by the carrier under the terms and conditions of the tariff and of the relative transport document.

HAWB: See House Air Waybill (HAWB).

Hawthorne Effect: From a study conducted at the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric Company from 1927-1932 which found that the act of showing people that you are concerned usually results in better job performance. Studying and monitoring of activities are typically seen as being concerned and results in improved productivity.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "G"

G

Gain Sharing: A method of incentive compensation where supply chain partners share collectively in savings from productivity improvements. The concept provides an incentive to both the buying and supplier organizations to focus on continually reevaluating, reenergizing, and enhancing their business relationship. all aspects of value delivery are scrutinized, including specification design, order processing, inbound transportation, inventory management, obsolescence programs, material yield, forecasting and inventory planning, product performance, and reverse logistics. The focus is on driving out limited value cost while protecting profit margins.

Gathering Lines: Oil pipelines that bring oil from the oil well to storage areas.

GATT: See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

GB/L: See Government Bill of Lading (GB/L).

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT): A multilateral trade agreement aimed at expanding international trade as a means of raising world welfare.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "F"

F

FA: *See Functional Acknowledgement (FA)

FAS: See Final Assembly Schedule

Fabricator: A manufacturer that turns the product of a raw materials supplier into a larger variety of products. A fabricator may turn steel rods into nuts, bolts, and twist drills, or may turn paper into bags and boxes.

Facilities: The physical plant, distribution centers, service centers, and related equipment.

Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA): A pro-active method of predicting faults and failures so that preventive action can be taken.

Fair Return: A profit level that enables a carrier to realize a rate of return on investment or property value that the regulatory agencies deem acceptable for that level of risk.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "E"

E

EAI: See Enterprise Application Integration (EAI).

EAN.UCC: European Article Numbering/Uniform Code Council. The EAN.UCC System provides identification standards to uniquely identify trade items, logistics units, locations, assets, and service relations worldwide. The identification standards define the construction of globally-unique and unambiguous numbers. For additional reference, please see http://www.uc-council.org/ean_ucc_systems/stnds_and_tech/bus_apps.html

Early Supplier Involvement (ESI): The process of involving suppliers early in the product design activity and drawing on their expertise, insights, and knowledge to generate better designs in less time and ones that are easier to manufacture with high quality.

Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT): A measure of a company's earning power from ongoing operations, equal to earnings (revenues minus cost of sales, operating expenses, and taxes) before deduction of interest payments and income taxes. Also called operating profit.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "D"

D

Dangerous Goods: Articles or substances capable of posing a significant risk to health, safety, or property, and that ordinarily require special attention when transported. See also Hazardous Goods.

Dashboard: A performance measurement tool used to capture a summary of the key performance indicators/metrics of a company. Metrics dashboards/scorecards should be easy to read and usually have red, yellow, green indicators to flag when the company is not meeting its metrics targets. Ideally, a dashboard/scoreboard should be cross functional in nature and include both financial and non-financial measures. In addition, scorecards should be reviewed regularly - at least on a monthly basis, and weekly in key functions such as manufacturing and distribution where activities are critical to the success of a company. The dashboards/scorecards philosophy can also be applied to external supply chain partners like suppliers to ensure that their objectives and practices align. Synonym: Scorecard.

Data Dictionary: Lists the data elements for which standards exist. The Joint Electronic Document Interchange (JEDI) committee developed a data dictionary that is employed by many EDI users.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "C"

C

C & F: See Cost and Freight

Cab Extenders: Also called gap seals, which help to close the gap between the tractor and the trailer

Cabotage: A federal law that requires coastal and inter-coastal traffic to be carried in U.S.-built and registered ships.

CAE: See Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE).

CAD: See Cash Against Documents.

CADEX: See Customs Automated Data Exchange System

CAF: *See Currency Adjustment Factor (CAF)

Cage: (1) A secure enclosed area for storing highly valuable items (2) A pallet-sized platform with sides that can be secured to the tines of a forklift and in which a person may ride to inventory items stored well above the warehouse floor.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "B"

B

B2B: See Business-to-Business (B2B).

B2C: See Business-to-Customer (B2C).

Back Order: Product ordered but out of stock and promised to ship when the product becomes available.

Backhaul: The process of a transportation vehicle returning from the original destination point to the point of origin. The 1980 Motor Carrier Act deregulated interstate commercial trucking, thereby allowing carriers to contract for the return trip. The backhaul can be with a full, partial, or empty load. An empty backhaul is called deadheading. Also see: Deadhead

Backorder: (1) The act of retaining a quantity to ship against an order when other order lines have already been shipped. Backorders are usually caused by stock shortages. (2) The quantity remaining to be shipped if an initial shipment(s) has been processed. Note: In some cases, backorders are not allowed. This results in a lost sale when sufficient quantities are not available to completely ship an order or order line.

Backsourcing: Pulling a function back in house as an outsourcing contract expires.

Glossary of Supply Chain Terms "A"

A

ABC Analysis: A classification of items in an inventory according to importance defined in terms of criteria such as sales volume and purchase volume.

ABC Classification: Classification of a group of items in decreasing order of annual dollar volume or other criteria. This array is then split into three classes called A, B, and C. The A group represents 10 to 20% by number of items, and 50 to 70% by projected dollar volume. The next grouping, B, represents about 20% of the items and 20% of the dollare volume. The C-class contains 60 to 70% of the items, and represents about 10 to 30% of the dollar volume.

ABC Costing: See Activity-Based Costing (ABC)

ABC Inventory Control: An inventory control approach based on the ABC volume or sales revenue classification of products (A items are highest volume or revenue, C - or perhaps D - are lowest volume SKUs.)

ABC Model: In cost management, a representation of resource costs during a time period that are consumed through activities and traced to products, services, and customers, or to any other object that creates a demand for the activity to be performed.

ABC System: In cost management, a system that maintains financial and operating data on an organization's resources, activities, drivers, objects and measures. ABC Models are created and maintained within this system.

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Refrigerant charging and evacuation unit

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Vacuum pump

Vacuum pump

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Refrigerant recovery hand pump

Refrigerant recovery hand pump

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Refrigerant recovery bag

Refrigerant recovery bag

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Refrigerant reclaim machine

Refrigerant reclaim machine

Equipment for Recovery, Recycling, Reclamation and Evacuation (RRRE) - Recovery, recycling, evacuation and charging unit