Management and Systems Glossary

on 21 June 2024. Posted in Management and Systems Engineering

Tags: Management and Systems Glossary

A

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Advanced Product Quality Planning - A structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessaty to assure that a product satisfies the customer.
Accured Cost - Earmarked for the project and for which payment is due, but has not been made.
Activity - The smallest unit of work necessary to complete project work package.
Activity List - Documents all the activities necessary to complete a project.
Actual Cost - The realized cost incured for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
Advanced Product Quality Planning - A structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessaty to assure that a product satisfies the customer.
Allocation - The assigning of resources for scheduled activities in the most efficient way possible.
Apprenticeship - A form of on-the-job training for practitioners that will give them a license or journeyman's level of competencies.
Approved Manufacturer List - A set of approved relationships between manufacturer parts and a company's internal parts.
Approved Vendor List - Ensures purchased products arrive on time and meet your quality control.
Assembly Bill of Materials - A list of the items and resources that are required to assemble the parent item.
Asset Turnover - A measure of how efficiently assets are used to produce sales.
Authorization - The dicision that triggers the allocation of funding needed to carry out the project.
Authorization Work - The effort which has been defined, plus that work for which authorization has been given, but for which defined contract costs have not been agreed upon.
Availability - Takes into account all events that stop planned production like breaks, lunches, or pre-arranged time.
Avoided Cost - An estimated saving based on preventive measures.

B

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Baseline Schedule - A fixed project schedule.
Best Practice - Something that we have learned from experience on a number of similar projects.
Bill of Materials - A list of parts, raw materials, and accessories, descriptions, part name, part number, quantity, reference designation, procurement type, that make up the assembly or entire product.
Bill of Materials Level - The place occupied by a part on the ranking of the bill of materials.
Brainstorming - The unstructured generation of ideas by a group of people.
Budget - The funds allocated to the project that represent the estimated planned expenditures.
Budget at Completion - The sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed.
Budget Cost - The cost anticipated at the start of a project.
Budgeting and Cost Management - The estimating of costs and the setting of an agreed budget, and the management of actual and forcast costs against that budget.
Budgeting - Time phased financial requirements.

C

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Capital Cost - The carrying cost in a balance sheet or acquiring an asset and bringing it to the condition where it is capable of performing its intended function over a future series of periods.
Cash Flow - Cash receipts and payments in a specific period.
Change Request - Outlines a problem and proposes an action to address the problem.
Changeover - The time required to modify a system or workstation, including teardown and setup.
Child Item - An item that appears in the bill of materials of another item.
Commercial off-the-shelf - Commercially available items that do not require the procuring organization to perform modification to meet requirements.
Concept of Operation - A document describing how a system operates during the life cycle phase to meet stakeholder expectations.
Configurable Bill of Materials - Contains all the components that are required for manufacturing the material to the customer's detailed requiremenrs.
Conflict Management - The process of identifting and addressing differences.
Contingencies - Planned actions for minimizing the damage caused by a problem.
Contract Manufacturer - A third-party manufacturer of parts or products for a company.
Constraint - A condition or occurance that might limit, restrict, or regulate the project.
Corrective Action/Protective Action - Investigates and solves problems, identifies causes, and takes corrective action to solve the problem.
Corrective Action Request - Sent to a supplier when an item or process needs a remedy.
Cost - Expenses, overhead or the price of a product or service.
Cost Baseline - The approved version of work package cost estimates and contingency reserve that can be changed using formal change control procedures.
Cost Benefit Analysis - The relationship between the costs of undertaking a task or project, and the benefits likely to arise from the changed situation.
Cost Management Plan - A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.
Cost Performance Index - A measure of the cost efficency of budgeted resources expressed as the ratio of earned value to actual cost.
Cost of Quality - The sum of all costs associated with conformance and nonconformance.
Critical Activity - A critical activity has zero or negative float. This activity has no allowance for work slippage.
Critical Path - The path in a project schedule that has the longest duration.
Critical Path Activity - Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.
Cycle Time - The time it takes one part to be processed at an individual process step.

D

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Database - An organized collection of data with a means of identification and retrieval.
Data Management - A process to plan for, acquire, access, manage, protect, and use technical data over the entire life cycle of a system.
Deliverable - Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is performed to complete a process, phase, or project.
Design - A process to develope and document a solution to a problem utilizing technology, tools, and experts.
Design Deliverables - Technical drawings and schematics, presentations, reports, and specifications for engineering.
Design History File - Contains or references the records necessary to demonstrate that the design was developed in accordance with the approved design plan.
Device Master Record - A record of all information about how a product was produce, including drawings, instructions, and any other records.
Direct Costs - Costs specifically attributed to an activity or group of activities without apportionment.
Direct Labor - The time spent by one or more production workers on filling a specific manufacturing order.
Discounted Cash Flow - The relating future cash flows and outflows over the life of a project or operation to a common base value.
Document Control - The function of management and controlling product documentation.
Down Day - A day when the facility, entire shop floor, or a specific work place is not in production.
Duration - The length of time required or planned for the execution of a project activity.

E

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Earned Value - The measure of work performed in terms of the budget authorized for that work.
End User - The person or persons who will eventually use the product of a project.
Engineering Bill of Materials - Specifies parts or assemblies designed by the engineering department.
Engineering Change Notice - A form that communicates the details of an approved change to someone who needs to know about the change.
Engineering Change Request - A suggestion that can be submitted to management to solve a problem or make improvement to a product.
Estimating - An approximation of project time and costs targets that is refined throughout the project life cycle.
Environmental Consequences - A failure that can have a potential impact on the environment.
Expert Judgment - The practice of using expert opinion to guide decision making.

F

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Failure Rate - The anticipated number of times that an asset or piece of equipment fails in a specific period of time.
Fast Tracking - A schedule compression technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.
Fill Order - An order that has had all its requirements met and can be closed.
Fill Rate - The percentage of orders that are shipped in full and on time and were met through current available stock.
Finished Goods - An item that is manufactured for sale.
Fixed Asset - A long-term tangible asset or piece of equipment that a business owns and uses in its operations to generate income.
Fixed Duration - A task in whick the time required for completion is fixed.
Fixed Units - A task in which the number of resources used is fixed.
Fixed Work - A task in which the amount of effort required is fixed.
Floor Stock - Low-cost items that do not require inventory control.
Float - The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Flowchart - A diagram that lays out the complete sequence of steps in a process or procedure.
Forecast - An estimate of how much of an item should be produced over a specific period of time.
Forward Scheduling - Businesses that complete manufacturing their products as soon as possible before the due date.
Forward Workload - All backlog work, work that is due or predicted to become backlog work within a pre-specified future time frame.

G

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Good Manufacturing Practice - A system of processes, procedures, and documents that help ensure that the products are consistantly produces and controlled according to quality standards.

H

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Historical Data - Information on archived projects, including documents and reports.
Hours per Shift - The amount of time per shift actually spent working on the assigner task.

I

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Incurred Costs - Sum of actual and committed costs, whether invoiced/paid or not, at a specific time.
Indirect Cost - Costs associated with a project that cannot be directly attributed to an activity or group of activities.
Indirect Labor - The time spent on tasks that are not directly related to filling a specific manurfacturing order.
Information Systems Steering Committee - A committee that provides management representatives from all the key organizations across the institution.
Item Type - A code to designate the accounting class for the item, such as discontinued, inventory, and miscelaneous charges.

J

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Just-in-time Manufacturing - A production model in which items are created to meet demand, not created in surplus of in advance of need.

K

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Key Performance Indicators - Calculations that helps you measure the sucess about the performance of the line, plant, and/or company.
Kickoff Meeting - The first meeting between a project team and stakeholders.
Kit - A group of finished items that compose a set.
Kitten - A process where assemblers are given containers of all parts needed for the production of a product.

L

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Labor Time - The number of employee hours required to complete the operation.
Lag/Lag Time - The minimum necessary lapse of time between the finish of on activity and the finish of an overlapping activity or delay incurred between two specified activities.
Lead/Lead Time - The time between a customer's initial purchase and the delivery of the product.
Lessons Learned - A set of statements captured after completion of a project or a portion of a project.
Life Cycle - The entire process used to build its deliverables.
Linear Scheduling - A graphical scheduling technique used to assign resources when project work consists of repetitive tasks.

M

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Management - The act of overseeing planning, personnel, and resources to achieve a goal.
Management Developement - All aspects of staff planning, recruitment, developement, training and assessment.
Management Process - The act of planning and executing a project or process to meet a defined set of objectives or goals.
Manufacturing Bill of Materials - A list of all sub-assemblies or items essential to produce a shippable finished product.
Markup - A markup of price spread is the difference between the selling price of a product and the cost incured to manifacture it.
Mission Statement - A brief summary, approximately one or two sentences, that sums up the background, purposes and benefits of the project.
Mitigation - Actions taken to eliminate or reduce risk by reducing the probability and/or impact of occurrence.
Multi-level Bill of Materials - A list of all components directly or indirectly involved in building the parent part, togeather with the required quantity for each item.

N

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Negotiation - Satisfying needs by reaching agreement or compromise with other parties.
New Product Developement - The total process that takes a service or a product from concept to market.
New Product Introduction - All the activities within an organization to define, develope and launch a new or improved product.

O

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Objective - Something towards which work is to be directed.
Off-the-shelf - An item that is producedfrom a supplier as-is, with no modifications.
Operative Rule - The business rules an organization chooses to enforce as a matter of policy.
Opportunity Gap - The difference between what an asset is capable of producing and what it actually produces.
Organization - An autonomous unit within an enterprise under the management of a single individual or board.
Organization Modeling - An analysis technique used to describe roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that exist within an organization.
Organizational Process Asset - All materials used by groups within an organization to define, implement, tailor and maintain their processes.
Organizational Unit - A recognized association of people in the context of an organization or enterprise.
Original Equipment Manufacturer - A company that manufacturers a product that is sold to another company.
Output - The number of parts produced during a given time.
Outsourced Service - A service that is part of the manufacturing processes that is purchased from the vender.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness - Measures the efficiency and effectiveness of a process.
Overhead - Costs incured that cannot be directly related to the prducts or serviced produced.

P

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Parent Item - An item that contains another item in the bill of materials.
Part Name - A unique name assigned to a part.
Part Number - A unique numerical value assigned to a part.
Peer Review - A validation technique in which a small group of stakeholders evaluates a portion of a work product to find errors to improve its quality.
Performance - Anything that causes the manufacturing process to run at less than maximum possible speed.
Performance Reporting - Collecting and dissemination information about project performance to help ensure project progress.
Phase - A distinct stage in a project life cycle.
Pick-to-ship Cycle Time - The period from when an order is released to be picked until the time the order has shipped.
Policy - A set of ideas, course of principles of action adopted by or proposed for a system or organization.
Preventative Maintenance - Maintenance activities performed by machine operators at regularly scheduled intervals to keep equipment in good working order.
Process - Also called procedure, an operation or an activity.
Process Center - A resource or collection of resources, commonly people or machines, where an operation or set of operations is performed.
Process Control - The monitoring of the production process through software.
Process Management - The act of planning, coordinating, and overseeing processes with a view to improving outputs and reducing costs.
Process Map - A graphical flowchart identifying the operations in a process, steps in each operation and work time for each step.
Process Model - A visual model or representation of the sequencial flow and control logic of a set of related activities or actions.
Process Security - A type of security that allows you to restrict authority for completing a manufacturing process.
Process Time - The time a job spends at an individual station in a production system from the time the station begins working on it, till the time the station finishes.
Product - Something that is produced.
Product Data Management System - System used to hold mechanical CAD files, including parts and assembly models as well as drawing files.
Product Developement Process - Begins with market research and idea generation, and ends with a successful product offered to the general public.
Product Scope - The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
Production Lifecycle Management - Management of the products records, including bill of materials, specifications, changes and revisions from beginning to end.
Production Planning - The process of devising or estimating the conversion of resources and information to achieve an end.
Production System - A specific or defined set of operations within a large supply network or value chain that produces technical or physical output to satisfy an external demand.
Project - The application of resources to a unique set of coordinated activities, with a defines start and finish, undertaken to meet specific objectives with defined costs.
Project Life Cycle - All phases or stages between a project's conception and its termination.
Project Life Cycle Cost - Cumulative cost of a project over its whole life cycle.
Project Management - The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives.
Project Management Plan - A document that integrates the program's plan and establishes the management controls and overall plan for intergrating and managing the program's individual components.
Project Manager - The stakeholder assigned by the performing organization to manage the work required to achieve the project objectives.
Project Phase - A collection of related project activities, usally culminating in the completion of a major deliverable.
Project Planning - The developement and maintenance of the project plan.
Project Schedule - The planned dates for performing activities and meeting milestones.
Promise Date - The date that the customer has been told to expect to receive the order.
Prototype - A sample built of a product.
Pull Production - The process in which products are made only when the customer has ordered a product, and not before.
Push Production - The process in which products are made using customer estimates rather than the customer has ordered a product, and not before.

Q

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Quality - The ratio between good count produced and the total units that were started.
Quality Assurance - Ensures you are doing the right thing the right way.
Quality Control - Ensures that the results of what you have done is what is expected.
Quality Planning - Involves identifying expected quality standards and creating mechanisms to ensure these standards are met.
Quality Management System - A framework for product and service developement that optimizes for the continuous improvement of quality.
Quantitative Risk Analysis - The mathematical analysis of risk probability and impact.
Quantity to Fill - An amount of a product that was ordered but has not been received.

R

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Replaced Item - An item in a mass uptate to bill of materials that is removed from the bills of materials.
Return - An item or merchandise returned by a customer to your company.
Risk - A future event or problem that exists outside of the control of the project that will have an adveres impact on the project if it occures.
Risk Acceptance - Acknowledging a risk and not taking preemptive action against it.
Risk Assessment - An activity that involves identifying possible risks to a project and examining how these risks, if they occure, would affect objectives.
Risk Analysis - The examination of risk areas or events to access the propbale consequences for each event, or combination of ecents.
Risk Avoidance - A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
Risk Gap - The difference between estimated risk and the tolerable risk.
Risk Identification - The process of identifying and examining risks and their affects on project objectives.
Risk Impact - The harm or consequences for a project of a risk if it occures.
Risk Management - A process to access potential problems, determine which risks are important to deal with, and impliment strategies to reduce consequences.
Risk Mitigation - A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to decrease the probability of occurance or impact of a threat.
Risk Plan - The process of deciding how to approach and conduct the risk management activities of a project.
Risk Ranking - A process for ranking the severity and likelyhood of a hazard sequence of events to ensure the estimated risk of the sequence of events.
Risk Tolerance - The level of variation in performance measures that an organization is willing to accept.
Risk Sharing - The hand ownership of a positive risk to a third party who is typically specialized and better able to realize the opportunity.
Run Time - The scheduled production time and its running.

S

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Sales Bill of Materials - Provides information about a product in the sales stage.
Sales Order - A request for goods or services.
Scope - Work that must be performed to deliver a product, service, or their related functions.
Scope Change - Any change to the project scope, which includes any adjustment to the cost, quality, or schedule.
Scope Creep - Adding features and functions to the project scope without approval.
Scope Model - A model that defines the boundaries of a business domain or solution.
Setup Time - The number of hours needed to prepare the work area prior to the operation.
Shipping Date - The date when a sales order leaves your warehouse or office.
Shipping Method - The manner in which the items are transported from the supplier to be manufacturer.
Shrinkage - The loss of materials.
Single-level Bill of Materials - A simple list of of parts, not ment for a complex product list.
SKU - A unique numerical sales stock identifier usually controlled by the business side if the company.
Stakeholder - A person or group who has intrests that may be affected by an initiative or influence over it.
Standard Operating Procedure - A set of clearly written instructions which outline the steps or tasks needed to complete a job.
Start-to-finish - A logical relationship in which a succesor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
Start-to-start - A logical relationship in which a succesor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
Stock - A set of complete transformations or entities.
Successor Activity - A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in the schedule.
Sunk Cost - Past costs in a project that can never be recovered.
Supplier - A person or company that supplies goods or services to a manufacturer.
Supply Chain - A sequence of processes involved in the manufacturing, transportation and selling of a product.
System Design - The process by which solutions to users requirements can be defined, selected and described.

T

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Total Cost - The total of all expenses associated with the manufacturing order.
Training - An imoortant part of the system since it is unlikely that the delivery system has been operated, maintained or supported by the user before.

U

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Unit Cost - The value of resources and time consumed to create one unit of product.
User - A stakeholder, person, device, or system that directly or indirectly accesses a system.

V

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Validation - The process of checking a product to ensure that it satisifies its intended use and confronts to its requirements.
Variance - The difference between two values like estimated and calculated expenses

W

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Walkthrough - A type of peer review in which participants present, discuss, and step through a work product to find errors.
Warehouse Automation - Includes hardware, software, people and processes that are needed to automate warehouse tasks to increase efficiency and improve accuracy.
Warehouse Logistics - All of the resources, processes and programs required to keep assets and equipment moving in, around, and through a warehouse.
Work Around - An immediate or temporary response to an issue for which a prior response had not been planned.
Work Flow - The relationship of the activities in a project from start to finish.
Work in Progress - The set of entities that are partially transformed within any given process.
Work Product - The document, collection of notes or diagrams used by the business analyst during the requirements developement process.

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