Glossary

We understand you may be new to buying manufacturing software, so we have gathered a list of terms you may not understand. Throughout our website, words are highlighted to show there is a definition available in our glossary. Please free feel to click the highlighted terms and we will link you to the according definition/meaning.

* These glossary terms are Copyright APICS Dictionary 11th Edition.

• APS: Advanced Planning & Scheduling

Techniques that deal with analysis and planning of logistics and manufacturing over the short, intermediate, and long term time periods. APS describes any computer program that uses advanced mathematical algorithms or logic to perform optimization or simulation on finite capacity scheduling, sourcing, capital planning, resource planning, forecasting, demand management, and others. These techniques simultaneously consider a range of constraints and business rules to provide real-time planning and scheduling, decision support, available-to-promise, and capable-to-promise capabilities. APS often generates and evaluates multiple scenarios. Management then selects one scenario to use as the "official plan". The five main components of APS systems are demand planning, production planning, production scheduling, distribution planning, and transportation planning.

• Best-Of-Breed

It is an integration of many specialized applications to make the best overall system. Systems or solutions that are already packaged together may not have the in-depth capabilities that a Best-of-Breed system may have. Its solution parts come from different professionally specialized companies which enables the system's capabilities to be in-depth and detailed from beginning to end enhancing user-amiability.

• Bottleneck

A facility, function, department, or resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it. For example, a bottleneck machine or work center exists where jobs are processed at a slower rate than they are demanded.

• Collaborative Business Optimization

It enables sales, purchasing, planning and production departments to work together to provide fast turnaround, reliable delivery, and maximum output at minimal cost.

• CTP: Capable To Promise

The process of committing orders against available capacity as well as inventory. This process may involve multiple manufacturing or distribution sites. Capable-to-promise is used to determine when a new or unscheduled customer order can be delivered. Capable-to-promise employs a finite-scheduling model of the manufacturing system to determine when an item can be delivered. It includes any constraints that might restrict the production, such as availability of resources, lead times for raw materials or purchased parts, and requirements for lower-level components or subassemblies. The resulting delivery date takes into consideration production capacity, the current manufacturing environment, and future order commitments. The objective is to reduce the time spent by production planners in expediting orders and adjusting plans because of inaccurate delivery-date promises.

• Discovery Call

Here, at PlanetTogether, we want to give you the best solution possible for your company's demands and needs. We also enjoy having intimate relationships with our customers so we can offer you the best production scheduling solution. In a discovery call, a PlanetTogether Consultant will personally contact you to find out more about your manufacturing processes.

• Discrete Manufacturing

The production of distinct items such as automobiles, appliances, or computers.

• Drag-And-Drop

It is the action of (or support for the action of) clicking on a virtual object and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In PlanetTogether, this function allows for schedules to be easily updated in case orders change or need to be executed immediately. Users are able to inject or pull-out jobs and orders while all other operations are pushed aside and adjusted to demand when using this user-friendly capability.

• Drum-Buffer-Rope

In the theory of constraints, the generalized process used to manage resources to maximize throughput. The drum is the rate or pace of production set by the system's constraint. The buffers establish the protection against uncertainty so that the system can maximize throughput. The rope is a communication process from the constraint to the gating operation that checks or limits material released into the system to support the constraint. See: finite scheduling, synchronized production.

• Dynamic Inventory Constraints

A method of sequential decision making in which the result of the decision at each stage affords the best possible means to exploit the expected range of likely (yet unpredictable) outcomes in the following decision-making stages. It enables the limitation of restrictions to guide one towards the best decision in terms of merchandise and stock at hand.

• End Users

1) The final consumer of a product. 2) The recipient of an output from a computer system.

• ERP: Enterprise Resources Planning

It is a system which integrates (or attempt to integrates) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules.

• Finite Loading

Assigning no more work to a work center than the work center can be expected to execute in a given time period. The specific term usually refers to a computer technique that involves calculating shop priority revisions in order to level load operation by operation. Syn: finite scheduling. See: drum-buffer-rope.

• Gantt Chart

The earliest and best-known type of planning and control chart, especially designed to show graphically the relationship between planned performance and actual performance over time. Named after its originator, Henry L. Gantt, the chart is used (1) for machine loading, in which one horizontal line is used to represent capacity and another to represent load against that capacity; or (2) for monitoring job progress, in which one horizontal line represents the production schedule and another parallel line represents the actual progress of the job against the schedule in time.

• Gantt Viewers

Enable customer service, sales, and management to see the schedule at all times. They also provide the optional ability to update the schedule status so that employees can update the schedule as they complete their work.

• ISV: Independent Software Vendor

It is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, usually for niche markets.

• Job Shop

1) An organization in which similar equipment is organized by function. Each job follows a distinct routing through the shop. 2) A type of manufacturing process used to produce items to each customer's specifications. Production operations are designed to handle a wide range of product designs and are performed at fixed plant locations using general-purpose equipment.

• Kanban

A method of Just-in-Time production that uses standard containers or lot sizes with a single card attached to each. It is a pull system in which work centers signal with a card that they wish to withdraw parts from feeding operations or suppliers. The Japanese word kanban, loosely translated, means card, billboard, or sign but other signaling devices such as colored golf balls, have also been used. The term is often used synonymously for the specific scheduling system developed and used by the Toyota Corporation in Japan.

• Material Planning

The activities and techniques of determining the desired levels of items, whether raw materials, work in process, or finished products including order quantities and safety stock levels.

• Microsoft .Net

This framework allows customizable modules to be programmed in any.Net languages, like C#, C++, or Visual Basic. It supports multi-processor computers, collaborative scheduling over the Internet, or even dial-up connections.

• Multi-Planner

This function allows each planner to have visibility into all schedules. Moreover, the visibility of these online planners allows quick communication through instant messaging between users. It supports any number of simultaneous Master Scheduler, View-Only users, and What-If users.

• Multi-Plant

This function has automatic real-time synchronization of distributed multi-department and multiple plant schedules. Schedules between multiple plants can be coordinated and synchronized with each other. It allows visibility of all schedules from every plant to make planning and scheduling easier for multiple quantity plant schedulers and owners.

• Process Manufacturing

Production that adds value by mixing, separating, forming, and/or performing chemical reactions. It may be done in either batch or continuous mode.

• Real-Time

The technique of coordinating data processing with external related physical events as they occur, thereby permitting prompt reporting of conditions.

• Shop Viewers

They provide shop floor personnel with a live view into the schedule. They can see up to the minute dispatch lists by resource, so they always know what's in their queue, what's coming, and what should be worked on next. They can also report that they've started setting, running a job, or have completed the production. Hours and quantities can be tracked, while updating the schedule in real-time for a truly coordinated production facility.

• Synchronized Production

TA manufacturing management philosophy that includes a consistent set of principles, procedures, and techniques where every action is evaluated in terms of the global goal of the system. Both kanban, which is a part of the JIT philosophy, and drum-buffer-rope, which is a part of the theory of constraints philosophy, represent synchronized production control approaches.

• Throughput

1) The total volume of production through a facility (machine, work center, department, plant, or network of plants). 2) In the theory of constraints, the rate at which the system (firm) generates money through sales. Throughput is a separate concept from output.

• TOC: Theory of Constraints

A management philosophy developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldrattt that can be viewed as three separate but interrelated areas -- logistics, performance measurement, and logical thinking. Logistics includes drum-buffer -rope scheduling, buffer management, and VAT analysis. Performance measurement, includes throughput, inventory and operating expense, and the five focusing steps. Thinking process tools are important in identifying the root problem (current reality tree), identifying and expanding win-win solutions (evaporating cloud and future reality tree), and developing implementation plans (prerequisite tree and transition tree).

• Workload

The amount of planned work scheduled for and actual work released to a facility, work center, or operation for a specific span of time. Usually expressed in terms of standard hours of work or, when items consume similar resources at the same rate, units of production.