Supply Chain Management (SCM): The end-to-end process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption.
Logistics: The management of the flow of goods, services, and information between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet customer requirements.
Inventory Management: The process of efficiently overseeing the constant flow of units into and out of an existing inventory.
Just-In-Time (JIT): A production strategy where items are produced or delivered only as they are needed in the production process, reducing inventory costs.
Lean Manufacturing: A production practice that considers the expenditure of any resources in any aspect other than the direct production of goods as wasteful and thus a target for elimination.
Capacity Planning: The process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products.
Quality Control (QC): A process that ensures that products meet the specified standards and customer expectations.
Six Sigma: A set of techniques and tools for process improvement, aiming to improve process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Metrics used to evaluate the success of an organization or a particular activity in which it engages.
Operations Management: The administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization.
Process Improvement: The proactive task of identifying, analyzing, and improving existing business processes within an organization for optimization and to meet new quotas or standards of quality.
Bottleneck: A point of congestion in a system that occurs when workloads arrive too quickly for the processing capacity to handle.
Lead Time: The amount of time it takes for a product to be designed, ordered, manufactured, and delivered.
Outsourcing: The practice of contracting out certain business functions or processes to a third-party service provider.
Kaizen: A Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “continuous improvement,” often used in the context of improving processes and increasing efficiency.
