The most current state of systems for simultaneous planning of material and capacity resources and support of real-time planning.
The implementation of processes and tools that allow an organization to work more effectively by providing an efficient transfer of information between different applications, data sources, and platforms.
Technologically, integration of technology-assisted selling, marketing, customer service, and field service applications in ways that will strengthen ability to capture, retain, and grow customers.
The discipline of developing and managing processes and supporting information across an organization.
A philosophy of production that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and dealing with the customers. Lean producers employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety.
In an industrial context, the art and science of obtaining, producing, and distributing material and product in the proper place and in proper quantities.
The planning and coordination of the physical movement aspects of a firm’s operations such that a flow of raw materials, parts, and finished goods is achieved in a manner that minimizes total costs for the levels of service desired.
A term used generally to indicate that a process is well controlled, i.e., tolerance limits are ±6 sigma from the centerline in a control chart. The term is generally associated with Motorola, which named one of its key operational initiatives Six-Sigma Quality.
1) The processes from the initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product linking across supplier-user companies. 2) The functions inside and outside a company that enable the value chain to make products and provide services to the customer.
The planning, organizing, and controlling of supply chain activities.
A management philosophy developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt that can be viewed as three separate but interrelated areas—logistics, performance measurement, and logical thinking. Logistics include 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).
A term coined to describe Japanese-style management approaches to quality improvement. Since then, total quality management (TQM) has taken on many meanings. Simply put, TQM is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. TQM is based on the participation of all members of an organization in improving processes, goods, services, and the culture in which they work. The methods for implementing this approach are found in the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa, J.M. Juran, and Genichi Taguchi.