Glossary

Backflush — Issuing a step's materials from stock automatically when the step is reported complete, at the BOM quantity times the quantity made.

Bill of materials (BOM) — What goes into one unit of a part, one level down. Multi-level structure emerges from parts having their own BOMs.

Binding constraint — The component that limits how many of an assembly can be built from stock; the one to buy more of first.

Buildable quantity — How many of an assembly could be made from what is on the shelf now: the minimum over stocked components of on hand divided by quantity per.

Cycle counting — Counting a few locations regularly rather than everything once a year. How record accuracy is kept.

Dependent demand — Demand that follows from a decision to build something; calculated, never forecast. Independent demand is what customers want, and must be forecast.

Explosion — Walking a BOM down every level, multiplying quantities through, to find everything a top-level part needs.

Group (workstation group) — A capability: wheel truing, welding, printing. Routing steps name groups.

Lead time — Time from ordering (or starting) to having. On suppliers, sourcing rows, parts and routings, each at its own level.

Ledger — The append-only record of every stock movement. The source of truth for quantities.

Lot sizing — Rules that turn a requirement into an order quantity: minimum order, pack size, batch size.

Master production schedule (MPS) — What you intend to make and when. The input MRP explodes. Not yet a feature here; work orders are its manual form.

MRP — Material Requirements Planning: calculating dependent demand from the MPS through the BOM, netting against stock and open orders, offsetting by lead time.

MRP II — Manufacturing Resource Planning: MRP closed into a loop with capacity (routings, work centres), shop floor control, purchasing and costing.

On order — Quantity on approved or sent purchase orders not yet received. Subtracted before anything is called short.

Phantom — A part with stocked off: built inside a work order and consumed by the next step without being shelved. Explosion passes through it.

Preferred source — The sourcing row replenishment uses by default; one per part.

Reorder point — Minimum stock. At or below it (counting on order) a part is flagged.

Routing — The ordered operations that make one unit of a part, each at a group with times and an optional batch size.

Snapshot — A released work order's copy of the routing at release time, unaffected by later routing edits.

Standard cost — The planning cost of a part in company currency, used for BOM costing; distinct from actual purchase prices.

Station (workstation) — One instance of a group: stand 2, printer 3. Has a status: idle, busy, blocked, offline.

Version — A part sharing category and stock number with another and differing in the last segment; a separate row, so history keeps its meaning.

Work order — An instruction to make N of a part, with steps snapshotted from the routing, materials consumed per step.