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| machine automatic time |
The time is takes for a machine to produce one unit, not including the manual time to load and unload. |
| machine center |
A work center composed of a set of machines that process a common group of products and is considered as a single resource for routing definition and capacity planning. |
| machine cycle time |
The time it takes for a machine to produce one unit, including the manual time it takes to load and unload. |
| machine hours |
The actual time recorded by a machine when used for production, and used in efficiency and utilization calculations. |
| machine load report |
A report of demand for a given machine or machine center by production orders released to the floor, that normally compares load and capacity in terms of hours or units, and identifies the orders creating the demand. |
| machine utilization |
The measure of machine hours recorded against production vs. the hours available or scheduled for a given period. |
| machine vision |
Systems that use video cameras, robots or other devices, and computers to visually analyze an operation or activity. Typical uses include automated inspection, optical character recognition and other non-contact applications. |
| machine work |
Work that is done by a machine. The time it takes to do machine work can overlap with manual work, if the machine is manually operated. |
| macro plan |
A high-level project or other plan that identifies only major milestones and dates and does not include detailed tasks and activities. |
| maintenance costs |
1)The costs incurred to support and ensure continued availability of an asset, such as scheduled and unscheduled repairs and support staff. 2) In software agreements the annual fees paid to the vendor that allows ongoing use of the system. |
| maintenance scheduling |
The process used to track actual maintenance history, monitor equipment status and schedule expected maintenance prior to the occurrence of a problem. It should be integrated with the systems used to plan future resource availability and indicate projected downtime. |
| maintenance, repair, operating (MRO) items |
Items such as maintenance supplies, equipment repair parts, etc. that support the operating process and are not issued to production orders or included in product standard cost. |
| make to stock (MTS) |
A manufacturing method in which finished goods are produced and stocked prior to receipt of a customer order. It uses a forecast based on past demand history to initiate production of end items when inventory has fallen below desired levels, instead of waiting until a final quantity and configuration is described on a customer order. |
| make/buy analysis |
The process that analyzes tradeoffs in costs and benefits between internal production of a given item vs. purchasing it from a vendor. It includes identification of true product costs, the impact of fixed overhead, facility capacity considerations, vendor capability and stability and other factors. |
| make to order (MTO) |
A manufacturing method in which commonly-used raw materials and components may be stocked based on previous demand history, but further processing into higher-level items is not done until receipt of a customer order. Variability in customer demand will not allow stocking upper-level assemblies and major subsystems or modules prior to receipt of an order, as done in assemble to order (ATO) environments. |
| Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award |
Annual awards by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that recognize quality system achievements in manufacturing and services organizations. |
| man-hour |
The period of time measured by a single person working for one hour. Standard man-hours specify the amount of time normally expected to be used in a process or operation, based on estimation or past history. |
| manual reschedule |
To change the expected date of an open production, purchase or interplant order by a planner or other person, based on a suggestion from MRP or other information. It requires a review process that evaluates the effect of moving the initial date, and increases reaction time while allowing for more control than a process in which MRP or other system suggestions for reschedules are automatically performed. |
| manual work |
Work that is done by people, without the aid of machinery. The human tasks of operating or loading machines can also be called manual work. |
| manufacturability |
The characteristics considered in the design cycle that focus on process capabilities, machine or facility flexibility, and the overall ability to consistently produce at the required quality level instead of product elegance. |
| manufacturing calendar |
syn: shop calendar. |
| manufacturing database |
syn: production database. |
| manufacturing environment |
The overall set of factors that influence planning, scheduling and strategic production decisions which include type and timing of demand, product and process complexity, physical product form, logistics and vendor capabilities, and internal functional capabilities. Describing the overall environment often includes the response to demand (to stock or to order), physical facility layout (job shop, production line, cell, batch processing or other) and methods and requirements used in planning and scheduling (discrete, repetitive or process). Many companies have characteristics of more than one environment. |
| manufacturing execution system (MES) |
A production scheduling and tracking system used to analyze and report resource availability and status, schedule and update orders, collect detailed execution data such as material usage, labor usage, process parameters, order and equipment status, and other critical information. It accesses bill of material, routing and other data from the base ERP system and is typically the system used for real-time shop floor reporting and monitoring that feeds activity data back to the base system. |
| manufacturing instructions |
The detailed process parameters and operating data required for a specific production operation, which may include both basic production rate data and detailed engineering specifications and notes. |
| manufacturing lead time |
The total length of time used to process raw materials and components through all upper levels in the bill of material into an end item. It specifies the total of all individual elements of lead time such as order preparation, queue, setup, run, inspection, etc. used and indicates a projected availability date for an end item if all lowest level raw material is on-hand. |
| manufacturing order |
Syn: production order. |
| manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) |
The extension of closed-loop MRP that includes and integrates financial and simulation systems. It includes all organizational functions related to long-term strategic and business planning, demand planning, materials planning, resource planning, and production and vendor scheduling and execution. It assumes the use of a base, integrated system and the sharing of a common database and operating parameters by all functions and departments. |
| manufacturing system |
In an ERP system, the functions and modules used to identify and plan demand and materials, analyze resource availability and requirements, and schedule, release and report production. |
| margin exception reporting |
Features in order entry systems that compare line item prices to standard costs and flag instances that violate a predefined margin percentage. |
| margin for error |
An allowance built into a system or process that provides for continued operation or a successful outcome even with less-than-perfect results. |
| marginal cost |
syn: incremental cost. |
| market segment |
The geographic, demographic or other customer classification targeted by an organization for the purchase and use of its products and services. |
| market share |
The percent of a given market sold to or owned by a company out of the whole as a result of its success in marketing effectiveness, product characteristics, pricing, cost, delivery time, quality and many other factors. Market share is affected by the type of industry and number of competitors, and can indicate the stage of a product's life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity, decline). |
| marketing automation |
A subset of customer relationship management (CRM) functions that focuses on the definition, scheduling and tracking of marketing campaigns. It includes the identification of target markets, advertising delivery, budget definition, results analysis and other related activities. |
| marketing campaign |
A specific, defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product or service, or in using new marketing channels and methods. Like a promotion, the future estimated effects of a new marketing campaign must be included in demand and resource planning. |
| mass production |
Large volume production of the same basic product or product line based on the type and timing of demand and facility design and capabilities, which can be for either finished goods or lower level items. |
| master black belt |
In the six sigma quality improvement methodology, a person who teaches and mentors black belt leaders. |
| master file |
A database file, often created manually as needed, that contains static records used to identify items, customers, vendors, bills of material, work centers, etc. as opposed to files used to track the dynamic status of orders and inventory balances. |
| master production schedule (MPS) |
The schedule of manufactured items usually created to fill 'outside' demand from forecasts, customer orders and interplant orders that specifies the exact item numbers, dates and quantities for production but is not in itself a production order to be released to the floor. It considers the high-level production plan and rough cut capacity availability, and aligns with management targets for linearity and permissible level of changes. Once accepted, the MPS specifies the date and quantity requirements used by MRP to explode demand through the bill of materials. While most often for end items, variations of MPS allow planning critical lower levels such as major subassemblies based on a forecast that is then consumed by customer orders for finished goods that require those subassemblies. The MPS is the main driver for the rest of the planning and scheduling system, and the level of success in attaining a realistic MPS often indicates how well the other detailed parts of the system function. |
| master scheduling |
The process of reviewing a proposed MPS, comparing to stated higher-level production plan, resource availability and management parameters, and firming it and releasing to the rest of the system. The frequency of regenerating and reviewing the MPS, typically weekly, depends on the industry, process flexibility, forecast accuracy and many other factors. |
| material |
1) The raw materials and purchased components used in the production of other items 2) The classification of any lower level item, whether purchased or manufactured. A subassembly that has material, labor and overhead content may be considered strictly as material in the context of being used in an upper level item. |
| material planner |
A person whose focus is the review, release and follow-up of purchase or production orders and inventory status vs. plan, instead of detailed scheduling of production facilities. |
| material requirements planning (MRP) |
The process that uses the MPS as demand, explodes the bill of material for specified MPS items, nets those requirements against on-hand inventory and existing open orders, and recommends placing new production and purchase orders and changes to existing orders based on parameters that consider safety stock levels, lot sizes and lead times. It is based on the idea of dependent demand (demand for an item is due to its usage in other items) and starts at the highest level in the bill of material, stopping at the first level where the quantity of inventory plus incoming receipts is adequate to meet demand and it is not necessary to send a requirement to the next lower level. While sometimes considered complex due to many levels in the bill of material or a large number of items, MRP in general is just a calculator and depends completely on the accuracy of the MPS, bills of material and order date and quantity information to be useful. |
| material review board (MRB) |
A cross-functional group that reviews production or purchased items on hold due to usability concerns and determines their disposition, which may include rework, scrap, or returning to the vendor. |
| material safety data sheets (MSDS) |
A document used for the manufacture and import of hazardous material that specifies its substances and properties and associated health and safety hazards. It details control and safe handling methods, expiration dates or other timing constraints. |
| material usage variance |
The variance generated by using a lesser or greater actual quantity of the standard material than specified in producing a given item (which is different than a substitution variance created by using items different than the ones on the standard bill of material ). |
| material-intensive |
A product or product line that has a higher content of material and a corresponding lower level of labor when compared to other products. A material-intensive product often contains high-value components that require minimal labor or further processing to create the finished item. |
| materials handling systems |
Equipment that moves items between required locations on either a programmed (automatic) or manually-initiated basis. They sometimes perform weighing and other measurement functions, are designed specifically for the products to be handled, and include conveyors, pick and placement systems, and other dedicated equipment. |
| materials management |
The organizational functions responsible for the planning, sourcing, stocking and logistics activities of materials used in the internal and external fulfillment of demand. |
| matrix bill of material |
A composite bill of material that displays and summarizes the usage for components in a given set of parent items in the form of a matrix. |
| maximum capacity |
The most capacity that can be obtained from a given resource, as opposed to its planned or demonstrated capacity (as in a machine normally operated 10 hours a day with a maximum capacity of 24 hours/day). Sometimes used in what-if planning for stress or volume testing. |
| maximum on-order |
A specified limit for the total dollar sum of open orders for a given customer or vendor that is checked by the system at entry time, and may prevent acceptance of the order. |
| MBNQA |
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. |
| mean absolute deviation (MAD) |
The sum of the absolute value of error or deviation from an expected value, divided by the number of data points. Often used as a base measure of forecast accuracy. |
| mean |
The average of a set of numeric values, as calculated by summing the individual values and dividing by the number of values in the set. |
| mean time between failures (MTBF) |
A quality and maintenance measure of the average time between failures for a resource or product, that cause them to be unusable. |
| measured variable |
1. The physical quantity, property, or condition which is to be measured. Common measured variables are temperatures, pressure, rate of flow, thickness, speed, etc. 2. The pan of the process that is monitored to determine the actual condition of the controlled variable. |
| measurement control system |
Set of interrelated or interacting elements necessary to achieve metrological confirmation and continual control of measurement processes. |
| measurement process |
Set of operations to determine the value of a quantity. |
| measuring equipment |
Measuring instrument, software, measurement standard, reference material or auxiliary apparatus or combination thereof necessary to realize a measurement process. |
| median |
The middle value in a group of ranked values that has an equal number of values both above and below it. It indicates the centerline of a distribution, while the mean, or average, can be skewed by a single high or low value. |
| message filter |
A function in planning systems that suppresses the generation of an exception message based on a date, quantity, dollar or other parameter in order to reduce the overall message volume and focus on those with higher severity levels. For example, the filter might indicate that unless a production order needs to be rescheduled in by at least three days, the message is not generated. |
| metrics |
A standard or basis of measurement, such as cost, size, volume, etc. |
| metrological characteristic |
Distinguishing feature which can influence the results of measurement. |
| metrological confirmation |
Set of operations required to ensure that measuring equipment conforms to the requirements for its intended use. |
| metrological function |
Function with organizational responsibility for defining and implementing the measurement control system. |
| milestone |
A key event that defines the end of a phase or reaching a target or goal. Project management systems normally define milestones as activities with a zero duration. |
| milk run |
The combination of shipments from multiple vendors in close geographic proximity into one shipment received by the customer, normally done for a defined route on a recurring basis. |
| minimum inventory level |
The lowest desired amount of inventory, used by planning systems to generate replenishments that will keep projected on-hand at that level or higher. |
| minimum order quantity |
The order quantity used as the minimum for a planned order, even if the lot size rule calculated a smaller amount. |
| min-max ordering |
A replenishment and inventory management system that sets a minimum inventory level, used to trigger a reorder when the available plus incoming receipt total is less than the min. The amount of the order is the difference between the calculated (less than min) inventory and a predefined max. Min-max systems are typically not time-phased. |
| miscellaneous issue |
An issue from stock for a non-production use, such as marketing samples, engineering test, etc. that is usually charged to that department and not included in demand history calculations. |
| mixed-mode manufacturing |
An environment that uses a combination of discrete, repetitive or process manufacturing instead of only one type. A company may produce major lower level subassemblies in high volumes using repetitive, schedule-based techniques while using a discrete production order-based method to conduct final assembly operations for specific customer orders. |
| mixed effects model |
Contains elements of both the fixed and random effects models. |
| mixed-model production |
A scheduling technique that uses the goal of making every product every day and only when required by demand, as opposed to large runs of individual items that will stay in stock for a period of time. It normally requires operating flexibility, short lead times and small lot sizes. |
| model |
A system that describes or predicts an associated process based on the definition of variables, rules and equations. A properly-defined model enables analyzing the possible effects of changes in the underlying process based on changes in the model. |
| modification |
1) A one-time change to a standard bill of material or routing for a specific production order 2) The addition of custom programming code to a standard software system to create or enhance a specific function. |
| modular bill of material |
A bill of material used for products configured from many possible combinations of modules, or options. It normally contains a group of common components always used that do not have to be chosen, feature categories (such as monitor size) that represent a part of the product to be configured, and options within the feature (such as 15", 17", 19") that are the actual subassemblies or components to be used. Often used in ATO environments. |
| modularity |
The degree to which a system of programs is developed in relatively independent components, some of which may be eliminated if a reduced version of the program is acceptable. |
| Monte Carlo simulation |
A method that estimates possible outcomes from a set of random variables by simulating a process a large number of times and observing the outcomes. |
| move time |
The portion of total lead time an item is being moved from one department or operation to another. |
| moving average |
The average of the last 'x' number of numerical values out of a set that contains a larger number of historical values. A six-month simple moving average forecast is the average of the demand from the previous six periods; with each new period the last period is added and the oldest period deleted before recalculating the new average. |
| MRB |
Material review board |
| MSA |
Measurement System Analysis |
| MTBF |
Mean time between failures |
| muda |
The Japanese term for waste. |
| multilevel backflush |
A system that backflushes multiple levels of components based on the production of a parent item, instead of just the immediate lower level (a single level backflush). When the parent is produced, its components are backflushed and for component that is a manufactured item, it is automatically produced by the system which then proceeds to backflush the next level components of that item. It enables the entry of fewer transactions but may create issues with lead time and lot tracking. |
| multilevel bill of material |
A bill of material that contains multiple successive levels, with the top level typically coded as level 0, its immediate components as level 1, and so on. It can be used to track all requirements and costs involved in producing a parent item down to the lowest-level purchased parts. |
| multilevel master production schedule |
A version of MPS that allows the master scheduling (and thus forecasts and customer orders) of any level in the bill of material, instead of just the top-level items. Lower level items may be master scheduled if they are critical subassemblies, or if the completion of that item constitutes the bulk of the lead time and cost and requires only minor labor or material additions to turn into a finished product (adding language labels or instructions to an otherwise-finished product). |
| multiloop control |
A control scheme that incorporates more than one feedback loop in order to ensure more precise control. |
| multi-machine handling |
When a machine operator is running more than one machine of a certain type, this is called multi-machine handling. |
| multiple company |
Systems and software used for multiple, separate organizations or financial entities within a larger organization. While using the same base system, each company may set different system parameters. |
| multiple currency |
Financial systems that allow orders and transactions to use more than one currency, and use exchange rate tables to perform conversions and revaluations into a base currency when specified. |
| multiple regression |
An equation or analysis where two or more independent (predictor) variables affect the dependent variable. |
| multiple units of measure |
The use of more than one unit of measure for a given item for orders and transactions. A given item may be internally stocked in units but entered on customer orders in cases, packs or some other measure. Conversion tables translate all requirements into a base measure for planning, scheduling and inventory valuation. |
| multipoint-to-multipoint |
A communications or logistics network in which each element can directly link to all others, and is not restricted to a specific path or set of links. |
| multi-process handling |
When a machine operator is doing tasks for multiple processes sequentially, and this is contributing the flow of material, it is called multi-process handling. |
| multi-user |
A system or program designed to accommodate simultaneous use by multiple users, and protects against duplication, override or corruption of data when the same records or resources are accessed. |
| mura |
Variations and variability in work method or the output of a process. |
| muri |
Exertion, overworking (a person or machine), unreasonableness. |
