 | Term | Definition |
| |
production |
the creation of finished goods and services using the factors of production: land, labor capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge |
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production management |
the term used to describe all the activities managers do to help their firms create goods |
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operations management |
a specialized area in management that converts or transforms resources (including human resources) into goods and services |
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form utility |
the value added by the creation of finished goods and services, such as the value added by taking silicon and making computer chips or putting services together to create a vacation package |
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process manufacturing |
that part of the procuction process that physically or chemically changes materials |
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assembly process |
that part of the production process that puts together components |
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continuous process |
a production process in which long production runs turn out finished goods over time |
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intermittent process |
a production process in which the production run is short and the machines are changed frequently to make diffeerent products |
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compute-aided design (CAD) |
the use of computers in the design of products |
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computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) |
the use of computers in the manufacturing of products |
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computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) |
the uniting of computer-aided design with computer-aided manufacturing |
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flexible manufacturing |
designing machines to do multiple tasks so that they can produce a variety of products |
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lean manufacturing |
the production of goods using less of everything compared to mass production |
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mass customization |
tailoring products to meet the needs of individual customers |
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facility location |
the process of selecting a geographic location for a company's operations |
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facility layout |
the physical arrangement of resources (including people) in the production process |
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materials requirement planning (MRP) |
a computer-based production management system that uses sales forecasts to make sure that needed parts and materials are available at the right time and place |
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enterprise resource planning (ERP) |
a computer application that enables multiple firms to manage all of their operations (finance, requirments planning, human resources, and order fulfillment) on the basis of a single, integrated set of corporate data |
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purchasing |
the function in a firm that searches for quality material resources, finds the best suppliers, and negotiates the best price for goods and services |
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just-in-time (JIT) inventory control |
a production process in which a minimum of inventory is kept on the premises and parts, supplies, and other needs are delivered just in time to go on the assembly line |
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quality |
consistently producing what the customer wants while reducing errors before and after delivery to the customer |
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six sigma quality |
a quality measure that allows only 3.4 defects per million opportunities |
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statistical quality control (SQC) |
the process some mangers use to continually monitor all phases of the production process to assure that quality is being built into the product from the beginning |
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statistical process control (SPC) |
the process of taking statistical samples of product components at each stage of the production process and plotting those results on a graph. any variances from quality standards are recognized and can be corrected if beyond the set standards |
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ISO 9000 |
the common name given to quality management and assurance standards |
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ISO 14000 |
a collection of the best practices for manageing an organizations impact on the environment |
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program evaluation and review technique (PERT) |
a method for analyzing the tasks involved in the completing a given project, estimating hte time needed to complete each task, and identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project |
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critical path |
in a PERT network, the sequence of tasks that takes the longest time to complete |
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Gantt chart |
bar chart showing production managers what projects are being worked on and what stage they are in at any given time |
