Resources

Glossary

267 definitions from transport, logistics and trade software. The vocabulary our customers use every day, and that we use with them.

267 entries

52

5M method: An approach to identifying and representing the causes of malfunction in carrying out activities. Using the Ishikawa method and diagram, which show the links between causes and their effects simply, the 5M method rests on a classification of five families of possible causes: materials, environment, methods, machinery and manpower.
5S method: It aims essentially at eliminating waste through five steps. Seiri means clearing workstations of everything that is not useful, deciding precisely what can stay, what must be kept but moved, and what can be removed. Seiton aims to eliminate everything that lengthens a task and to put simple solutions in place to avoid wasted time. Seiso means cleaning the workstation, again to avoid losing time and to reduce risks to the products. Seiketsu is the step that embeds the new behaviours by writing down simple rules, accessible and understandable by all. Shitsuke covers monitoring, through indicators, how the rules defined in the previous steps are applied and what they produce, in a logic of continuous improvement.

A13

Advanced Based ManagementAOM: Software application providing administrative processing and the management of orders and promotions.
Advanced Planning and SchedulingAPS: A software package that plans the physical flows of the supplier-producer pair from the data generated by each of the parties involved.
Application Services ProviderASP: An activity consisting of renting software applications online, offering various services provided by the software publisher or the IT services company, supporting the deployment and use of the application on offer.
Available To OrderATO: Determines whether an order can be delivered given the stock available, or even the replenishment lead times. It is the exact combination of CTP (Capable To Promise) and ATP (Available To Promise).
Available To PromiseATP: Allows the future availability of references to be projected, taking into account the changes caused by a specific order. A very useful function, since it makes it possible to commit, or not, to serving a customer in the light of current events.
Automated Guided VehicleAGV: A handling machine that moves loads using an automatic guidance system. There are two guidance systems: wire guidance and laser guidance. The on-board computer manages the internal functions of the machine such as guidance, tool control, safety and communication, which takes place by radio with the control centre.
ABC classification: A method of classifying products, used in inventory management, based on three classes. Class A groups 10 to 20% of items representing around 80% of stock value, for which specific management methods are put in place. Class B groups 15 to 20% of items representing around 15% of the value. Class C covers the remaining items, between 60% and 75% of references, whose value is around 5% and which are therefore monitored less closely.
Activity-Based CostingABC: A costing method based on the notion of process, which holds that the cost of a good, a service or a product/service pair is the sum of the costs of the activities making up that process. It gives better traceability of overheads and fits into the management of the logistics process and related activities through Activity-Based Management (ABM).
Activity-Based ManagementABM: A management approach based on identifying and optimising processes, defined as a set of interconnected activities.
Alert stock level: The threshold which, when reached, must trigger an order.
Automated materials handling: Refers to any physical operation carried out using an automatic handling or storage system.
Accompanied transport: A technique that consists of loading a complete road vehicle and its driver onto another mode of transport. It was originally used to cross natural obstacles.
Alternative-fuel vehicles: Vehicles running on an alternative fuel. In urban logistics, many alternative vehicles are used in place of traditional light commercial vehicles: small electric, natural-gas or hybrid trucks, vehicles running on biofuels, cargo tricycles and electrically assisted bicycles.

B6

Batch picking and allocation: A specific order preparation method that consists of picking all the items of a single reference or a single storage zone before allocating them to orders being built up, such as pallets or roll cages. It differs from wave picking in that, with batch allocation, several pickers work on one and the same customer order.
Benchmarking: A learning approach that consists of observing and analysing how certain processes are run by a company from a different sector but with similar problems. In practice, benchmarking means comparing the performance achieved by the organisation on a specific process — express freight, for example — with that of the leader in its own field.
Business Process ReengineeringBRP: A pragmatic approach to reorganising an organisation's activities, based on analysing and identifying the processes that have an impact on strategic objectives.
Bullwhip effect: A mechanism by which information is distorted along a supply chain, causing the players upstream to react ever more strongly. It shows up as ever larger stocks held by suppliers, who sometimes over-interpret small variations at consumer level.
Basic handling standardsSMB: A method for calculating how long a logistics operation takes an operator or a handling machine. It breaks handling activities down into elementary tasks with standard, pre-established average execution times set by the French IFTIM. The sum of these times gives the basic operating time, from which the actual operating time is calculated, taking into account the difficulties or slowdowns inherent in travel (a travel or driving index), and then the execution time, which allows for the fatigue caused by repetitive tasks (a fatigue coefficient). An operator engagement rate then gives the time allowed for a set of tasks (execution time divided by the engagement rate).
Bulk stock: The area of a warehouse in which goods are stored, after receipt, before being transferred gradually to the picking stock as demand requires.

C23

Carbon footprint assessment: A diagnostic method that consists of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from readily available data, in order to arrive at a sound evaluation of the direct and indirect emissions caused by an activity. It applies to any activity: industrial or service companies, public bodies, local authorities, and even the territory they manage. For companies, several approaches are possible. The internal approach covers emissions directly linked to the production process and to heating the premises. The intermediate approach widens the assessment to include, on top of internal emissions, those produced by the energy suppliers the company buys from, as well as those linked to the movement of goods internally (production logistics) and towards customers (distribution logistics), and to the work-related travel of employees and customers. The global approach covers the emissions linked to all the activities, entities and companies making up the supply chain.
Capable To PromiseCTP: This method determines whether an order can be delivered given manufacturing lead times. It projects, under the constraints of the production chain, the response to a given demand.
Carry Across: A production method consisting of reusing components, modules or production lines already used for a different finished product, without modifying them. It limits development costs.
Carry Over: A production method consisting of reusing components, modules or production lines already used for a different finished product, adapting them to the new context. It limits development costs.
Category Management: A collaborative approach between a manufacturer and a retailer to manage sets of products or services that are heterogeneous but regarded as complementary by the consumer.
Certificate of competence to operate handling equipment safelyCACES: The French CACES validates a person's ability to apply the safety rules governing forklift operation, to carry out the handling operations required and to perform routine maintenance on the equipment. The certificate has six categories according to the equipment used. Category 1: ride-on pallet trucks and ground-level order pickers (lift under 1 metre). Category 2: tow tractors and platform trucks. Category 3: counterbalance forklifts with a capacity up to 6,000 kg (with additional training for truck-mounted forklifts). Category 4: counterbalance forklifts with a capacity above 6,000 kg (with additional training for special trucks). Category 5: reach trucks (with additional training for special trucks). Category 6: transport, movement, loading, unloading and testing (driving outside production).
Co-manufacturing and co-production: Collaboration between several companies aiming to draw on the specific skills of each in order to make a final product together. It covers everything from product design to manufacture and assembly. These value-added operations are sometimes entrusted to logistics service providers, particularly when they fit into the handling of the flows already entrusted to them. It may therefore be pre-manufacturing, during the supply phase, or post-manufacturing, during the shipping or distribution phases.
Co-packing: A packaging operation, most often carried out by the logistics provider in a dedicated area, which consists of assembling different products, or identical products, under a single pack.
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and ReplenishmentCPFR: A framework for exchanging information on product sell-through between partner companies, and forecasting it, so that they can synchronise their operating plans. The approach also includes the flow of information from upstream to downstream, so that manufacturing constraints are taken into account.
Completely Knocked DownCKD: A production method that consists of manufacturing an industrial product without carrying out final assembly. The parts produced are grouped in crates corresponding to one finished product before being shipped to an assembly plant.
Continuous Acquisition and Life cycle SupportCALS: An approach that traces and optimises product flows from design through to end of life.
Continuous Replenishment ProgramCRP: A collaborative inventory management approach between manufacturers and retailers. Through an agreed continuous replenishment programme, the two partners exchange order and stock movement information by EDI so that the supplier can replenish the retailer's warehouses. On the same model, inventory management can be entrusted to a third party, that is to a logistics service provider.
Conveyor: A continuous handling system, powered or not, that moves individual logistics units — from parcel to pallet — using various techniques such as belts, chains or rollers.
Cross-docking: An approach to reducing stock while preserving on-shelf availability, either by breaking down batches at the retailer's platform (intermediate handling cross-docking) or by having the manufacturer build store-ready packs (pre-packed cross-docking) before re-consolidation store by store.
Customer Relationship ManagementCRM: Customer relationship management is an approach to customer loyalty supported by human, technological and financial resources, allowing all the data relating to a customer or a prospect to be kept, updated and interpreted, marketing tasks to be automated, and relationships with consumers to be managed.
Customisation: An approach that consists of designing a solution specific to a customer's expectations for carrying out one or more commercial, production or logistics operations, and of designing a bespoke logistics organisation.
Computerised form interchangeEFI: An IT solution intended to make EDI technology more accessible. The device sends and receives EDI messages over the internet and converts the coded data into forms through a viewing program.
Chequerboard layout: An arrangement of a picking zone based on alternating goods with different characteristics, which notably reduces the error rate during picking.
Concurrent engineering: It consists of mobilising all the resources needed for delivery simultaneously, from the design stage and throughout the project. Concurrent engineering thus differs from more traditional sequential approaches.
Cycle stock: The quantity of products received at each delivery and entirely consumed during the period.
Continuous handling system: Handling equipment, automated or not, whose essential function is to move individual loads. It may consist of conveyors, transfer cars, turntables, lifts and lowerators, pallet stackers and destackers, sorting machines, accumulators and so on.
Combined transport: A technique that consists of carrying goods door to door using several modes of transport. The goods are loaded into intermodal transport units that make transhipment easier.
Consumer unit: The elementary packaging of a product, corresponding to the unit a consumer can buy separately.

D8

Distribution channel: A group of companies acting in sequence to transfer products or services from a producer to the end customer. A distinction is usually drawn between the transactional channel, covering commercial exchanges between the partners, and the logistics channel, covering the physical operations.
Data mining: A software application that automatically structures, analyses and interprets the data held in the data warehouse so as to obtain value-adding information to feed the company's decision-making process.
Data warehousing: An information system for the overall storage of management data of various formats and origins, generally including an interpretation application for data mining.
Dispatching: An activity that consists of distributing the elements of a single set to different destinations. One speaks of dispatching the orders to be picked among several pickers, and of dispatching the parcels of a pallet to various storage locations.
Distribution logistics: All the activities whose purpose is to make available, within the lead times the customer or end consumer wants and on the best cost terms, the required references and quantities of finished products. Carrying out this process implies defining a distribution policy.
Distribution Requirements PlanningDRP: A planning method that determines the quantities to be moved to each warehouse or distribution point from the forecast local demand, then works back up the chain to derive the resulting requirements at the central warehouse and in production. It is the distribution-side counterpart of material requirements planning.
Direct Product Profitability: A method originally developed in the 1960s for grocery products, which consists of estimating the cost of moving a product through the various links of the supply chain. It is in effect an assessment of each product's contribution to profitability. From the gross margin per product are deducted the handling, warehousing, transport and labour costs directly attributable to it.
Double-deep racking: Racking with two storage rows in depth. This configuration means moving the load at the front of the lane in order to reach the one in the second row, or allows the second row to hold the pallets used to replenish the picking zone in the first row.

E19

E-“X”: The application of a given activity or process “X” to the field of electronic exchange. For example, e-logistics refers to the logistics solutions put in place for e-commerce.
E-procurement: An approach to managing purchasing and supply using internet technologies. It is initially developed by a single company but can evolve towards a shared model within marketplaces.
EAN-128 — trade unit coding: A barcode symbol identifying the ordering, delivery and invoicing unit between trading partners. EAN-128 is the code used in inventory and warehouse management. A trade unit (or logistics unit) identified by an EAN-128 contains several consumer units identified by an EAN-13.
EAN-13 — consumer unit coding: A barcode symbol identifying the product intended for the end user or consumer. EAN-13 is the code found on the product on the shelf.
Eco-design: An approach that takes account, from the research and development phase onwards, of reducing the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle. Using more environmentally friendly materials and reducing the consumption of resources and harmful discharges are at the heart of it. Within this framework, eco-logistics is concerned both with designing sustainable chains and with re-engineering existing ones, in particular by reducing the environmental impact of warehousing and transport throughout the product's life cycle.
Eco-driving: Eco-driving is a style of driving that promotes measured and appropriate use of the vehicle's mechanical systems in order to limit fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while keeping the journey safe. Training driving staff in eco-driving is an increasingly widespread initiative within sustainable logistics programmes.
EDIFACT / EANCOM: A standard communication language used in EDI exchanges.
Efficient Consumer ResponseECR: Efficient consumer response is a cooperative approach between manufacturers and retailers whose aim is to increase customer satisfaction while improving the economic performance of the companies taking part. ECR seeks to optimise the range carried by outlets and to improve the performance of promotional activity, drawing on specific techniques and tools: modes of communication, management systems, activity-based costing.
Electronic Data InterchangeEDI: The exchange of formatted data between the different applications of partners' computer systems, computer to computer. The exchange rests on common languages and on the use of telecommunication links.
Electronic Product Code: A unique electronic code identifying an object. It may, for example, be the information sent by an RFID tag in order to guarantee the object's traceability. The principle is to create for each object a code combining two identifications: by product reference, and individually by adding a serial number. The radio-frequency tag, standardised in this way, contains only the object's unique identifier, which is used to retrieve information from the databases associated with it.
Ecological footprint: In order to assess the environmental impact of human activity, the ecological footprint is an indicator that estimates the land area needed to meet human needs, given the way of life and the resource intensity of each unit of goods and services. It takes into account built-up areas, forest, fishing grounds, grassland and pasture, cultivated land, and the areas needed to absorb the CO2 from burning fossil fuels and to absorb, store and treat waste.
Enterprise Application IntegrationEAI: Tools and methods that establish exchanges between applications not originally designed to communicate. Working from a model of the exchanges between applications, EAI translates the data so that the receiving application can use it and routes it correctly, notably through middleware. Originally developed in-house to make the applications of a company's information system talk to each other, the term now also covers software developed for business-to-business use that makes applications belonging to different partners' information systems communicate over the internet using XML.
Enterprise Resource PlanningERP: A software application that integrates all the information flows relating to the management of the company's various functions.
Electronic document managementGED: A way of managing documents that replaces physical, manual handling with computerised handling, giving better traceability and circulation of information. Supported by data warehousing and data mining applications, electronic document management is an essential support for integrated logistics support and, more generally, for project management.
Euro emission standard: A European standard setting maximum pollution levels in g/km. Applied in stages — Euro 1 to Euro 6, the latter applicable from 2014 — it has considerably reduced emissions.
Electronic marketplace: An electronic communication platform that lets companies communicate with their partners, notably in order to increase their commercial transactions and optimise their economic performance. Three types are generally distinguished. Vertical marketplaces may bring together all the players in a sector, such as the producers, distributors and intermediaries of food, textiles or chemicals. Horizontal marketplaces may group companies at the same level of the value chain and in the same sector, such as all the retailers. Cross-sector or public marketplaces are open to any type of company whatever its sector, such as a marketplace grouping companies specialising in MRO products.
Economic order quantity: A method for calculating, from the demand estimated for a given period, the size of a batch to release into production or to order from a supplier. The calculation takes into account the costs of holding stock, the cost of placing the order, stockout costs and any terms in the supply contract such as discounts based on batch size. The aim is to minimise the total cost of supply.
Environmental management system: A management approach that lets companies, within ISO 14001 certification, define, implement and monitor the actions taken to control the environmental impact of their activities.
EAN-UCC system: A set of automatic identification tools that make exchanges between manufacturers and retailers easier, distributed in various countries through national member organisations.

F8

Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality AnalysisAMDEC: Following the military procedure MIL-P-1629, FMECA consists of identifying and ranking the possible causes of failure of a product or a complex system from the moment it is designed, according to their criticality. This makes it possible to eliminate or reduce the potential effects of failure causes affecting components or manufacturing processes.
Forklift truck: A versatile machine for handling logistics units, often fitted with forks or with more sophisticated attachments for specific handling work. These machines can be automated and move without a driver.
Feeder: Smaller vessels serving secondary ports not called at directly by the large liner ships.
Feedering: Maritime service operated by feeders between the ports called at directly by the large liner ships and smaller ports. It is generally short sea shipping.
First Expired, First OutFEFO: A method of physical stock management that consists of issuing products according to their use-by date. Depending on the stores' requirements for the minimum number of days remaining between delivery to the store and the use-by date of the products to be delivered, a picking deadline is set in the warehouse.
First In, First OutFIFO: A method of accounting valuation of stock issues that consists of taking items out in the order in which they came in. It leads to a notional separation of batches on the stock record and, in a period of inflation, to lower issue costs and therefore inflated analytical results.
Flowcasting: An approach to the overall control of supply chain flows, based on so-called atomic sales forecasting, produced from till receipts by SKU and by store over a twelve-month period. Collaborative control of the supply chain, developed within pooled replenishment programmes, is thus no longer limited to a shared forecast built on data aggregated at distribution warehouse level, but rests on actual sales store by store. By making sales forecasts more reliable over a twelve-month horizon, this method improves the overall performance of the chain by synchronising the needs of its various links.
Fixed-interval stock replenishment: A replenishment policy with fixed dates and fixed quantities: the quantities delivered may approach the economic order quantity or correspond to a partial delivery under an annual contract.

G7

Green logistics: All the strategies and actions carried out by companies to reduce the environmental impact of the various activities making up supply chains. While maintaining high delivery frequencies, pooling flows makes it possible, for example, to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond re-engineering existing chains or changing how they are governed, sustainable logistics can also lead to designing innovative logistics organisations on sustainable foundations from the outset.
Green warehouse: Reducing the consumption of non-renewable resources and greenhouse gas emissions is at the heart of how these new warehouses are built and run. It shows in the use of more environmentally friendly building materials, installations that consume fewer resources, and external landscaping that reduces visual pollution.
Galileo: The European satellite radio-navigation system. Launched in 2005, Galileo will eventually consist of thirty satellites and be more reliable and more precise (1 metre against 10 to 100 metres) than its American competitor GPS, with which it will be interoperable. It offers five services: an open service, a commercial service, a public regulated service, a safety-of-life service and a search and rescue service.
Global Location NumberGLN: An international 13-digit code identifying the destination of the product, which may be a legal entity (a retailer), a functional entity (a warehouse) or a physical entity (a storage bay).
Global Positioning SystemGPS: Satellite radio-navigation on the American military model.
Global Trade Item NumberGTIN: An international code, originally of 13 digits, identifying a consumer unit. An additional digit added to the code identifies a product by its packaging level: 1 for the unit, 2 for the batch, 3 for the case, 4 for the pallet. This international classification is intended to replace the various codes previously used (UPC, EAN-UCC and others).
Goods reception pointPAM: A temporary parcel holding point where the end customer comes to collect the goods themselves. These are generally businesses that, alongside their usual activity, develop this service by joining a network. Public initiatives also exist. In both cases the aim is to reduce congestion in hard-to-reach areas by optimising delivery rounds.

H2

Hub: A logistics facility to which flows of goods or passengers from various origins are brought and sorted, in order to group them and send them on to other destinations. By consolidating and synchronising flows, the hub makes optimal use of transport resources, applying a hub-and-spoke strategy.
High Environmental Quality standardsHQE: Used for logistics property and, more generally, for production facilities, these French standards require at least 7 targets out of 14 to be met for certification. The targets fall into four categories. Eco-construction: integration into the surroundings, choice of building materials, disturbance from the works and so on. Eco-management: energy, water, waste, upkeep and maintenance. Comfort: acoustic, visual, olfactory and hygrothermal. Health: sanitary conditions, water and air quality.

I12

Inventory holding cost: All the charges linked to financing and holding stock and to the risks carried on stock.
In-plant: An arrangement in which the principal has its suppliers and subcontractors set up on the same production site. The site is then configured to make the exchange of goods and information easier.
Infologistics: A term proposed by the French IREPP (Institute for Postal Research and Foresight) combining computerisation and logistics integration, within the development of e-logistics.
Integrator: A logistics service provider that mobilises every mode of transport to carry goods from one point to another on a principal's behalf, in its own right and in an integrated way. The term is used in particular for the international express parcel operators.
Interfaces: The point of junction, tension or overlap between the objectives, responsibilities or activities of two or more entities: supply chain players, or sub-systems of the same organisation.
ITF-14: A marking solution for EAN 13 or 14 codes using a representation technique suited to the materials and printing conditions of logistics units.
Inbound logistics: All the activities whose purpose is to make available, within the lead times the company wants and on the best cost terms, the required references and quantities of raw materials, semi-finished goods, equipment and so on. Carrying out this process implies defining a procurement policy.
ISO 14001 standard: It sets out the rules allowing companies that wish to do so to undertake a certification process attesting that they control the environmental impact of their activities. ISO 14001 requires an environmental management system to be put in place.
Information and communication technologiesNTIC: The set of technologies for processing and exchanging information, resulting from cross-developments between computing, telecommunications and audiovisual media.
Integrated logistics support: An approach to managing the elements and activities to be mobilised from the design of an item of equipment to its end of life.
Intermodal transport: Moving goods from point A to point B using several modes of transport with the same loading unit. Intermodal transport is a type of multimodal transport which, because a single loading unit is used, does not involve handling the goods themselves.
Intermodal loading unit: A standardised loading entity that allows intermodal transport by simplifying transhipment from one mode to another. Containers, swap bodies, grappler-liftable trailers and air pallets are intermodal loading units. Because they are rigid, the goods loaded are secure during transport and during the transhipment that comes with changing vehicles, which is itself made more efficient.

J1

Just-in-timeJAT: A tight-flow control model that consists of controlling and mastering the production system in order to remove every source of waste, in particular waste linked to intermediate stock and to poor quality. Production then equals demand at every stage of the process.

K3

Kaizen — continuous improvement: From the Japanese kai (change) and zen (good), which can be translated as good change. Applied to a company, kaizen is an approach that involves every member of the organisation, whatever their level, in maintaining and gradually and continuously improving working standards.
Kanban: A card or tag attached to a specific reference being manufactured, which tells a workstation the quantity to supply to the workstation immediately downstream — what is known as a downstream pull.
Kitting: An activity that consists of carrying out the final assembly of a product. When subcontracted to a logistics service provider, it involves managing the component stock, picking the parts and assembling them according to the orders issued by the customer.

L22

Life cycle cost: All the charges relating to the various activities carried out from the design of an item of equipment through to its dismantling or recycling.
Logistics costs: All the charges linked to the cost of holding stock, warehousing costs and the costs of moving products.
Last mile: A figurative expression referring to the final part of the journey needed to deliver goods to a recipient, whether a business or a private individual.
Local delivery bayELP: Introduced to ease urban traffic, local delivery bays allow delivery vehicles to park without obstructing circulation, while providing extra labour to speed up unloading and delivery.
Logistics function: The organisational unit of the company responsible for all or part of the design and execution of logistics-related activities.
Laser guidance: An automated guidance system for mobile handling machines, working through a 360° rotating laser mounted on the truck and aimed at reflective strips fixed to the pillars or walls of its operating area.
Logistics hotel: An urban logistics facility located in a dense area, the logistics hotel is designed as a warehouse shared by various carriers and various retail brands, a forward base that limits last-mile transport. These innovative projects can lead to multi-storey buildings, or to different activities being stacked within the same structure, with the upper floors given over to other uses while logistics operations take place in the basement. Logistics hotels can be regarded as urban logistics zones and are a recent tool serving logistics pooling.
Last In, First OutLIFO: A method of accounting valuation of stock issues that consists of taking out first the items most recently received into stock. It leads to a notional separation of batches on the stock record and, in a period of inflation, to lower issue costs and therefore reduced analytical results.
Lead Logistics ProviderLLP: A logistics service provider that designs, optimises and controls all or part of a supply chain on a customer's behalf. Lead logistics providers develop control tower solutions and manage networks of suppliers, logistics providers and carriers to which they may, according to their customer's needs and specifications, subcontract all or part of the physical activities while retaining control of the flows.
Lean Logistics: A continuous improvement approach aimed at eliminating all waste within logistics processes and activities. It draws on a set of tools that model the flows, analyse where they go wrong, and define, implement and monitor improvement plans such as kaizen.
Lean Manufacturing: A continuous improvement approach aimed at using resources as sparingly as possible within production processes. It rests on several principles: identifying and reducing the malfunctions that make safety stock necessary, and eliminating non-value-creating operations and waste.
Logistics: The technology for mastering the physical flows, and the associated information flows, that a company receives from its suppliers, transfers between its sites and ships to its customers. Logistics is thus a management science discipline with its own paradigms and concepts, resting on a body of techniques and tools.
Light-with-heavy load optimisation: A method for optimising vehicle fill rates that consists of organising supply or distribution by combining heavy and light products so as to respect the maximum authorised load. Introduced by the consultancy Valorfi, the method was taken up by the European Commission as a possible line of thinking.
Logistics pooling: An approach taken by manufacturers or retailers whose aim is to share voluntarily all or part of the resources consumed in carrying out logistics activities. Sharing resources reduces costs and improves the productivity measures linked to flow consolidation. The gains are all the greater when the manufacturers work under pooled replenishment. In this context one also speaks of a shared warehouse or a consolidation centre.
Logistics standards: The set of standards applying to the various logistics activities and to the supply chain as a whole, whose purpose is to describe processes so as to support design, management and performance assessment. The French standard NF X50-600 describes the logistics process in detail, identifying the activities that make it up and the interfaces to be developed so that operations meet a customer's expectations. It can therefore serve as a reference for designing and assessing a logistics process. It is completed by two supplements: NF X50-602 describes in detail the activities making up a logistics process and the corresponding professional profiles, while NF X50-604 covers the analysis and development of the stages of an integrated overall logistics process (procurement, purchasing and logistics) and can serve as a reference for assessing their performance. The standard NF X60-600 deals more specifically with integrated logistics support. It describes its activities, objectives and the means to be deployed, and offers providers of logistics support services and their customers a contractual approach for designing the service together and defining the associated resources.
Local mobility planPLD: The French SRU act of 13 December 2000, amending the domestic transport act (LOTI), provides that the urban mobility plan of the Île-de-France region may be supplemented in places by local mobility plans that detail and refine its content with the same aim.
Logistics platform: A place through which goods pass. Unlike a warehouse, whose purpose is to store goods, a platform is intended for cross-docking. By extension, the term also refers to a logistics activity zone made up of warehouses and platforms.
Logistics service provider: A company carrying out logistics activities on behalf of a manufacturer or a retailer. Depending on the complexity and the type of value-added operations carried out, several categories emerge. Classic logistics providers carry out physical logistics operations, and their management system is limited to monitoring them on the client company's behalf. Value-added logistics providers add to that offer a number of services ranging from complex handling operations (co-manufacturing, co-packing) to administrative and information management. Logistics service integrators are characterised by having almost no physical resources of their own; their speciality is integrating the services of various subcontractors and ensuring their coherence and management by controlling the associated information flows. The first two categories are frequently grouped under the term Third Party Logistics (3PL). The third corresponds to Accenture's registered term Fourth Party Logistics (4PL). Finally, though it remains rare and very close to 4PL, the name Fifth Party Logistics (5PL) is given to providers who design, organise and deliver logistics solutions on a principal's behalf using the appropriate technologies.
Live pallet flow racking: Racking made up of several storage rows side by side, whose slightly inclined lanes are fitted with systems that let pallets move along. Accumulation storage suits products held in large quantities. It can work from a single aisle, or from two aisles that are then given over respectively to putting away and to retrieval.
Live storage: Racking or shelving whose slightly inclined levels are fitted with rollers or air cushions that let cases or pallets move towards the picker. This storage system is used in preference for fast-moving products.
Logistics dashboard: A dynamic management instrument, quick to produce, bringing together quantitative and qualitative indicators that let a logistics manager follow and control the key points they want to master and, where needed, take short-term corrective action.
Logistics service level: A qualitative indicator measuring a time difference. It can be applied at various levels of the logistics process, for example to measure the time actually elapsed between taking an order and delivering the product.

M12

Movement cost: All the charges linked to moving products between the various entities of the supply chain.
Multi-supplier pooled replenishment: A replenishment arrangement in which several manufacturers undertake to deliver together, from a single logistics site, to one or more retailers. They draw up a replenishment proposal for their common customer that optimises the logistics parameters of both sides. The aim is notably to optimise storage and transport costs, vehicle fill rates and the number of trips both upstream and downstream of the shared warehouse. A logistics service provider is often involved, tasked with organising the delivery rounds for one or more manufacturers in line with the arrangement they have chosen: agreed allocation or variable allocation.
Maintenance, Repair and OverhaulMRO: All the products and services purchased that do not enter directly into the manufacturing process.
Material Requirements PlanningMRP: An industrial planning method that consists of drawing up a master production and procurement schedule from final demand.
Middleware: Software used within enterprise application integration that transfers data between two computer applications originally unable to communicate with each other.
Multidrop: An arrangement in which a manufacturer delivers to several distribution centres or outlets belonging to the same retailer, or to several distribution centres or outlets of different retailers, with the aim of improving vehicle fill rates and reducing transport costs.
Multipick: An arrangement in which a distribution centre is supplied by several manufacturers who decide to group their goods in order to improve vehicle fill rates and reduce transport costs.
Material requirements schedulePBM: This master procurement schedule is a medium-term plan of the company's supply requirements, giving for each material, component or semi-finished product reference the quantities and lead times required by the company's production releases.
Master production schedulePDP: A medium-term production plan giving, for each item, the production releases in quantity and lead time according to demand and to the company's capacity.
Modal shift: The movement of traffic from one transport mode to another. It is often measured as the change in the relative market shares of the various modes for a given flow. The term is most often used for a shift away from road towards alternative modes regarded as less polluting.
Milk run: An arrangement of supply or distribution that consists of serving several points with the same vehicle. Modelled on the traditional practice of dairy cooperatives collecting from farms, this pragmatic arrangement has come back into favour with the sharp rise in transport costs.
Multimodal transport: Moving goods from point A to point B using several modes of transport.

N2

Near-by buffer: An area of a warehouse, close to the picking stock, in which goods are held so that the picking stock can be replenished more quickly.
Next In, First OutNIFO: A method of accounting valuation of stock issues that does not take the actual value of receipts into account but rests on the value of the next receipts. In a period of inflation, this method reduces the analytical result and therefore raises the alarm sooner.

O7

Outsourcing: A company decision to entrust to a third party the carrying out of activities previously handled in-house. Shippers initially outsourced transport, before gradually entrusting higher value-added logistics services.
Operational readiness maintenance: All the methods put in place to ensure the optimal availability rate of equipment within the cost constraints set by the company.
Order-up-to level: A replenishment policy with a fixed date and a variable quantity. At each period, the quantity ordered is whatever brings stock up to the optimum level defined beforehand.
Optimodality: An approach to optimising the economic and environmental performance of a freight transport chain. The thinking and the action concern in particular the search for synergies between transport modes, and for productivity gains in implementing these multimodal solutions.
Order Penetration PointOPP: Identifying, along the supply chain, the moment and the place from which the goods in circulation are allocated to a particular customer. This decoupling point may sit at production or at distribution level, and can be the meeting point between the flows pushed by the manufacturer and those pulled by the customer.
Offshore outsourcing: A term close to outsourcing, that is entrusting to a third party activities previously handled in-house. It is commonly used, however, for a change of supplier or for outsourcing that comes with relocation to low-cost countries.
Order picking: All the operations carried out to make up a customer order within the cost, quality and lead time conditions set by the company and the customer.

P33

Picking path: The physical order picking route, organised to limit pickers' movements, reduce the risk of error and smooth all movement within the picking zone.
Pareto classification (20/80): A method of classifying products, used in inventory management, based on two classes. The first groups the 20% of references that account for 80% of stock value and are given more specific management methods.
Postponement: A production method that consists of standardising manufacturing operations as far as possible by deferring product differentiation for as long as possible. When these differentiation operations are entrusted to a logistics service provider, it is called post-manufacturing.
Principal: A company that, as part of an outsourcing process, entrusts the operational execution of all or part of its logistics activities to a logistics service provider. How much strategic and tactical control the principal keeps over its supply chains depends on the type of provider (3PL, 4PL and so on) engaged.
Pallet stacker and destacker: An automatic handling machine used in particular to load, store and distribute empty pallets without manual intervention.
Piggyback rail transport: A technique consisting of loading an intermodal transport unit onto a train so that the main leg is carried by rail while local collection and delivery is done by road. Two solutions are possible. Accompanied transport consists of loading complete road vehicles, with their drivers, onto special trains. Combined transport covers the transfer of containers or swap bodies from one mode of transport to another and their onward carriage.
Push flows: A flow control model that consists of starting from a forecast of demand in the company's markets and drawing up a production plan to meet it. From that production plan, the master production and procurement schedules are set so as to create as little stock as possible while avoiding shortages.
Pull flows: A flow control model that consists of determining the quantities to be produced or assembled from actual demand so as to satisfy it immediately. Pull flows, whose main aim is to remove the costs caused by holding stock at every level of the supply chain, can be more or less tight depending on the safety margin the company sets.
Pooled replenishment with variable allocation: The manufacturers agree on a variable allocation of resources aimed at optimising the logistics parameters of all parties overall. The allocation between manufacturers is therefore recalculated at each delivery according to the replenishment actually required.
Pooled replenishment with agreed allocation: The manufacturers agree on a fixed allocation of resources, reviewed periodically to follow the evolution of their respective sales. This differs from pooled replenishment with variable allocation and does not always allow the logistics parameters of the parties to be optimised.
Private rail siding: A rail installation located on an industrial or logistics site and connected to the main network, allowing goods to be moved without transhipment. These installations also allow the use of wagons suited to the different types of goods. Consignments may involve complete trains or single wagons. The latter are then taken to marshalling yards to make up complete trains.
Periodic stock count: An update, carried out at regular intervals, of the stock levels of one or more references. Counting units across all or part of the stock on a regular basis corrects the discrepancies between the levels given by the perpetual inventory and reality.
Perpetual inventory: Continuous updating of stock levels based on capturing every movement of a reference in real time. Various problems — theft, breakage, keying errors — explain the discrepancies that remain between the theoretical stock levels given by this updating and reality, and make periodic stock counts necessary.
Production logistics: All the activities whose purpose is to make available, within the lead times the various production or assembly units want and on the best cost terms, the required references and quantities of raw materials and work in progress. Carrying out this process implies defining management rules.
Pareto principle: A method of classifying stocked products that distinguishes high-value products, for which strict control is put in place, from lower-value products, which are controlled more loosely.
Pallet: A load carrier used for handling, warehousing and transport throughout the supply chain. A pallet consists of two decks joined by spacers, or of a single deck resting on supports; it may be wooden, plastic, cardboard or metal. A palletised load can be handled by various machines such as a pallet truck, a stacker or a forklift. Pallet dimensions and uses are covered by international standards.
Pallet rackingRACK: Storage racking made up of upright frames, beams and identification and safety fittings.
Pick and Pack: An order preparation method in which the shipping unit — parcel, pallet and so on — is built up as picking progresses. This arrangement is generally used for wave picking.
Pick then Pack: An order preparation method in which all the items making up an order are picked from stock before being arranged and packed into their shipping unit.
Pick to Belt: A method of preparing orders of full cases. The cases are picked by the operator and placed on a conveyor running between two racking bays.
Pick to Light: A computer-assisted order picking system that shows the picker, through a light at the storage locations, where to take the goods from. Barcode scanning of the units picked lets the system check the work as it proceeds and trigger the next pick.
Pick to Sort: An order preparation method that consists of handling at the same time several order lines for the same reference belonging to different customer orders. All the items of the same reference are picked together and then sorted by customer order.
Picking: The operation that consists of taking, from their location in the picking stock, the various elements of an order — pallets, cases or consumer sales units.
Post-manufacturing: The logistics service provider taking on production operations linked to the assembly of finished products.
Pre-manufacturing: The logistics service provider taking on production operations linked to the assembly of intermediate production goods.
Pick by vision: A computer-assisted order picking system that guides the picker, through LCD glasses, to the location to go to and tells them which product and how many units to take. Once at the location, the product to pick is highlighted to reduce the risk of error. The picker no longer needs to scan to confirm the pick: a camera built into the glasses and linked to the WMS records the serial number and barcode of the product directly, improving productivity.
Process: A set of related resources and activities that transform inputs into outputs.
Project management: A set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and end dates, undertaken to reach an objective meeting specific requirements (in particular the French standard X50-115 AFNOR, 2002). Project management requires the project manager to steer activities carried out by different and complementary professional specialisms.
Pre-let development: A property construction project holding planning permission whose construction will only start once all or part of it has been let or sold to one or more occupiers.
Put to Light: A computer-assisted order preparation method that shows the operator, through a light signal, which container to place the items in, after all the items of several customer orders have been picked together beforehand. For each wave of orders each container is assigned to one customer order; scanning the barcode of the unit picked triggers the light on the container it must go into.
Picking stock replenishment: The operation that consists of taking quantities of product out of bulk stock to feed the picking stock.
Picking stock: The area of a warehouse in which goods are held ready for picking.
Pallet truck: A handling machine for moving pallets. Pallet trucks may be hand-operated, fitted with weighing equipment, electric, or ride-on.

Q1

Quick Response: A flow control model developed in retail that consists of triggering the replenishment of outlets just in time from till data, in order to reduce stock levels and improve service quality by adapting as quickly as possible to consumption patterns.

R14

Rack bay: A storage space bounded by beams and uprights.
Rail freight corridor: A route between the major international rail hubs allowing freight trains to be moved quickly and directly.
Racking upright frame: The metal structure making up the pallet racking. Upright frames are made of feet, vertical uprights, horizontal braces and diagonals. The term is often used more loosely for the vertical uprights of the racking that bound the bays.
Racking beam: The horizontal element of pallet racking, hooked onto the upright frames and intended to carry the loads stored, generally on pallets.
Reverse logistics: The process whose purpose is to handle the return of goods: returns requested by consumers because of errors or technical problems requiring repair, and returns organised by the company to recycle, dispose of or recover value from end-of-life products.
Reorder point method: A replenishment policy with a variable date and a fixed quantity, which consists of defining the stock level — the reorder point — that triggers the purchase order.
Reorder point: The stock level at which a replenishment order is placed. It corresponds to the average consumption of stock during the replenishment lead time, plus the safety stock.
Radio Frequency IdentificationRFID: A technology for collecting and storing data remotely. The system consists of miniature tags made of an antenna and an electronic chip in a capsule, and of a reader, a transmit/receive device that activates the tags at short range. Transmission frequencies vary: the higher they are, the greater the data rate. The tags, activated on a frequency determined by the reader, process the signal received and respond to the request.
Racking row: A set of neighbouring bays.
Replenishment policy: The approach to feeding stock, setting the order quantity and the order date. There are four classic replenishment policies: fixed-interval replenishment, the order-up-to level method, the reorder point method, and replenishment with variable date and variable quantity.
Refurbishing: An activity that consists of restoring equipment so that it is comparable in every respect to the original. Potentially subcontracted to logistics providers, this activity, whose purpose is to return the refurbished equipment to service or to resale, implies that reverse logistics is in place.
Retailer Managed ReplenishmentRMR: A continuous replenishment approach driven by the retailer on the basis of its own sales forecasts, from which it draws up the replenishment programmes it passes to its suppliers. The suppliers then replenish the retailer's warehouses in response to its delivery calls.
Roll cage: A wheeled load carrier that allows goods to be moved without handling equipment. It is used in particular by retailers when delivering to convenience stores.
Racking bay: All the compartments between two consecutive upright frames of the pallet racking.

S39

Service aisle: Circulation space between two racking rows, allowing handling vehicles to move and giving access to the bays.
Stock keeping item: A handling or storage unit identified by a code carried on various media.
Specification document: A written document setting out the obligations — regulatory, technical, safety, administrative and so on — of the parties involved.
Supply chain: The set of interdependent companies coordinating their activities to ensure the movement of products or services from design to end of life.
Shipper: A company that entrusts its goods to a carrier or a freight forwarder so that the latter carries out, on its behalf, the transport operations requested under conditions it has defined beforehand.
Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. It rests on three pillars: economic, social and environmental.
Shared warehouse: A logistics arrangement set up by two or more manufacturers to optimise their transport costs by consolidating, on a single site, the stock intended for the same customers. This consolidation lets manufacturers pool their transport, reducing synchronisation constraints while maintaining high delivery frequencies. They share the property and running costs of the site and improve the productivity of logistics activities by operating pooled replenishment. This pooled control of flows is what distinguishes a shared warehouse from a multi-customer warehouse, where the activities of two or more manufacturers are carried out separately even if transport is pooled.
Smart label — Radio Frequency TagRFT: A programmable and rewritable label read without contact through radio-frequency identification (RFID).
Synchronous flows: A flow control model that consists of coordinating the supply of the various components according to the order in which they are used on the production line. It makes it possible to deliver, at the last moment, exactly the quantities needed at each workstation.
Stacker truck: A handling machine fitted with forks that stacks logistics units on top of one another.
Synchronous delivery: A just-in-time replenishment model for assembly lines. Working from requisition orders giving a time and a place, suppliers deliver at the last moment exactly the quantities of parts, components or sub-assemblies needed at each workstation. A distinction is generally made between simple synchronous delivery, as described above, combined synchronous delivery, in which a sub-assembly is prepared by assembling two components, and elaborate synchronous delivery, where more complex production is required.
Sustainable logistics: All the strategies and actions carried out by companies to reduce the negative environmental and social impact of logistics activities while ensuring the development and durability of the organisation. Sustainable logistics may mean warehouses and platforms with good environmental credentials, training drivers in eco-driving, favouring logistics pooling, and so on.
Single wagonload traffic: An arrangement that consists of moving single wagons in order to group them into complete trains. A network of marshalling yards collects and distributes single wagons locally. A network of hubs then consolidates the flows of single wagons to and from the marshalling yards and, through high delivery frequencies and large sorting capacity, delivers shorter and more reliable transit times.
Supplier forward stock warehouseMAF: A warehouse holding parts, components or sub-assemblies belonging to the suppliers until they are shipped to the final assembler's production lines. These warehouses are located close to the finished product's assembly lines to allow synchronous delivery, which lets the final assembler do away with component stock.
SCOR model: Above all a modelling tool that lets companies identify, manage and improve their supply chain processes — planning, sourcing, making, delivering and managing returns — with the aim of breaking down silos between company functions. SCOR provides a standard model and language for modelling and assessing the performance of processes, activities and operations. The performance indicators cover meeting customer needs in terms of quality, lead time and cost, as well as responsiveness, agility, cost and return on investment. To reconfigure processes and run continuous improvement programmes, the SCOR model recommends methods such as reengineering, six sigma, lean manufacturing, 5M and 5S.
Short-line rail operator: As part of the reorganisation of rail transport, these new operators handle the regional distribution of goods. Long-distance rail operators take on the consolidated flows on the major national and European routes, while short-line operators move goods, in single wagons or small consignments, to and from the regions via nodal points linking the local networks to the national one.
Supplier industrial parkPIF: An industrial site grouping the suppliers of the parts, components and sub-assemblies used in the final assembly of a complex product (modular production). The geographical closeness of the suppliers reduces component stock levels by allowing synchronous flow operation.
Sales and operations planPIC: A method that consists of using sales forecasts to define the capacity investment required and to spread the workload according to the resources available and the objectives set. It orchestrates the operational strategy, and is then broken down into distribution resource planning, the master production schedule and material requirements planning.
Synchronous production: A production flow control model that consists of triggering the manufacture of parts, components or sub-assemblies by the supplier just in time and in the order in which they are used on the assembly line.
Speculative development: A property construction project launched with no prior lease or sale agreement.
Single-deep racking: Racking with a single storage row in depth, so that all the goods are immediately accessible.
Semi Knocked DownSKD: A production method that consists of manufacturing an industrial product without carrying out final assembly. The components produced are grouped in crates corresponding to one finished product before being shipped to an assembly plant.
Serial Shipping Container CodeSSCC: A barcode symbol identifying the transport unit, which allows the goods to be tracked.
Short sea shipping: A transport mode developed as an alternative to rising road transport costs and to congestion on the road network, and to make up for the current shortcomings of rail freight.
Single Minute Exchange of DieSMED: It consists of reducing the set-up and adjustment times of the operations making up a production process in order to improve flexibility. The method applies in three phases: identifying the activities that require the lines to stop, reducing the operating times of those activities, and finally reducing the operating times of the activities that do not require a stoppage.
Supplier forward plant: A component manufacturing unit set up by a supplier close to the final assembler's production site. Locating as close as possible, often within a supplier industrial park, allows synchronous production and avoids multiplying storage points.
Six Sigma: A continuous improvement approach to the quality and efficiency of processes, developed by Motorola, which registered the trade mark. Measuring process performance is at the heart of the approach, which has five main steps, each drawing on different tools. The first looks for the causes of the malfunctions that affect the quality and efficiency of processes. The second is a measurement step that feeds the modelling of processes and the search for causes. Depending on the results, steps four and five improve and control the effectiveness of the actions taken.
Slotting: The approach to allocating storage locations, which aims to optimise the parameters linked to the physical and commercial characteristics of the goods, and those linked to handling and order picking operations. It is generally automated through modules built into supply chain execution software.
Sourcing: The activity of looking for new suppliers in order to improve purchasing or procurement performance.
Subcontracting: A company policy that consists of entrusting the carrying out of certain activities to a third party.
Safety stock: A quantity intended to cover a surge in consumption or a delay in supply or production. Safety stock is dormant stock.
Silo storage: A method of storing products in closed vessels, generally of metal or concrete. By analogy, silo storage can also refer to very high-bay warehousing equipped with stacker cranes.
Strike zone: The area in which all the components and modules of a production line or workshop are stored. Working from production orders, an operator picks there everything a worker needs for a given period and places it in a location assigned to that worker.
Supply Chain Event ManagementSCME: A management approach based on taking account of the events that trigger, interrupt or change the course of flows. It allows the activities making up the supply chain to be steered, alerted on, simulated, checked and measured. The system assumes that data is integrated and that processing is synchronised across all the applications used to manage the supply chain.
Supply Chain ExecutionSCE: A software application that integrates all the data relating to the operational management of the activities making up the supply chain. Supply chain execution software generally consists of three main interfaced management applications: TMS, WMS and order management.
Supply Chain ManagementSCM: An approach to managing and synchronising all the processes that allow one or more customer/supplier systems to take account of and meet the expectations of end customers. It aims both to improve the value created for the customer and to improve the economic performance of the companies taking part. It brings together all the inter-company collaboration approaches: logistics management, CPFR, trade marketing, pooled replenishment and so on.
Supply Chain PlanningSCP: A software application that simulates and plans all the processes of the supply chain.
Supply Chain Risk ManagementSCRM: A management approach that consists of identifying the internal and external risks of a supply chain and promoting coordinated management among its members in order to mitigate them.
Stacker crane: A rail-guided handling machine able to serve heights of up to 45 metres.

T13

Traffic aisle: Circulation space outside the service aisles.
Transhipment terminal: An area equipped with handling gantries allowing swap bodies or containers to be transferred from one mode of transport to another, for example from road to sea.
Time study: A method that consists of timing how long the various logistics tasks or activities take to carry out.
Total cost of ownership: All the charges relating to the acquisition, operation and continued serviceability of an item of equipment.
Tight flows: A pull-based control model in which the quantities produced match market demand as closely as possible. Just-in-time is a control model with extremely tight flows.
To stack: To pile logistics units such as parcels or pallets on top of one another.
Transport pooling: An approach generally taken by manufacturers whose aim is to share voluntarily the resources consumed in carrying out transport activities. Sharing resources reduces transport costs by increasing the productivity of the means used, and maintains high delivery frequencies in distribution. Transport pooling may involve creating a cross-docking platform that consolidates the flows of many manufacturers heading for the same final destinations. To optimise this sharing, some manufacturers have deliberately developed shared warehouses, while retail brands have set up centres that consolidate their suppliers' flows.
Throughput time: A qualitative indicator measuring a time difference between entry and exit. It can be applied at various levels of the logistics process, for example to measure the time actually elapsed between taking an order and delivering the product.
Time to Market: A qualitative indicator measuring the time elapsed between the design of a product and it actually going on sale.
Total Quality ManagementTQM: An approach to managing the company's human, financial, physical and technological resources, based on quality practices and methods and aimed at satisfying the various stakeholders.
Traceability: The ability to follow a product or service from its design to its end of life. Traceability covers both tracking — locating the entity in the supply chain in real time — and tracing, the ability to obtain information about any past moment by building a record of the flow.
Trade Marketing: An approach to designing, running and jointly funding marketing operations involving both the manufacturer and the retailer.
Transport Management SystemTMS: A software application whose purpose is to optimise the organisation and the cost of transport rounds.

U10

Urban logistics boxesBUL: These logistics spaces, defined by the French CERTU, make small goods available after being stored in airlocks, secure lockers or computerised delivery boxes. They allow a delivery to be made without the final recipient being present, which implies decoupling the physical operations from the administrative transport operations. It is an optimisation approach.
Upstream / downstream consolidation centre: A shared warehouse operated by a retailer to consolidate supplier flows and optimise the replenishment of its shops (downstream) or its distribution platforms (upstream). Supplier stock is placed in a shared, single-brand warehouse where order preparation takes place. This arrangement optimises transport between the consolidation centre, the platforms and the shops, and so increases the share of flows handled by cross-docking at the distribution platforms. The goods belong to the supplier until they leave the consolidation centre, so they represent off-site stock for the retailer.
Urban distribution centresCDU: A type of urban logistics facility located on the outskirts, whose purpose is to group the flows entering the city in order to optimise the last mile. These are express freight flows, for which creating such urban logistics facilities keeps the number of vehicles to a minimum by consolidating loads. The distance travelled is reduced accordingly.
Urban logistics facility: Introduced to improve urban movement while taking sustainable development into account, urban logistics facilities provide transhipment points that consolidate the flows entering and leaving conurbations and reduce transport requirements in densely populated areas. As defined by the French CERTU, a city's logistics network can be built around five types of facility: urban logistics zones, urban distribution centres, vehicle reception points, goods reception points and urban logistics boxes. Transport between these facilities and customers in the heart of the urban area tends to favour a modal shift to rail or waterway and the use of alternative vehicles.
Urban logistics: A planning and management approach which, taking an overall view of goods flows and the associated people flows, aims to ease circulation in areas of high population density and high concentration of human activity, reducing its cost and its nuisance while maintaining optimal service quality for city users. Starting from an analysis of flows and of the constraints of the transport system, of the economic, social and cultural dynamics of the city and of how it is run, the approach covers transport, consolidation and storage of goods.
Units per casePCB: The number of consumer units contained in one trade or logistics unit.
Urban mobility planPDU: Conurbations of more than 100,000 inhabitants and the Île-de-France region are required to draw up an urban mobility plan in order to reduce car traffic and increase the use of public transport, bicycles, and rail and waterways for freight.
U-shaped order picking: A picking method in which one picking order corresponds to a single customer order. The order is handled by one picker who takes the various sales units following a predefined picking path that ends as close as possible to where it started. In practice the picker often circles the trolley on which the picked units are placed.
Units per inner packSPCB: The number of consumer units grouped in the inner packs contained in one trade or logistics unit.
Urban logistics zoneZLU: A type of urban logistics facility whose purpose is to locate business activity within the urban area, as close as possible to its users, in order to reduce transport requirements. Urban logistics zones are developing at the instigation of public authorities. Logistics hotels are one form they take.

V4

Value Stream MappingVSM: An approach to modelling logistics processes that identifies value-creating flows. Every activity is taken into account in order to spot those that create no value and on which the company can act to reduce costs, on the basis of a set of associated information. It is the first step towards Lean Management and Lean Logistics.
Vehicle reception pointPAV: A supervised parking area for light commercial vehicles from which goods are delivered on foot using light handling equipment. The aim is to limit the distance travelled in very densely populated urban areas by favouring delivery on foot from a nearby logistics facility. Congestion and pollution are reduced accordingly.
Voice picking: A computer-assisted order picking system that tells the picker, through a spoken message, where to take the goods from and how many units to pick. Barcode scanning of the units picked lets the system check the work as it proceeds and trigger the next pick.
Value-added network: A computer network fed by various workstations which, by cross-referencing data, produces enriched information useful for decision-making.

W6

Warehousing cost: All the charges relating to the various activities carried out within a warehouse: direct and indirect staff costs, the cost of running the information systems, and depreciation of buildings and equipment.
Weighted Average Unit CostCUMP: A method of valuing stock issues that consists of calculating the average unit value of the items in stock as the ratio between the value of the stock and the quantities held.
Wire guidance: An automated guidance system for mobile handling machines, working from a wire buried in the floor which, by emitting suitable frequencies, tells the machine which route to follow.
Wave picking: A picking method in which one picking order covers several customer orders handled at the same time. These orders, taken on by one picker, are grouped on criteria that shorten the picking cycle: similar items, or items physically close together.
Warehouse Management SystemWMS: A software application, part of supply chain execution software, whose purpose is to manage warehousing operations and to optimise them.
Workflow: A generic term for the software used to manage a process.