APPENDIX A
Glossary
Accuracy. How closely a measurement or assessment reflects the true value. Not to be confused with precision; see Granularity, Resolution, and Precision.
Attribute. In the context of information, a descriptor that is not usually associated with a numerical value. Some examples are bad, excellent, red, green, tall, small, wide, far, heavy, fast, portrait, and scenic.
Back Office. A term used to denote those activities in a service process that can be performed without interaction with the customer.
Barcode. A pattern of alternating black and white lines, often of varying widths, for labeling products and other items.
Big Data. A collection of data whose very size, rate of accumulation, or increased complexity makes it difficult to analyze and comprehend in a timely and accurate manner.
Blog. An online collection of information or discussion posted by an individual or group of individuals.1 While the range of topics can be very broad, it is typically limited to a selected area of interest. The term reportedly is a contraction of two words (web log).
Brick and Mortar (B&M). A term used to describe a physical business location.
Business Intelligence (BI). A term often used to describe the range of analysis approaches used to process business data. Some examples are data mining, forecasting, trend identification, and linear programming.
Cloud Computing. A business strategy where part or all of an organization’s information processing and storage is done by online service providers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The management of current and future customer interactions with a business. This can include sales support, warranty and technical support activity, Internet website, marketing, and product advertising.
Cross-Functional Diagram.2 A process diagram where each activity is depicted in a column or row corresponding to the functional area that performs the activity.
Cross-Functional Software. In the context of this book, software applications that share data across different functions in a company and process that data to achieve the purpose or mission of the business. Examples of this type of software are ERP, MRP, CRM, VRM, and PDM applications.
Cyclic Redundancy Check. A process for verifying that a data packet was transferred without any errors. More sophisticated versions of this process also provide enough information to correct detected transmission errors.
Decision Support System (DSS). Information processing application used by managers and business professionals to analyze situations, monitor and compare performance data, highlight changes that require their attention, and to identify the more promising solutions. DSSs are one component of the overall MIS content for a business.
Delivery Point Bar Code (DPBC). Version 4 of the POSTNET barcode format used by the US Postal Service.
Dematerialization. Changing from a tangible to an intangible form. For example, scanning a photographic negative or paper document to a digital file.
Deterministic. Having a predictable value with a very narrow range of variance. As a result, deterministic values do not require the use of probability distributions to describe their behavior in business analysis methods or decisions and can usually be represented by a constant value. See Stochastic.
e-commerce. A term used to describe interactions between businesses and customers using the Internet.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Expansion of MRP activities to include the coordination of other supply chain activities such as shipping, ordering, warehousing, and quality assurance. See Manufacturing Resource Planning.
e-tail. Retail business conducted online using the Internet (B2C interaction).
Flash drive: In the context of this monograph, a semiconductor memory device, typically the size of a pack of chewing gum, and usually accessed using a USB port.
Flowcharting. A graphical method for depicting the movement of items, customers, or information though a system. Although many of the symbols were originally developed with information processing in mind, they have been adapted in various forms to map other process flows.
Format. In the context of information, a description of the way information is presented such as a graph, chart, image, table of values, sequence of numbers, sound, color, etc. See Medium.
Front Office. A term used to denote those activities in a service process where some participation of the customer is necessary for their completion.3
Geographical Information System (GIS). An information system whose base reference is a geographical or other physical location. Frequently used for business decision processes regarding location choices and logistics planning. Other major applications are mapping and navigational processes.
“Ghost” process. A term used by the author to denote a process that is often developed by an individual or a small group to deal with a problem that they need to deal with on a frequent basis. Such a process is usually not documented and not known to others, but has become essential to the business.
Hadoop. An open-source software platform developed by Apache Software Foundation for data-intensive applications where the data are often widely distributed across different hardware systems and geographical locations.
Hacking. Unauthorized access to information.
Hashtag (#). A metadata symbol used to denote the subject or topic of a discussion thread in social online media. Examples as might be related to this book are #bigdata, #internethistory, and #overbooking.
Granularity. A term sometimes used to describe the level of detail used in obtaining information. In chemically based photography, it could be used to describe the density of silver grains in a photographic film or paper. Also see Resolution and Precision.
Information. In the context of this book, a collection of descriptors derived from observation, measurement, calculation, inference, or imagination in a form that can be shared with or communicated to others, or both. The format can be tangible or intangible or some combination of both.
Intelligent Mail Barcode. The most recent bar code used by the US Postal Service, sometimes referred to as the OneCode Solution.
International Standard Book Number (ISBN). A number assigned to a book to allow it to be uniquely identified. Both the number and a barcode of the number are typically displayed on a book’s cover.
Internet of Things (IoT). A term used to describe the community or collection of people and items that use the Internet to communicate with other.
Keyword. An identifier attached to unstructured data to allow that data to be searched in a structured manner. Common keywords for images are location (sometimes automatically added by a GPS chip in the camera), time, day, year, event name, person’s name, and so forth.
Little’s Law.4 An observation that the ratio between given average line length and waiting time values is characterized by the average arrival rate value for all waiting line models. That is, the average arrival rate is equal to the average waiting line length divided by the time spent waiting in line (λ = L/W).
Makespan. The total time required completing a group of jobs in manufacturing. For waiting lines, this corresponds to the total amount of time required to process a group of waiting customers.
MapReduce. An early Big Data (before this term became popular) programming solution originally developed by Google for parallel processing using very large data sets distributed across a number of computing and storage systems. A Hadoop implementation of MapReduce is now available.
Management Information Systems (MIS). The full range of information technology solutions required by a business to run its daily operations, support strategic planning and process improvement activities, and identify issues requiring management attention for their resolution. See Decision Support System for an example of one of the components of MIS.
Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP-II). The coordinated management of purchasing, inventory, bills of materials, financial data, human resource needs, and production scheduling processes to meet a forecasted demand.
Materials Requirements Planning (MRP). The coordinated management of purchasing, inventory, bills of materials, and production scheduling processes to meet a forecasted demand. Predecessor of MRP-II.
Media. The variety of information communication processes.
Medium. In the context of information, the method used to transfer information from one point or person to another point or person. Examples are paper, film, tape, audio, television, radio, photographs, displays, satellite transmission, code, and digital files.
Memoryless. A condition where a value is independent of any previous value. That is, it can be said that the value has no memory of any preceding values. This is an important characteristic when dealing with probabilistic values. For example, the result of a coin toss is not affected by the result of the previous coin toss.
Metadata. This term can mean a number of things depending on the context in which it is used. It can denote how a set of information is structured, such as the ISBN values assigned to books, the format of the UPC barcodes, and the Library of Congress classifications used in catalog books. It can also be a keyword assigned to a set of data to make it more easily searched for. For example, the list of keywords at the beginning of this book or the definition for hashtag used in online text message exchanges.
Management Information Systems (MIS). The software applications and computer hardware systems in an enterprise that provide information for management decisions regarding its business operations. Also see Decision Support System.
Newspaper Model. A strategy for determining the optimum order size to best satisfy the forecasted demand of newspapers or other types of products whose value diminish significantly after some date.
Noise. In the context of this monograph, anything that interferes with the successful processing and communication of information or affects its accuracy.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Technology where a scanned digital image of a printed page is analyzed to convert the text into an editable and searchable format.
Overbooking. A yield management strategy where more reservations than the number of opportunities available are accepted based on the assumption that some reservations will be cancelled or not show up when the time for providing the reserved service occurs.
Parity Bit. Additional data appended to the end of a data packet by the transmitting system that can be used by the receiving system to detect the occurrence of an error during transmission. See Cyclic redundancy check.
Phase. A single step for a service or manufacturing process.
Point of sale (POS). Useful information regarding what is purchased, the nature of services performed, and the types of customers served can be gained by a business analyzing the data collected from its sales transaction processes. These include the customer ordering, shipping, and payment processes.
POSTNET. Postal numeric encoding technique. A barcode standard used by the US Postal Service to display Zip code information more clearly on envelopes and packages for automated sorting equipment.
Precision. The level of detail included in information, such as the number of decimal places in a number, the number of pixels/inch in an image (resolution), or other measure reflecting how closely information is observed. Not to be confused with Accuracy defined elsewhere in this glossary.
Process. In the context of this book, a necessary sequence of steps required to provide a desired result. That result can be tangible or intangible or a combination of both.
Product Data Management (PDM). Management of all information related to a product during its life cycle. This includes the specifications, user documentation, bill of materials, reliability data, warranty failure reports, engineering changes, and all design files.
QR code. A two-dimensional graphic code format used for quick input of more information than UPC barcodes can provide. When scanned by the camera in a smartphone, it can be used to link the user to an Internet site displaying the additional information.
Relational database. A database for storing structured data. This allows for a fixed format, usually a limited number of values in a defined order.
Resolution. A term normally used to describe level of detail in an image (pixels/inch, total pixels/image), or how precise a value is.
Risk. In the context of business decisions, the cost of a particular outcome. When a set of outcomes are possible, this cost is often weighted by the probability, if known, of that particular outcome occurring. Not to be confused with uncertainty, a term often used incorrectly to communicate the level of risk.
Service Blueprint. A process diagram for services where the activities are separated into two groups: customer involvement required (front office) and support behind the scenes (back office). Sometimes the service blueprint adds a third group of activities where customer involvement may or may not be required depending on the particular circumstances (like when a credit card is rejected or approval for repairs after the diagnosis is completed).
Service Distribution. The variability in the service time. This variability can be represented by selected probability distributions to best fit the particular situation, with the exponential distribution being most commonly used.
Service Rate. The average number of items serviced or processed per some selected period of time. This continuous value can have a decimal component for small service rates, but is normally rounded to whole numbers for larger rates. Some typical values are: 5 megabytes per second, 1.2 customers per minute, 6 cars per hour, or 120 products per week.
Service Time. The time required to perform a service or process. The average value is the inverse of the average service rate.
Show rooming. A term used to describe the actions of a potential customer checking out a product in a store to see if it is what they want and then buying that product elsewhere, usually online, where they can get a lower price.
Statistical Process Control (SPC). A methodology used to ensure product or service quality at a minimum expense. Although commonly thought to be a manufacturing quality strategy, SPC principles also can be applied effectively to ensure the quality of information or service process results.
Stochastic. Having an unpredictable value because of the possibility of a wide range of possible results. As a result, stochastic variables must be represented by either discrete or continuous probability distributions in analysis or decision methods such as overbooking, forecasting, waiting line, or risk assessment applications. Also see Deterministic.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). How a product is tracked in inventory. The product can be an individual part, a subassembly of individual parts, or a quantity of individual parts (e.g., a single bottle, a package of six bottles, or a case of 24 bottles, each with its own SKU number).
Swim-Lane Diagram. Another name for a cross-functional diagram.
Tag. There are two definitions in this monograph, depending on the immediate subject matter. 1. A qualifier attached to unstructured data, usually an image, to enable it to be searched for, grouped into categories, or sorted. See Keyword. 2. A device or label attached to physical items to allow their easy identification and tracking.
Tag Collision. A situation that occurs when an RFID tag reader attempts to read a group of tags all at once. A number of interrogation schemes have been developed to handle this situation.
Tweet. A brief text message of no more than 140 characters posted on the Twitter social networking site.
Uncertainty. A situation where the set of possible outcomes is stochastic in nature. Not to be confused with the concept of Risk defined elsewhere in this glossary.
Uniform Code Council (UCC). Organization responsible for administering the Universal Product Code for grocery items and other retail products.
Universal Product Code (UPC). A 12-digit barcode used by food chains and other retailers for sales checkout processes and tracking items in their inventory.
Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). Similar in concept to customer relationship management, but focused on interactions with current and future vendors (suppliers) for a company. This can include sharing of operational data, forecasts, quality assurance, failure data, and vendor certification.
Virtualization. A method for managing hardware assets used at the same time by different users or processes, or both, that makes the part assigned to each user or process appear to act as if it was running on a separate piece of equipment.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). A programming language used by more advanced users to develop special functions and other macro routines to enhance their program applications.
Waiting time. The time spent waiting to be processed. The average waiting time is characterized by two values: the average time spent awaiting service and the total time spent in the system (waiting plus service time). W is often called throughput time in manufacturing applications and sojourn time in service applications.
Work-In-Process (WIP). The number of items in a manufacturing system waiting for processing or being worked on. It can also refer to the number of people in a queue waiting for service or in the process of being served.