Dictionary B

Logistics is a complex field. It encompasses all the skills and knowledge a logistician needs to become the best! For that reason, it can be challenging for beginners to understand different logistics terms. On a day to day basis in logistics projects, you can hear acronyms, abbreviations, and jargon. It sounds like a foreign language.

B

Term	Explanation
B/d	Barrels per day (measure of petroleum production).
B2B	Business conducted between companies, rather than between a company and individual consumers.
B2C	See Business to Consumer
Back scheduling	A technique for calculating operation start dates and due dates. The schedule is computed starting with the due date for the order and working backward to determine the required start date and/or due dates for each operation
Backflush	Method for issuing (reducing on-hand quantities) materials to a manufacturing order. With backflushing, the material is issued automatically when production is posted against an operation. The backflushing program will use the quantity completed to calculate through the bill of material the quantities of the components used, and reduce on-hand balances by this amount. There are usually options during the backflush process to report scrap. In operations using backflushing it is advisable to set up specific machine locations and have materials transferred from storage locations to machine locations when they are physically picked for production. The backflush operation will then issue the material from the machine locations.
Backhaul	Transportation term that describes the activity of picking up, transporting, and delivering a new load on a return trip from delivering another load.
Backlog Customer	Customer orders received but not yet shipped; also includes backorders and future orders.
Backorder	A specific quantity of a specific item that could not be filled on the requested date.
Backsourcing	Pulling a function back in-house as an outsourcing contract expires
Backward Integration	A form of vertical integration that involves the purchase of suppliers in order to reduce dependency.
BAF	Bunker Adjustment Factor, used to compensate for fluctuating fuel costs
Bagged cargo	Various kinds of commodities usually packed in sacks or in bags, such as sugar, cement, milk powder, onion, grain, flour, etc
Balance of Stores Record	A double-entry record system that shows the balance of inventory items on hand and the balances of items on order and available for future orders. Where a reserve system of materials control is used, the balance of material on reserve is also shown
Balance of trade	The balance of trade (or net exports, sometimes symbolised as NX) is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of output in an economy over a certain period. It is the relationship between a nation’s imports and exports.
Balance sheet	A basic financial statement that measures the positions of a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity as of a given date and usually compares those positions to the status on the same date in the previous fiscal year
Balance to Ship (BTS)	Balance or remaining quantity of a promotion or order that has yet to ship. Also see: Backorder
Balanced Scorecard	A structured measurement system developed by David Norton and Robert Kaplan of the Harvard Business School. It is based on a mix of financial and non financial measures of business performance. A list of financial and operational measurements used to evaluate organisational or supply chain performance. The dimensions of the balanced scorecard might include customer perspective, business process perspective, financial perspective, and innovation and learning perspectives. It formally connects overall objectives, strategies, and measurements. Each dimension has goals and measurements. Also see: Scorecard.
Balance-on-hand	An inventory of product in the warehouse shown as warehouse total, reserve total, and pick location total
Bale	A large compressed, bound, and often wrapped bundle of a commodity, such as cotton or hay.
Ball transfer table	Another form of gravity conveyor that utilises balls rotating in sockets over which the load is passed and thereby easing effort of movement.
Ballast movement	A voyage or voyage leg made without any paying cargo in a vessel’s tanks. To maintain proper stability, trim, or draft, sea water is usually carried during such movements.
Ballast tank	Compartments at the bottom of a ship or on the sides which are filled with liquids for stability and to make the ship seaworthy. Any shipboard tank or compartment on a tanker normally used for carrying salt-water ballast. When these compartments or tanks are not connected with the cargo system they are called segregated ballast tanks or systems
Balloon number	A reference number that points to a component or assembly on an engineering drawing and corresponds to a part number, usually listed in a table on the side of the drawing. (syn: bubble number)
BAM	See Business Activity Monitoring
Bar code reader	A device used to identify and read a bar code symbol
Barcode	A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data. Bar codes represent data in the widths (lines) and the spacing of parallel lines
Bare Boat Charter	A charter in which the bare ship is chartered without crew; the charterer, for a stipulated sum taking over the vessel for a stated period of time, with a minimum of restrictions; the charterer appoints the master and the crew and pays all running expenses. See Demise Charter.
Bargain	An agreement establishing the terms of a sale or exchange of goods or services
Bargaining power	A concept related to the relative abilities of parties in a situation to exert influence over each other. If both parties are on an equal footing in a debate, then they will have equal bargaining power, such as in a perfectly competitive market, or between an evenly matched monopoly and monophony.
Barge	A capacious, flat-bottomed vessel, usually intended to be pushed or towed, for transporting freight or passengers; lighter
Barge aboard catamaran	A way of loading cargo into large barges and then in turn loading the barges into a ship.
Barge carriers	Ships designed to carry either barges or containers exclusively, or some variable number of barges and containers simultaneously. Currently this class includes two types of vessels, the LASH and the SEABEE
Barratry	An act committed by the master or mariners of a vessel, for some unlawful or fraudulent purpose, contrary to their duty to the owners, whereby the latter sustain injury. It may include negligence, if so gross as to evidence fraud
Barrel	A hollow cylindrical container traditionally made of wood staves and bound with iron hoops. It also can be made of aluminium or plastic
Barrier to Entry	Factors that prevent companies from entering into a particular market, such as high initial investment in equipment
Barter	A type of trade in which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and/or services, without the use of money
Base Demand	The percentage of a company’s demand that is derived from continuing contracts and/or existing customers. Because this demand is well known and recurring, it becomes the basis of management’s plans. Synonym: Baseload Demand
Base Index	See Base Series
Base Inventory Level	The inventory level made up of aggregate lot-size inventory plus the aggregate safety stock inventory. It does not take into account the anticipation inventory that will result from the production plan. The base inventory level should be known before the production plan is made. Also see: Aggregate Inventory
Base pallet	Utilised to form the base for a larger group of pallets or a larger structure.
Base Series	A standard succession of values of demand-over-time data used in forecasting seasonal items. This series of factors is usually based on the relative level of demand during the corresponding period of previous years. The average value of the base series over a seasonal cycle will be 1.0. A figure higher than 1.0 indicates that the demand for that period is more than the average; a figure less than 1.0 indicates less than the average. For forecasting purposes, the base series is superimposed upon the average demand and trend in demand for the item in question. Synonym: Base Index. Also see: Seasonality
Base standard	In a costing system, the initial standard established at the beginning of a fiscal year used for creating budgets and performance measurements for that period. The base standard may be frozen to provide a consistent starting point for the period; the current standard is updated to reflect changes in process or material costs during the year
Base Stock System	A method of inventory control that includes as special cases most of the systems in practice. In this system, when an order is received for any item, it is used as a picking ticket, and duplicate copies, called replenishment orders, are sent back to all stages of production to initiate replenishment of stocks. Positive or negative orders (called base stock orders) are also used from time to time to adjust the level of the base stock of each item. In actual practice, replenishment orders are usually accumulated when they are issued and are released at regular intervals
Baseline	A set of measurements that establishes the status of a system or other item as of a given date. Used to provide a common denominator and starting point for later measurements and comparisons.
Baseload Demand	See Base Demand
Basic Load	The quantity of supplies required to be on hand within , and which can be moved by a unit or formation. It is expressed according to the wartime organisation of the unit or formation and maintained at the prescribed levels.
Basic Producer	A manufacturer that uses natural resources to produce materials for other manufacturing. A typical example is a steel company that processes iron ore and produces steel ingots; others are those making wood pulp, glass, and rubber
Basing Point	Geographic point to which transportation rates are set so that rates to adjacent points can be constructed by adding to/deducting from the basing point rate.
Batch and queue	The production of multiple parts at a given operation as a batch that is finished and moved to the input queue of the succeeding operation.
Batch bill of material	A bill of material typically used in process industries that describes an ingredients list required for a batch quantity of the end item, instead of a quantity of one as typically used in discrete manufacturing environments.
Batch Control Totals	The result of grouping transactions at the input stage and establishing control totals over them to ensure proper processing. These control totals can be based on document counts, record counts, quantity totals, dollar totals, or hash (mixed data, such as customer AR numbers) totals
Batch Number	A sequence number associated with a specific batch or production run of products and used for tracking purposes. Synonym: Lot Number
Batch pick	The combining of a group of order requirements by SKU into a single picking activity to optimise productivity by allowing one picker to select all the ordered merchandise within a predetermined group with one trip through the pick path. Batch picking required subsequent mechanical or manual sorting of the merchandise to re-establish order integrity before shipping.
Batch processing	A computer term which refers to the processing of computer information after it has been accumulated in one group, or batch. This is the opposite of “real-time” processing where transactions are processed in their entirety as they occur
Batch production	The primary characteristic of batch production is that all components are completed at a workstation before they move to the next one.
Batch pull	An order picking efficiency technique that combines multiple orders for a date or customer range and summarises the total requirements for items on all orders. It allows going to an inventory location once to pick for several orders instead of returning to the same location multiple times.
Battlefield damage Assessment and Repair (BDAR)	A wartime procedure to rapidly return disabled equipment to operational condition by expediently repairing, bypassing, or jury-rigging components to restore the minimum essential systems required for the support of a specific combat mission or to enable the equipment to self-recover.
Baud	A computer term describing the rate of transmission over a channel or circuit. The baud rate is equal to the number of pulses that can be transmitted in one second, often the same as the number of bits per second. Common rates are now 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600 bits and 19.2 and 56 kilobytes (Kbs) for “dial-up” circuits, and may be much higher for broadband circuits
Bayes’ theorem	A formula that considers the conditional probability of the existence of a given event or variable as being caused by a second variable, and the probability of the occurrence of the second variable.
BCP	See Business Continuity Plan
Beam	The maximum breadth of a ship
Bearing plate base	A base of an industrial container with bearing plates and steel stacking legs.
Beginning Available Balance	See Available Inventory
Beginning inventory	The calculated (perpetual) inventory at the start of an accounting period; often generated from month-end close functions that use the ending inventory of one period as the beginning inventory of the next.
Belly cargo	Cargo that is stored underneath the main deck of the ship or airplane.
Belt conveyor	A conveyor that utilises endless belts, made from fabric, rubber, plastic, leather, or metal, energised by drives and operating over those drives, tail ends, bend terminals, belt idlers or slider bed. Handles bulk materials, packages and any object placed directly on the belt.
Belt driven live roller conveyor	A form of powered roller conveyor which is distinguished by a drive motor connected to a wide, flat belt which contacts the underside of the roller surface causing the rollers to rotate and move the load. The load is place directly on the belt which is supported by the rollers.
Bench marking	Measurement of the quality of a firm’s policies, products, programs, strategies, etc., and their comparison with standard measurements, or similar measurements of the best-in-class firms.
Bench Stock	Low-cost, high-use, consumable supply classes II (clothing and equipment), III P (packaged petroleum, oils, and lubricants), IV (construction materials), and IX (repair parts) items (less components) used by maintenance personnel at an unpredictable rate. Bench stocks consist of common hardware, nuts, bolts, washers, capacitors, wire, tubing, hoses, ropes, webbing, thread, welding rods, sandpaper, gasket material, sheet metal, seals, oils, grease, and repair kits Bench stocks are authorised for support level maintenance activities, including aviation unit maintenance activities.
Beneficiary	A firm or person on whom a letter of credit has been drawn. The beneficiary is usually the seller or exporter
Benefit-cost-ratio	An analytical tool used in public planning; a ratio of total measurable benefits divided by the initial capital cost
Bermuda agreement	An agreement concluded in 1946 between the UK and the US, designed to regulate future international air traffic. Most governments accept its principles and follow it inter alia by limiting traffic rights on international routes to one or two carriers
Berth	Is the place beside a pier, quay or wharf where a vessel can be loaded or discharged
Berth cargo	When a liner cargo vessel accepts extra cargo to fill up the empty space remaining
Berth liner service	Is a regular scheduled steamship line with regular published schedules (port of call ) from and to defined trade areas
Berth or liner terms	Is an expression covering assessment of ocean freight rates generally implying that loading and discharging expenses will be for ship owner’s account, and usually apply from the end of ship’s tackle in port of loading to the end of ship’s tackle in port of discharge.
Best fit	In forecasting, software functions that compare multiple possible forecast methods to past actual demand to determine the best method to use in the future. Generically used to indicate the best alternative from given choices.
Best of breed	Systems or functions that exhibit the highest level of performance in their class. Trade-offs occur in multiple-function systems when the costs of integrating several systems offset the benefits of having the best system in each individual area.
Best practice	A specific process or group of processes which have been recognised as the best method for conducting an action. Best Practices may vary by industry or geography depending on the environment being used. Best practices methodology may be applied with respect to resources, activities, cost object, or processes
Beta test	A software version released to a limited population of users for functionality and bug test evaluation before the final release to the general user base
Beyond charges	Charges for movement beyond discharge port to final destination by connecting carrier.
Bias	A set of results consistently above or below an established centreline that indicates the need for corrective action
Bidrectional bar code	A bar code that can be scanned in either direction
Bilateral contract	An agreement wherein each party makes a promise to the other party
Bill of activities	A listing of activities required by a product, service, process output or other cost object. Bill of activity attributes could include volume and or cost of each activity
Bill of entry	A shipper’s detailed statement for customs purposes of the nature and value of goods in a consignment.
Bill of Exchange	Legally defined as “an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer”. It is the most general method of obtaining payment for goods shipped abroad.
Bill of Lading	A legal document between the shipper of a particular good and the carrier detailing the type, quantity and destination of the good being carried. The bill of lading also serves as a receipt of shipment when the good is delivered to the predetermined destination. This document must accompany the shipped goods, no matter the form of transportation, and must be signed by an authorised representative from the carrier, shipper and receiver.
Bill of Lading Act	An act of congress (USA) relating to the preparation and negotiability of bills of lading.
Bill of Materials	A structured list of all the materials or parts and quantities needed to produce a particular finished product, assembly, subassembly or manufactured part, whether purchased or not.
Bill of material accuracy	Conformity of a list of specified items to administrative specifications, with all quantities correct
Bill of material comparison	A tool that compares two or more bills of material to identify duplicates and highlight exceptions and differences in the components. Used in database maintenance and obsolescence reporting.
Bill of material explosion	The function of using the bill of material to generate component item demand quantities and timing given a requirement for the parent
Bill of resources	A listing of resources required by an activity. Resource attributes could include cost and volumes
Billed weight	The weight of a shipment as shown on the freight bill, not necessarily the actual weight.
Bin pallet	A four-sided superstructure that is mounted on a pallet base, with or without a cover. Also known as a box or container bin pallet.
Bin storage	May be considered a special case of shelving. The horizontal opening would typically be much narrower than that found in shelving and would have a vertical restraining member across the lower face of the bin opening.
Black belt	In the six sigma quality improvement methodology, a full time leadership position in teams that develop related programs and monitor progress
Black cargo	Cargo banned by general cargo workers for some reason. This ban could be because the cargo is dangerous or hazardous to health
Blanket order	A type of purchase order that commits to purchase a specific quantity over a specific period of time, but does not necessarily provide specific dates for shipments. Blanket orders are placed for the quantity of an item (or group of items) that you expect to purchase over extended period of time (3 months, 6 months, a year etc). A blanket purchase order may provide estimated required dates for specific quantities, but actual releases to ship against the blanked order are triggered by separate requests from the customer to the supplier; the specific quantities and dates of these separate requests (releases) may or may not be similar to the estimated dates and quantities.
Blanket rate	A rate that does not increase according to the distance the commodity is shipped
Blanket release	The authorisation to ship and/or produce against a blanket agreement or contract
Bleeding edge	An unproven process or technology so far ahead of its time that it may create a competitive disadvantage
Blind count	A physical inventory or cycle count in which the count tag or sheet contains item and location information but does not include the book (calculated) inventory as of the time of count
Block pallet	A pallet designed with blocks of material between the pallet decks or beneath the top deck that serve as strengtheners and posts
Block schedule	A schedule based on blocks or periods of time rather than quantities. Sometimes required when the process dictates a fixed drying or curing time, or a contracted vendor turnaround time.
Block Stacking	The action of putting objects into a block pattern in a floor storage area, usually more than one tier in height
Blow molded pallet	A pallet manufactured by heating a plastic material and extruding it into tubing. A section is cut to the desired length to create a parison which is then introduced into a mold cavity. Air is introduced into the parison to inflate the parison until it conforms to the geometry of the mold. When the part is fully formed and cooled, it is released from the mold for secondary operations such as machining and trimming.
Blow through	An MRP process which uses a “phantom bill of material” and permits MRP logic to drive requirements straight through the phantom item to its components. The MRP system usually retains its ability to net against any occasional inventories of the item. Also see: Phantom Bill of Material
Blue label	Warning label affixed to radioactive cargo.
BPM	See Business Performance Measurement
Bolster	This is a piece of equipment equivalent to the bottom of a container without sides. Often used for stacking parcels of sawn timber and bags of cocoa. Otherwise known as a flat or pontoon
Bolt on	A third party, specific application designed to enhance or extend a base system through increased functionality.
Bona fide	Latin for “in good faith”; without fraud or deceit.
Bonded	Contractual description of service delivery performance specifying terms and conditions that may involve posting a bond.
Bonded blocking	In order that boxes do not topple or turn over when they are stacked, the boxes are overlapped in a wall configuration. This overlapping forms a bond as such
Bonded Warehousing	A type of warehousing in which companies place goods in storage without paying taxes or tariffs. The warehouse manager bonds himself or herself to the tax or tariff collecting agency to ensure payment of the taxes before the warehouse releases the goods.
Book inventory	An accounting definition of inventory units or value obtained from perpetual inventory records rather than by actual count
Bookable route	A multi-modal collection of carrier specific scheduled legs, connecting a departure origin to a target destination.
Bookings	The sum of the value of all orders received (but not necessarily shipped), net of all discounts, coupons, allowances, and rebates
Bottleneck	A constraint, obstacle or planned control that limits throughput or the utilisation of capacity
Bottom Block	The device at the bottom of a hoist’s lifting medium (chain/wire rope) through which the medium is reeved and supports the hook and/or an attachment. May be stationary or rotating depending upon the requirements for the piece of lifting equipment
Bottom-up replanning	In MRP, the process of using pegging data to solve material availability or other problems. This process is accomplished by the planner (not the computer system), who evaluates the effects of possible solutions. Potential solutions include compressing lead time, cutting order quantity, substituting material, and changing the master schedule.
Box Crane	An overhead travelling crane that utilises a “box” configuration in fabricating the bridge girder. This box girder design incorporates a four-sided box with a running surface plate for the hoist trolley attached to the bottom of the box. The advantage of the box girder is that it possesses greater loading capabilities and is able to span greater bridge distances. Generally utilised in pairs with the hoisting mechanism operating on rails attached to the top of each box girder.
Boxcar	An enclosed rail car typically 40 to 50 feet long; used for packaged freight and some bulk commodities
Box-Jenkins Model	A forecasting method based on regression and moving average models. The model is based not on regression of independent variables, but on past observations of the item to be forecast at varying time lags and on previous error values from forecasting. See: Forecast.
Boxplot	A graphical representation of a quality test that shows process variability distribution based on the mean, upper and lower specification limits in the form of a box.
BPO	See Business Process Outsourcing
BPR	See Business Process Re-engineering
Bracing	Securing a shipment inside a carrier’s vehicle to prevent damage
Bracketed recall	Recall from customers of suspect lot numbers plus a specified number of lots produced before and after the suspect ones
Breadman	A specific application of Kanban, used in coordinating vendor replenishment activities. In making bread or other route type deliveries, the deliveryman typically arrives at the customer’s location and fills a designated container or storage location with product. The size of the order is not specified on an ongoing basis, nor does the customer even specify requirements for each individual delivery. Instead, the supplier assumes the responsibility for quantifying the need against a prearranged set of rules and delivers the requisite quantity
Break even analysis	An examination of changes in fixed and variable costs based on varying revenue and production levels that identifies a break-even point where revenues are equal to costs. It highlights the profit results from alternative levels of operation. (syn: cost-profit-volume analysis).
Break even point	The level of production or the volume of sales at which operations are neither profitable nor unprofitable. The break-even point is the intersection of the total revenue and total cost curves. Also see: Total Cost Curve
Break-bulk	The separation of a consolidated bulk load into smaller individual shipments for delivery to the ultimate consignee. The freight may be moved intact inside the trailer, or it may be interchanged and rehandled to connecting carriers.
Breeder bill of material	A bill of material that accounts for the generation and cost implications of by-products as a result of manufacturing the parent item.
Bricks and Mortar	A street-side business that offers products and services to its customers face-to-face in an office or store that the business owns or rents. T.
Bridge Crane	A lifting and horizontal movement device mounted on a “bridge” of one or more horizontal girders (bridge girders) which are supported at either end by trucks (end trucks). These trucks are attached at right angles to the girders and move on runways which are attached to a building’s columns, overhead trusses, frames, or via a free standing system of columns
Broken case	An open case. The term is often used interchangeably with “repack” or “less-than-full-case” to name the area in which materials are picked in that form
Brombadier sorter	A device in which items are dropped down through swinging doors to a desired location.
Brussels definition of value (BDV)	The rules on Customs valuation according to the BDV are based on the notional concept of “value” which treats the dutiable value as the “normal price” at which the goods would be sold in an open market between an importer and an exporter operating independently. The “normal price” is the open market price at which the goods are freely available to any buyer subject to compliance with certain conditions. For example, if a sole agent receives a special discount, which is not granted to other importers, it has to be added to the price to arrive at the normal or open market price for Customs valuation purposes.
Brussels tariff nomenclature number	The customs tariff number used by most European nations. The United States does not use the BTN, but a similar system known as the harmonised tariff schedule.
Bucket loader	A form of portable, self-feeding, inclined bucket elevator for loading bulk materials into cars, trucks, or other conveyors
Bucketed	A reporting system that accumulates multiple daily records into a larger, user-specified time frame (weeks, quarters, years, etc.). Enables easier analysis when daily detail is not required
Bucketed system	An MRP, DRP, or other time-phased system in which all time-phased data are accumulated into time periods, or buckets. If the period of accumulation is one week, then the system is said to have weekly buckets
Bucketless system	An MRP, DRP, or other time-phased system in which all time-phased data are processed, stored, and usually displayed using dated records rather than defined time periods, or buckets.
Budgeted cost of work performed	The earned (standard) cost or budget value of project tasks completed for a given time period. It is compared to actual cost of work performed (ACWP) to determine variance conditions.
Budgeted cost of work scheduled	The earned (standard) cost or budget value of project tasks scheduled to be completed for a given time period. A cumulative view of the planned costs based on the budget schedule.
Buffer management	The set of processes used in the theory of constraints to manage the buffers used to ensure continued operation of the constraint. Activities and materials processing operations are prioritised on the basis of their criticality to maintaining or rebuilding buffer stocks.
Buffering	The process of storing “back-up” or reserve stock/inventory to absorb expected variations in usage between the time reorder action is initiated and the first part of new orders is received in stock
Build to order	Product or service to be made upon receiving order.
Business unit	A division or segment of an organisation generally treated as a separate profit-and-loss centre.
Bulk	The classic use of the term bulk (bulk materials, bulk inventory, bulk storage) in inventory management and distribution refers to raw materials such as coal, iron ore, grains, etc. that are stored or transported in large quantities. This would include rail cars, tanker trucks, or silos full of a single material. However, this term can also have a variety of other definitions based upon the specific industry or facility. For example, a small-parts picking operation may refer to a case storage area as “bulk”, while a case-picking operation may refer to the full-pallet area as the “bulk area”.
Bulk bin	Plastic or metal bins that are designed to handle larger or “bulk” quantities of materials or merchandise. Bulk bins tend to large in size, relative to other types of bins, and are generally designed to be higher capacity in terms of load capabilities
Bulk carrier	Ship specifically designed to transport vast amounts of cargoes such as sugar, grain, wine, ore, chemicals, liquefied natural gas; coal and oil. See also LNG Carrier, Tanker, OBO Ship.
Bulk container	Bulk containers are heavy duty containers designed for bulk storage material handling.
Bulk issue	Components and materials issued to the production, based on the cumulative requirements for multiple production orders, shifts or days. Not used in to-order environments where lot traceability is an issue
Bulk packing	The process or act of placing numbers of small cartons or boxes into a larger single box to aid in the movement of product and to prevent damage or pilferage to the smaller cartons or boxes
Bulk storage	The process of housing or storing materials and packages in larger quantities, generally using the original packaging or shipping containers or boxes
Bulkhead	A name given to any vertical partition which separates different compartments or spaces from one another.
Bullwhip Effect	The Bullwhip Effect (or Whiplash Effect) is an observed phenomenon in forecast-driven distribution channels. It refers to increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in consumer demand as one moves further up the supply chain. The concept has its roots in J Forrester’s Industrial Dynamic (1961) and thus it is also known as the Forrester Effect. Since the oscillating demand magnification upstream a supply chain reminds someone of a cracking whip it became famous as the Bullwhip Effect.
Bumpers, dock	Pieces of rubber or other resilient material located at the floor level of a dock opening to cushion the building from truck trailer impact
Bundle	A group of products that are shipped together as an unassembled unit
Bunkering	To replenish the fuel
Bureau of Export Administration	The mission of the American Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) is to advance U.S. national security, foreign policy, and economic interests. BXA’s activities include regulating the export of sensitive goods and technologies in an effective and efficient manner; enforcing export control, antiboycott, and public safety laws; cooperating with and assisting other countries on export control and strategic trade issues; assisting U.S. industry to comply with international arms control agreements; monitoring the viability of the U.S. defence industrial base; and promoting federal initiatives and public-private partnerships across industry sectors to protect the nation’s critical infrastructures.
Burn rate	The rate of consumption of cash in a business. Burn rate is used to determine cash requirements on an on-going basis. A burn-rate of $50,000 would mean the company spends $50,000 a month above any incoming cash flow to sustain its business. Entrepreneurial companies will calculate their burn-rate in order to understand how much time they have before they need to raise more money, or show a positive cash flow.
Bushel	A measure of capacity (8 gallons) for dry commodities
Business activity monitoring	A term which refers to capturing operational data in real-time or close to it, making it possible for an enterprise to react more quickly to events. This is typically done through software and includes features to provide alerts / notifications when specific events occur. See also: Supply Chain Event Management
Business case scenario	A common, defined situation encountered in normal business operations; systems and procedures are developed and documented to define the standard methodology used for that process.
Business continuity plan	A contingency plan for sustained operations during periods of high risk, such as during labour unrest or natural disaster. CSCMP provides suggestions for helping companies do continuity planning in their Securing the Supply Chain Research. A copy of the research is available on the CSCMP website
Business intelligence	Systems that provide directed background data and reporting tools to support and improve the decision-making process.
Business logistics	The process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements. Note that this definition includes inbound, outbound, internal and external movements.
Business performance measurement	A technique which uses a system of goals and metrics to monitor performance. Analysis of these measurements can help businesses in periodically setting business goals, and then providing feedback to managers on progress towards those goals. A specific measure can be compared to itself over time, compared with a pre-set target or evaluated along with other measures.
Business plan	A statement of long-range strategy and revenue, cost, and profit objectives usually accompanied by budgets, a projected balance sheet, and a cash flow (source and application of funds) statement. A business plan is usually stated in terms of dollars and grouped by product family. The business plan is then translated into synchronised tactical functional plans through the production planning process (or the sales and operations planning process). Although frequently stated in different terms (dollars versus units), these tactical plans should agree with each other and with the business plan. See: long-term planning, strategic plan.
Business process mapping	Techniques that specify the steps, control points and resources involved in current state business processes, identify desired changes and risk/reward trade-offs, and create the methods to implement cross-functional systems that support the desired new processes.
Business process outsourcing	The practice of outsourcing non-core internal functions to third parties. Functions typically outsourced include logistics, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and human resources. Other areas can include IT development or complete management of the IT functions of the enterprise.
Business process re-engineering	The fundamental rethinking and often-times, radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic organisational improvements
Business Strategy	Redirect form Strategic management. the art, science and craft of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organisation to achieve its long-term objectives. It is the process of specifying the organisation’s mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans, often in terms of projects and programs, which are designed to achieve these objectives and then allocating resources to implement the policies, and plans, projects and programs.
Buyer	An enterprise that arranges for the acquisition of goods or services and agrees to payment terms for such goods or services.
Buyer behaviour	The way individuals or organisations behave in a purchasing situation. The customer-oriented concept finds out the wants, needs, and desires of customers and adapts resources of the organisation to deliver need-satisfying goods and services. The way individuals or organisations behave in a purchasing situation. The customer-oriented concept finds out the wants, needs, and desires of customers and adapts resources of the organisation to deliver need-satisfying goods and services
Buyer’s right to route	When a seller does not pay freight charges, the purchaser has a right to designate the route for shipment, and the seller is responsible for following the buyer’s instructions. Complete routing is permitted for rail shipments, but limited to the first carrier in motor shipments
BV	Bureau Veritas – an institution, in the interest of maritime underwriters, for the survey and rating of vessels all over the world.
By-product	An item, automatically generated by the production process of another item, that has value and is inventoried. The by-product is not scheduled but can be planned as an expected receipt as a result of scheduling the generating item, and its cost may be netted against the original item.