Sales forecasting
and inventory optimization
Become a retail mastermind you always wanted to be.
34 minutes read
Dictionary O
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| O S & D (Over, Short and Damaged) | A term used to describe a shipment that has been damaged or lost in transit or that arrives with more containers than originally shipped. |
| Oath of entry | In foreign trade, this term applies to a form which is required for the importation of goods into the country. |
| Object Of Insurance | The goods in transport by sea, by land and by air, pursuant to a contract for sale and being forwarded by the Insurance Taker constitute the object of insurance. |
| Obsolescence cost | The decrease in value of inventory value resulting from the change in market value, or the introduction of more advanced substitutes, usually associated with time, is obsolescence cost. This cost results primarily in high-fashion goods, electronics, computers, and other industries of highly technical equipment with a high rate of innovation.(OB COST) |
| Obsolete Inventory | Term that refers to inventory that is at the end of its product life cycle and has not seen any sales or usage for a set period of time usually determined by the industry. This type of inventory has to be written down and can cause large losses for a company. |
| Ocean Bill Of Lading | A bill of lading issued by the ocean-going carriers. |
| Ocean route | The all-water transportation portion of a route. |
| Ocean Waybill | A document, issued by a shipping line to a shipper which serves as a receipt for the goods and evidence of the contract carriage. |
| ODIN | Origin-Destination Information versus Traffic Control, a DRIVE project. |
| Off Season | Refers to periods of low traffic of which special fares, etc., are utilised. |
| Off The Shelf | Systems and software programs that can be used as is, without further development or modification. |
| Offer | The first part of a contract creation. An offer is a form of power that a first party is giving to a second party to commit the first party to a requirement. In many ways a purchase order sent to a seller is a form of offer. If the seller acknowledges the terms of the purchase order, than an acceptance exists and a contract has been created. |
| Official Air Cargo Tariff Circulars | A circular put out by the Air Tariff Publishers, Inc., specifying the requirement by state and federal governments for accepting and transporting special commodities. Used for the movement of livestock, human remains, gambling equipment, etc. |
| Official Development Assistance | Grants and loans that donors (the governments of rich countries) give to developing countries. According to a United Nations agreement, these donor governments agreed to contribute of 0.7 percent of their gross national product. |
| Official Log Book | The log of events happening at sea on the vessel includes deaths, births, marriages, accidents, fines, sickness, and other major actions involving the ship. |
| Official Number: | A registered number given to all merchant vessels and cut in on the vessel’s “main beam”, together with the net registered tonnage. |
| Official Railway Guide | A North American publication containing railroad information, distances between stations, names of officials and their addresses, and other major information. |
| Offline | Facilities and installations use by certificated air carriers for other than scheduled service. |
| Off-Route Points | Points located off the regular route highways of line haul carriers and served either on irregular schedules on deliveries of LTL freight or on truckloads only, whenever freight is available. For scheduled ocean liner service, these would be ports not served by a carriers but ones they could arrange for delivery of cargo. |
| Offset | The process of using an intermediate blanket cylinder to transfer an image from the image carrier to the substrate. Short for offset lithography. |
| Offshore | Contracting work carried out at sea (eg. Drilling for oil) |
| Oil Bulk Ore Vessel | A vessel, designed for the carriage of either dry or liquid bulk cargo. |
| On Board | Cargo has been loaded on board a combined transport mode of conveyance. Used to satisfy the requirements of a letter of credit, in the absence of an express requirement to the contrary. |
| On Board Bill of Lading | A bill of lading in which a carrier acknowledges that cargoes have been placed on board a certain vessel. The on-board date of bills of lading is the date on which liabilities of the carrier start. |
| On Carriage | The carriage of goods (containers) by any mode of transport to the place of delivery after discharge from the ocean vessel (main means of transport) at the port (place) of discharge. |
| On Consignment: | Goods sent for sale at the best prices that the consignee can realise on behalf of the consignor. An example is when a supplier sends goods to a customer(per an order), the customer holds them and pays for them as they use or sell them. This saves capital costs for the customer, but it means a delay in receipt of payment for the sellers. The benefit for the seller is the guarantee of eventual sale of the goods. |
| On Hold | If the user wants to exclude any active account from daily functions, this account status should be assigned. The system will not include this account in any processes. However, the account will be included on any report. |
| On order | The quantity of goods that has yet to arrive at a location or retail store. This includes all open purchase orders including, but not limited to, orders in transit, orders being picked, and orders being processed through customer service. |
| On Shelf Availability | A customer service measure of what percent of demanded sales in a given period could be satisfied with the goods on hand. |
| On Time In Full (OTIF) | Sales order delivery performance measure which can be expressed as a target, say, of achieving 98% of orders delivered in full, no part shipments, on the requested date. |
| On-Board Computer | Cab-mounted device which electronically or mechanically records data such as truck speed, engine rpm, idle time and other information useful to trucking management. |
| On-Demand | Pertaining to work performed when demand is present. Typically used to describe products which are manufactured or assembled only when a customer order is placed. |
| One to Many Purchasing | A system of buying where the customer announces to many suppliers what price it is willing to pay for a specific good or service and then waits until one or more of the suppliers accepts the offer. |
| One Way Pallet | A pallet that is designed and constructed so as to allow fork entry from only the back or front. Also, a pallet, which is considered expendable. |
| One-Touch Exchange Of Die (Oted)- | A setup reduction goal that reduces the process to a single step, or one touch. |
| One-Way lease | The lease of containers that covers the outbound voyage only, after which the container is returned to the lease holder at or near destination agreed. |
| On-Hand Balance | The quantity shown in the inventory records as being physically in stock. |
| On-line Charge | The charge which applies to carriage over the lines of a single carrier (aircargo). Synonyms: Local Charge, Local Rate, On-line Rate. |
| On-line receiving | A system in which computer terminals are available at each receiving bay and operators enter items into the system as they are unloaded. |
| Open Account | Method of payment for goods. Seller and buyer agree on payment terms; freight and necessary documents are sent to buyer. The buyer generally has 60 to 90 days to reimburse the seller (with no interest charges). The seller carrys all the risk in this suitation. |
| Open and Prepay Stations | An official list of freight stations in the United States with information as to whether goods may be consigned collect or whether charges must be prepaid. |
| Open Charter | A charter in which neither the destination or nature of the cargo is specified. |
| Open Cover | A form of long term cargo insurance contract. It has no aggregate limit but, subject to a limit to the amount at risk in any one vessel, and often a limit to the amount at risk in any one location prior to shipment, the contract covers all shipments forwarded by the assured during the currency of the open cover. Underwriters have the right to cancel at any time by giving the requisite notice of their intention to cancel, but shipments that have commenced transit before the notice period expires continue to be covered until final delivery within the terms of the transit clause. |
| Open Data-Link Interface | A standard interface, developed by Novell and Apple, that performs the same functions as NDIS. |
| Open Economy | An economy which has extensive and largely unimpeded transactions with other countries. Distinct from a closed economy that imposes severe trade restrictions. |
| Open Insurance Policy | A marine insurance policy that applies to all shipments made by an exporter over a period of time rather than to one shipment only. |
| Open Order | The quantity of goods still to be delivered, received, produced, issued, etc., for which the planned or agreed date has expired. The total number of customer orders which have been received but not yet been shipped.Synonym: Backlog. |
| Open Rate | A rate for a commodity by a liner ocean carrier that is subject to negotiation on liner traffic for each and every voyage. It is a rate that is not subject to review and approval by rate conference. |
| Open Routing | Situation in which a rate between two points applies over more than one route, any one of which can be used for shipping the goods or routing the passenger. |
| Open Side Container | Shipping container with frames with wire-mesh at the sides covered by means of a tarpaulin which can be dropped down to give unrestricted access to the sides of the container for loading or discharging. |
| Open Skies | An agreement between two nations that allows unrestricted or near unrestricted commercial flights between them by their flag carriers to and from any airport with customs and immigration facilities in the other countries. It is a form of modern deregulation. Japan and the United Kingdom are among the last hold outs of this form of deregulation in the world. |
| Open Station | Any station at which an agent of a carrier is located and to which freight may be shipped collect. |
| Open System | A system capable of communicating with other open systems by virtue of implementing common international standard protocols. |
| Open Top Container | A container fitted with a solid removable roof or with a tarpaulin roof that can be loaded or unloaded from the top. |
| Open-to-Buy | A control technique used in aggregate inventory management in which authorizations to purchase are made without being committed to specific suppliers. These authorizations are often reviewed by management using such measures as commodity in dollars and by time period. |
| Open-to-Receive | Authorization to receive goods, such as a blanket release, firm purchase order item, or supplier schedule. |
| Operating Authority | Routes,points and other traffic that may be served by a carrier as granted by a regulatory agency. |
| Operating Cost | Recurring costs in transportation systems that include wages, salaries, taxed, insurance, and supplies, but not capital depreciation or interest payments. |
| Operating Differential Subsidy | A traditional maritime subsidy by many nations that compensates its flag carriers for the difference in operating costs as against those other country carriers operating in the same markets with lower cost operations. It is designed to protect and preserve that flag nation’s shipping capacity. |
| Operating Efficiency | A ratio of the actual output of a piece of equipment, department, or plant as compared to the planned or standard output. |
| Operating Expense | The cost incident to the actual handling of traffic. |
| Operating Lease | Any lease that is not a capital lease is defined as an operating lease. These are generally used for short-term leases of equipment. An operating lease cannot violate any of the 4 criteria stated in a Capital Lease. |
| Operating Ratio | Operating costs divided by total costs( or total revenue). |
| Operating Requirement | Any term is a contract with a supplier that requires to adhere to certain practices that would normally be within their management discretion of them. Example: transportation is to be performed only by ships of a certain flag. |
| Operating Revenue | Total money received by a carrier, from transportation and from operations incident thereto. |
| Operating Standards | Specific features in a transportation contract that the shipper seeks to have the carrier follow. Examples are hiring qualified drivers, adhering to hazardous requirements, and maintaining safe equipment. The same is found in purchase of goods and service contracts. |
| Operating System | An operating system (sometimes abbreviated as “OS”) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all the other programs in a computer. The other programs are called applications or application programs. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface (API). In addition, users can interact directly with the operating system through a user interface such as a command language or a graphical user interface (GUI). |
| Operation | An activity or event; the manner in which something works; a procedure or process; a military mission or campaign; or a state of functioning or performing. |
| Operation Of Straddle Carrier | Straddles pick and carry containers while straddling their load and connecting to the top lifting points. These machines have the ability to stack containers up to 4 high. These are capable of relatively low speeds (up to 30 km/h) with a laden container. |
| Operation Plan | A plan for a single or series of connected operations to be carried out simultaneously or in succession. It is usually based upon stated assumptions and is the form of directive employed by higher authority to permit subordinate commanders to prepare supporting plans and orders. The designation “plan” is usually used instead of “order” in preparing for operations well in advance. An operation plan may be put into effect at a prescribed time, or on signal, and then becomes the operation order. |
| Operation Sequence | The numerical designation in a routing that indicates the order in which operations are performed. |
| Operation Time | The elapsed time for an operation that includes setup and run hours, but does not include queue or move time. |
| Operational Audit | Sometimes called program or performance audits, examine the use of unit resources to evaluate whether those resources are being used in the most efficient and effective ways to fulfill the unit’s mission and objectives. An operational audit includes elements of a compliance audit, a financial audit, and an information systems audit. |
| Operational Performance Measurements | In traditional management, performance measurements related to machine, worker, or department efficiency or utilization. |
| Operations Research | Eefers to the application of scientific methods, techniques, and tools to problems involving the operations of a system, to provide those in control of the system with optimum solutions to the problems. |
| Operator | The party responsible for the day to day operational management of certain premises such as ware-houses, terminals and vessels. |
| Opportunity Cost | An implicit or explicit cost that exists whenever one alternative is chosen over another; the foregone benefit from choosing other than the beat alternative. If a firm has $1 million of inventory, but could invest in alternative money markets at, say 5-1/5%, then the holding of inventory incurs an opportunity cost to extent of the short term money market returns of invested cash. In this case it could be $150 per day. |
| Opportunity Sourcing | The practice of searching for and analysing suppliers with the intent of learning their offerings and capabilities without there being sourcing. The goal of opportunity sourcing is to discover potential suppliers with capabilities and technologies that the firm might be able to utilise in its own product innovation processes. |
| Optical Character Recognition | The ability of a computer to recognize written characters through some optical-sensing device and pattern recognition software. |
| Optical Disk | An unalterable optical storage medium that allows large amounts of data to be permanently written to it. An optical disk is read using laser and magnetic technology and has a useful life span of 100 plus years. |
| Optical Scanners | Reading devices usually used in material handling to automatically record and/ or affect sortation, stocking, picking, etc. |
| Optimisation | Achieving the best possible solution to a problem in terms of a specified objective function. |
| Optimiser | The part of a relational database management kernel that’s responsible for determining how the records required to execute a statement will be located and retrieved (the execution plan). |
| Optimising Model | A model or formula that results in an optimum(maximum or minimum) answer of the entire function. |
| Optimum Cube | The highest level of cube utilization that can be achieved when loading cargo into a container. |
| Optimum Value | Practice of purchasing the required quality items at the least total cost for the firm. |
| Option | One of a limited range of choices or features that if offered to a customer when purchasing an otherwise basic standard product and that has to be an integral part of the product (used in commercial trading). |
| Optional Cargo | Cargo of which the final destination is not known at the moment of booking but will be indicated during the transport. |
| Optional Port | A port of which it is not known whether or not it will be called by a vessel during a voyage. |
| Optional Replenishment Model | A form of independent demand item management model in which a review of inventory on hand plus on order is made at fixed intervals. If the actual quantity is lower than some predetermined threshold, a reorder is placed for a quantity M x, where M is the maximum allowable inventory and x is the current inventory quantity. The reorder point, R, may be deterministic or stochastic, and in either instance is large enough to cover the maximum expected demand during the review interval plus the replenishment lead time. The optional replenishment model is sometimes called a hybrid system because it combines certain aspects of the fixed reorder cycle inventory model and the fixed reorder quantity inventory model. |
| Order | A request to deliver specified quantities of goods or to render specific services. |
| Order Batching | Practice of compiling and collecting orders before they are sent in to the manufacturer. |
| Order Bill Of Lading | A form of bill of lading that can be used to sell (by the shipper) or affect payment (by the buyer) for the goods en route in the care of the carrier. |
| Order Call Off | An order placed with a supplier where a long term or all-encompassing contract is in effect. This is in place of a traditional requisition and purchase order system. Order call offs are often performed by persons inside the firm who contact the supplier directly. |
| Order Complete Manufacture to Customer Receipt of Order | Average lead time from when an order is ready for shipment to customer receipt of order, including the following sub-elements: pick/pack time, preparation for shipment, total transit time for all components to consolidation point, consolidation, queue time, and additional transit time to customer receipt. (An element of Order Fulfillment Lead-Time). |
| Order Consolidation Profile | The activities associated with filling a customer order by bringing together in one physical place all of the line items ordered by the customer. Some of these may come directly from the production line others may be picked from stock. |
| Order Cost | All of the costs associated with the clerical work of preparing an order, transmitting the order, following up the order, and recording receipt of the order. It does not include machine set-up costs for manufacturing, since that is a part of purchase price. It does not include the costs of physically handling the inbound order, since that is accounted for in: (1) storage in-and-out costs, or labor costs; and (2) transportation shipping and receiving costs. |
| Order Cycle | The time and process involved from the placement of an order to the receipt of the shipment. |
| Order Entry and Scheduling | The process of receiving orders from the customer and entering them into a company’s order processing system. Orders can be received through phone, fax, or electronic media. Activities may include “technically” examining orders to ensure an orderable configuration and provide accurate price, checking the customer’s credit and accepting payment (optionally), identifying and reserving inventory (both on hand and scheduled), and committing and scheduling a delivery date. |
| Order Entry Complete to Start Manufacture | Average lead-time from completion of customer order to the time manufacturing begins, including the following sub-elements: order wait time, engineering and design time. |
| Order For Service | The document authorizing the carrier to transport your household goods. |
| Order Fulfillment Lead Time | Average, consistently achieved lead-time from customer order origination to customer order receipt, for a particular manufacturing process strategy (Make-to-Stock, Make-to-Order, Configure/Package-to-Order, Engineerto- Order). |
| Order Interval | The time period between the placement of orders. |
| Order line | Each line on a customer’s purchase order. An order line always contains one Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) only, but the number may vary. |
| Order Management | The planning, directing, monitoring, and controlling of the processes related to customer orders, manufacturing orders, and purchase orders. Regarding customer orders, order management includes order promising, order entry, order pick, pack and ship, billing, and reconciliation of the customer account. Regarding manufacturing orders, order management includes order release, routing, manufacture, monitoring, and receipt into stores or finished goods inventories. Regarding purchasing orders, order management includes order placement, monitoring, receiving, acceptance, and payment of supplier. |
| Order Management Costs | One of the elements comprising a company’s total supply-chain management costs. |
| Order Note | An order note is similar to a promissory note. It embodies an obligation to pay amount due. Order notes are regularly used in financing arrangements involving a borrower. The legal value of an order note is twofold. It is prima facie evidence of a customer’s indebtedness. |
| Order Notify | A bill of lading term to provide surrender of the original bill of lading before freight is released; usually associated with a shipment covered under a letter of credit. |
| Order Number | It’s the number used to identify and track your shipment. |
| Order Picker Truck | A high-lift truck controlled by the operator stationed on a platform movable with the load engaging means and intended for manual stock selection. The truck may be capable of self-loading, of tiering or both |
| Order Picking | The preparation of an order by the packer involving the packing according to the written order. |
| Order Point | A periodically or dynamically calculated quantity of stock against which available stock; (SOH) + on order , reserved stock) is continuously checked. When available stock equals or is less than order point a replenishment order is triggered. |
| Order Point Order Quantity System | The inventory method that places an order for a lot whenever the quantity on hand is reduced to a predetermined level known as the order point. |
| Order Point System of Inventory Control | An inventory control mechanism that causes a reorder when the level drops to a certain quantity of goods on hand. |
| Order Pooling | The combination of multiple orders for picking and loading, based on destination, size, priority and other parameters. |
| Order Processing | The handling of customer orders within the distribution centre; involving the keying of customer and order details into the computer system in order to produce invoices for picking. |
| Order Promising | The process of making a delivery commitment, i.e., answering the question, when can you ship? For make-to-order products, this usually involves a check of uncommitted material and availability of capacity, often as represented by the master schedule available-to-promise. |
| Order Quantity | The batch quantity of a part that the computer will plan to be made at one time whenever the projected available balance for that part falls below zero or the safety stock if there is one. If more than the Order Quantity is required the computer will plan in Multiples of the Order Quantity. |
| Order Receipt to Order Entry Complete | Average lead-time from receipt of a customer order to the time that order entry is complete, including the following sub-elements: order revalidation, product configuration check, credit check and order scheduling. |
| Order Release | The time and process required to evaluate requirements, create orders in a system and notify the source of supply. |
| Order Selector | Lift truck designed specifically for manual handling of less than pallet load quantities in racking. Man-up design has fixed forks attached to a platform that elevates the load and the operator to facilitate manual loading and unloading from racking. |
| Order to Cash Cycle | The length of time required from when a firm receives an order from a customer all the way through to the date when it receives financial settlement from the customer. |
| Order Transparency | A term that means tha the progress of the order through the firm’s purchasing department, supplier’s order management system, their warehousing/manufacturing, etc. is completely visible or accessible easily by persons within the buying firm. |
| Order Up To | An inventory ordering policy used in periodic review systems whereby at certain points in time a check is made of an inventory level and an order is placed for a quantity that will bring that inventory level up to a predetermined quantity. |
| Ordinary Breakage | Breakage of fragile cargo which by its regularity has become accepted as inevitable loss during transit. |
| Ordinary Livestock | Defined as all cattle, swine, goats, sheep, horses and mules, except such as are chiefly valuable for breeding, racing, show purposes and other special uses. |
| Ore Carrier | A large ship designed to be used for the carnage of ore. Because of the high density of ore, ore carriers have a relatively high center of gravity to prevent them being still when at sea, that is, rolling heavily with possible stress to the hull. |
| ORFS | Abbreviation for “Origin Rail Freight Station.” Same as CFS at origin except an ORFS is operated by the rail carrier participating in the shipment. |
| Organisation | The working structure of a company, corporation, association, etc., to handle efficiently various branches of work. Transportation organisations are divided into departments such as the executive, financial, operating, traffic, etc. |
| Organisations For The Promotion Of Energy Technology | A network of organizations active in the promotion of technology, established in conjunction with theTHERMIE programme. |
| Organizing | The act of placing things in a particular order or arrangement. |
| Orginal Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) | A manufacturer that buys and incorporates another supplier’s products into its own products. Also, products supplied to the original equipment manufacturer or sold as part of an assembly. For example, an engine may be sold to an OEM for use as that company’s power source for its generator units. |
| Orientation of a bar code | The alignment of a bar code symbol with respect to horizontal. Two possible rientations are horizontal with vertical bars and spaces (picket fence) and vertical with horizontal bars and spaces (ladder). |
| Origin | Location where shipment begins its movement. |
| Origin of Traffic | A point from which the traffic begins. The point or place which originates the traffic. |
| Original | Fist in order; that from which anything is copied. In commerce, the original bill of lading, original invoice, etc. |
| Original Bill of Lading | A document which requires proper signatures for consummating carriage of contract. Must be marked as “original” by the issuing carrier. |
| Original Data | The source data utilized by a resource provider to construct their initial environmental representation. |
| Original Equipment Manufacturer (Oem) | A manufacturer that buys and incorporates another supplier’s products into its own products. Also, products supplied to the original equipment manufacturer or sold as part of an assembly. For example, an engine may be sold to an OEM for use as that company’s power source for its generator units. |
| Original Receiving Charges | A Terminal Handling Charge levied at ports of loading. |
| Out Of Gauge Cargo | Cargo which dimensions are exceeding the normal dimensions of a 20 or 40 feet container, e.g. overlength, overwidth, overheight, or combinations thereof. |
| Out of Pocket Cost | Those carrier costs directly attributable to the movement of the traffic. |
| Out Of Sequence | A production operation or project task begun before its predecessor has been started, as in activities reported against operation 40 on a routing when operation 20 and 30 have not been reported (assuming that operation backflushing is not being used). outlier- An observed value so far removed from the normal distribution that it may be considered an abnormality or one-time event, and is often not included in future calculations based on that set of data. |
| Out Of Stock | The state of not having inventory at a location and available for distribution or for sell to the consumer (zero inventory). |
| Out Port | A port or harbor located some distance from the chief port. |
| Out Turn | The quantity of cargo discharged from a ship. |
| Outboard | Away from the center fore-and-aft line of the vessel. |
| Outbound | Outbound bound. Direction of vessel or cargo going out from port of loading or point/place of receipt. |
| Outbound consolidation | Consolidation of a number of small shipments for various customers into a larger load. The large load is then shipped to a location near the customers where it is broken down and then the small shipments are distributed to the customers. This can reduce overall shipping charges where many small packet or parcel shipments are handled each day. |
| Outbound Logistics | Outbound Logistics’ is the part of the supply chain process, such as custom assembly or private labelling, that moves, stores, and adds value to goods on the way to their final destination. It sits between supply-side processes such as purchasing and materials management and demand considerations such as sales, marketing, order-taking and customer service. |
| Outgate | The process of checking a container or trailer out of an intermodal facility. The process includes inspection of the unit, input of data into a computer system. |
| Outlier | A data point that differs significantly from other data for a similar phenomenon. For example, if the average sales for a product were 10 units per month, and one month the product had sales of 500 units, this sales point might be considered an outlier. |
| Outpartnering | The process of involving the supplier in a close partnership with the firm and its operations management system. Outpartnering is characterized by close working relationships between buyers and suppliers, high levels of trust, mutual respect and emphasis on joint problem solving and cooperation. With outpartnering, the supplier is viewed not as an alternative source of goods and services but rather as a source of knowledge, expertise and complementary core competencies. Outpartneing is typically found during the early stages of the product life cycle when dealing with products that are viewed as critical to the strategic survival of the firm. |
| Out-port Arbitrary | An extra charge in steamship tariffs for picking up or dropping off freight at a port that is not a regular stop along a liner’s route. |
| Output | Output is the end result of converting electronic art files into the prepress materials used for printing production. Imagesetters output film negatives or film positives which are used to make printing plates. Platesetters output the printing plates used on the press. |
| Outright | An order to buy or sell only one specific type of futures contract; an order that is not a spread order. |
| Outside Dimensions | The outside dimensions of a container or package. In drums it is measured by the diameter over the rolling hoops. |
| Outside Operation | A routing operation performed by a vendor instead of using internal resources. Outside operation costs are often quoted in terms of lots or units processed, and material used may either be transferred from the customer facility or drop shipped from another vendor but is owned by the customer. |
| Outsider | A carrier, which operates on a route served by a liner conference but which is not a member of that conference. |
| Outsource | Turning a company operation or assets over to another firm for them to supply or manage. Distinct from access which is to seek something from an outside firm in a close relationship manner for which the firm is not capable of performing on its own and has a critical need for it. |
| Outsourced Cost of Goods Sold | Operations performed on raw material outside of the responding entity’s organization that would typically be considered internal to the entity’s manufacturing cycle. Outsourced cost of goods sold captures the value of all outsourced activities that roll up as cost of goods sold. Some examples of commonly outsourced areas are assembly by subcontract houses, test, metal finishing or painting and specialized assembly process. |
| Outturn | Total volume of wood recovered from felling |
| Outturn Report | Written statement by a company in which the condition of cargo discharged from a vessel is noted along with any discrepancies in the quantity compared with the vessel’s manifest. |
| Outward Handling | The operations to be performed on outgoing goods from a production unit, both administrative and physical, starting at the moment forwarding orders can be executed to the moment of actual departure of the goods. |
| Over Designed | A term that signifies that a firm’s specification for a particular goods is more elegant than is necessary for the purpose for which the item is intended to perform in use. It is a target of standarisation efforts. |
| Over Freight | When freight is in the possession of a carrier without waybill or identifying marks it is normally referred to as over freight. |
| Over Invoicing | A practice sometimes found when a seller is exporting goods to firm in a country with a closed or weak currency. The tactic is to show a higher price than normal for the goods being moved. The buyer then converts their local currency into U.S. dollars or other hard currency. Upon shipment and cash settlement, the seller receives the gross sum payment. He/she keeps the proper sales amount and deposits the excess in a bank account inside their hard currency country the belongs to the buyer. |
| Over The Counter | the buying and selling of securities that are not listed on an organized exchange. Trading is handled by dealers through negotiation rather than through the use of a stock exchange’s auction system. |
| Over The Road Carrier | A motor carrier operation that reflects long-distance, intercity moves; the opposite of local operations. |
| Over Without Bill | Freight without its bill of lading or freight bill. |
| Overage | The extent that the freight exceeds that on the shipping document or the quantity to have been believed shipped. |
| Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) | A measure of overall equipment effectiveness that takes into account machine availability and performance as well as output quality. |
| Overcarrier | A carrier within a consortium who carries cargo beyond the allotment distributed to him. |
| Overcharges | To charge more than the proper amount according to the published rates. |
| Overdue | As applied to a draft or note, the specified time for payment of which has passed or matured. |
| Overflow Location | An inventory stock location, often assigned on a random basis, used when the primary or dedicated location is not able to handle seasonal or other temporary requirements |
| Overflow Warehouse | A warehouse that holds goods temporarily in peak demand or holding periods. |
| Overhaul | To extensively inspect and repair a system or component. |
| Overhead | Indirect costs associated with facilities and management that are applied to the costs of manufactured goods through the manufacturing reporting process. |
| Overhead Common Point | Overland Common Point rates which are generally lower than local tariff rates. They were established by the U.S. West Coast steamship companies in conjunction with railroads serving the western U.S. ports so that cargo originating or destined to the American Midwest and east would be competitive with all-water rates via the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf ports. O.C.P. rates are also applicable to eastern Canada. |
| Overhead Guard | A protection overhead to protect the driver of a lift truck. |
| Overhead Percentage | A percentage rate over and above the material and labor costs of producing a product that is charged to cover the overhead costs of the producer. |
| Overhead Rate | Is calculated by totaling all your expenses for one year, excluding labor and materials, and then divide this number by your total cost of labor and materials. |
| Overhead Runway System | The overhead tracks which carry the lifting blocks and trolleys in warehouse operations. They operate in one plane, but may go straight or have curves. |
| Overhead Traffic | When traffic moves over a line which is a bridge in character, that is it is received by another carrier and delivered to a third carrier, it is called overhead traffic. |
| Overhead Waybill | A document used to cover shipments by a carrier on whose line neither the point of origin nor the destination are located. |
| Overlapping Operations | Operations in which material produced by an initial work center is begun to be processed by the next work center before the entire batch or run is finished at the first. Done as a result of order quantity volumes and process constraints, and to reduce total lead time. |
| Overload | A vehicle that exceeds the regulation maximum in total weight or axle weight. Generally refers to motor transport vehicles. |
| Overpack | A unit used by a single shipper to contain one or more packages and to form one handling unit for convenience of handling and stowage. Dangerous goods packages contained in the overpack must be properly packed, marked, labelled and in proper condition as required by the Regulations regarding dangerous goods (aircargo). |
| Overrun | To print a larger quantity of books than ordered. Printers estimate a 10 percent spoilage. If this does not occur, the additional books are charged to the customer but only up to 10 percent. |
| Overseas Countries And Territories | Territories associated with Member States whose products were given special access to European Economic Community (EEC) markets by the Treaty of Rome. Since 1963 they have been absorbed into the broader arrangements of the Yaoundé and Lomé Conventions. |
| Overtime | Work beyond normal established working hours that usually requires a premium to be paid to the employees concerned. |
| Own Resources | The possession by the EC of financial resources which belong to them as of right, consisting of customs duties, levies on agricultural imports, and a proportion of the value-added tax (VAT) levied by the Member States. |
| Owner Code (SCAC) | Standard Carrier Abbreviation Code identifying an individual common carrier. A three letter carrier code followed by a suffix identifies the carrier’s equipment. A suffix of “U” is a container and “C” is a chassis. |
| Owner’s Risk | Indicates that shipper relieves carrier from part of transportation risk. |
| Owner-Operator | A driver who owns the vehicle he operates, and has leased it to a carrier. |
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