Sales forecasting
and inventory optimization
Become a retail mastermind you always wanted to be.
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Dictionary W
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| WA | With average , Term used in shipping and insurance in connection with the apportionment of loss or damage to goods or vehicles/vessels (eg apportionment of loss between joint owners or insurers). |
| Wage rate | The actual or standard pay rate for a labor hour. |
| Wagner-Whitin Algorithm | A mathematically complex, dynamic lot-sizing technique that evaluates all possible ways of ordering to cover net requirements in each period of the planning horizon to arrive at the theoretically optimum ordering strategy for the entire net requirements schedule. |
| Wagon and drag | Old haulage industry term for lorry and trailer |
| Wagonload | Rail freight service for individual wagon loads or to meet less than full trainload requirements. |
| Wait time | The planned or actual time an operation is not engaged in run time, or the active production of a product. Wait time is typically scheduled, for setup, maintenance or other activities, or unscheduled due to lack of a required resource such as material. Synonym: Idle time |
| Waiver Clause | Clause in a marine insurance policy stating that no acts of the insurer or insured in recovering, saving or preserving the property insured, shall be considered a dismissal from or acceptance of abandonment. |
| Walkie or Walkie-rider | Motorized pallet trucks are the motorized version of the pallet jack. They come in “Walkie” versions or “Rider” versions. The walkie is designed for the operator to walk along with the truck as they move loads, while the rider has a small platform that the operator stands on. The riders work great for frequent moving of loads over extended distances within warehouses and manufacturing operations. a.k.a. Walkie, Walkie-rider, Rider.. |
| Wall-to-Wall Inventory | An inventory management technique in which material enters a plant and is processed through the plant into finished goods without ever having entered a formal stock area. |
| WAN | See Wide Area Network |
| Wand | A handheld movable device passed over an item to read its bar code. |
| War risk | An exclusion clause found in contracts and insurance policies which absolves the party (eg the insurer) from meeting claims arising from the perils of war, strife, riots, hostilities, etc. |
| War risk insurance | Separate insurance coverage for loss of goods which results from any act of war. This insurance is necessary during peacetime due to objects, such as floating mines, left over from previous wars. War risk insurance in the United States is underwritten exclusively through the American Cargo War Risk Reinsurance Exchange, a group formed to share the extreme losses possible. |
| Warehouse | A building specially designed for receipt, storage and handling of goods. Synonyms: Shed, Store. |
| Warehouse Control System | Software used to control automated systems such as sortation systems, AS/RS, AGV’s, and carousells in the warehouse. A WCS may also have functionality similar to a WMS just as some WMS’s have WCS functionality. Abbreviation: WCS |
| Warehouse Entry | Document that identifies goods imported when placed in a bonded warehouse. The duty is not imposed on the products while in the warehouse but will be collected when they are withdrawn for delivery or consumption. |
| Warehouse Handling | An additional charge applicable each time service is provided. This charge compensates the mover for the physical placement and removal of items within the warehouse. |
| Warehouse Keeper | Party who takes responsibility for goods entered into a warehouse. |
| Warehouse management system | An integrated set of system functions designed to manage the locating, putaway, movement, picking and cycle count/inventory verification activities of a warehouse or distribution center. It normally receives purchase, sales and interplant order data from a base ERP system that serve as the authorization to initiate activities. Warehouse locations are described in terms of their weight and volume capacities to enable proper direction when moving or stocking material. Inventory and order status data, collected in real time often through the use of data collection devices, is normally uploaded to the base ERP system on a batch basis. Abbreviation: WMS |
| Warehouse Point | The ID for a place in the warehouse. The first three characters are the point’s type; the last three digits identify the point. For example, DOR003 identifies dock door number 3. Types of points are: assign-ment, dock, door, haul, office, passage, P-N-D, stage, and twilight zone. |
| Warehouse receipt | A receipt issued by a warehouse listing goods received for storage. |
| Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation | Allows merchandise that has been withdrawn from a bonded warehouse at one port to be transported in bond to another port, where a superseding entry will be filed. Abbreviation: WDT |
| Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation Exportation | Allows merchandise that has been withdrawn from a bonded warehouse at one port to be transported in bond through the U.S. to be exported from another port, without paying duty. Abbreviation: WDT&E |
| Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation Immediate Exportation | Allows merchandise that has been withdrawn from a bonded warehouse at one U.S. port to be exported from the same port exported without paying duty. Abbreviation: WDEX |
| Warehouse zone | A physically or logically segregated area within a warehouse defined by the type of material it contains (bulk or rack storage, hazardous material, etc.) or the division of equipment and personnel used to putaway, move and pick. |
| Warehousing | Those activities of holding and handling goods in a warehouse (store). |
| Warning triangle | Reflective red triangle to be placed on roadside to warn approaching drivers of a vehicle stopped on the road ahead. Legal requirement to carry and use such in many EU states (eg France, Germany; Spain requires two). |
| Warranty | A guarantee or implied condition of sale (eg in respect of a vehicle or items of plant and equipment). Also in marine insurance policies. |
| Warranty Costs | Includes materials, labor, and problem diagnosis for products returned for repair or refurbishment. |
| Warranty return | An item returned by a customer for credit or repair under the terms specified at time of sale. Warranty tracking requires the use of individual order and/or serial numbers to properly recreate the conditions that existed when the item was originally shipped. |
| Warsaw Convention | The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air, signed at Warsaw, 12 October 1929, or that Convention as amended by the Hague Protocol, 1955, stipulating obligations or parties and limitations and/or exonerations of carriers (aircargo). |
| Wassenaar arrangement | An arrangement ratified by 33 member countries which sets forth export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. |
| Wastage | Loss of goods due to handling, decay, leakage, shrinkage, etc.. |
| Waste | 1) In Lean and Just-in-Time, any activity that does not add value to the good or service in the eyes of the consumer. 2) A by-product of a process or task with unique characteristics requiring special management control. Waste production can usually be planned and controlled. Scrap is typically not planned and may result from the same production run as waste. |
| Waste Disposal | Processing and or removal to final resting place or transfer to a place for re-use or recovering of waste. |
| Waste Logistics | The collection of used, damaged, or outdated products and or packaging from designated users. Synonym: Reverse Distribution or Reverse Logistics |
| Waterway Use Tax | A per-gallon tax assessed barge carriers for use of the waterways. |
| Wave Picking | A method of selecting and sequencing picking lists to improve the efficiency of picking and minimize the waiting time of the delivered material. Shipping orders may be picked in waves combined by a common product, common carrier or destination, and manufacturing orders in waves related to work centers. Picked materials would then be consolidated by ship location during the packaging / shipping process. |
| Way marker | A sign on a track or path indicating the route to follow (or a choice of routes) and possibly the distance to the next key point ahead or the final destination. |
| Way point | A point or stopping place on a road, path or track. Often where a journey is, or may be broken, or from which route distances are measured. |
| Waybill | Document containing description of goods that are part of common carrier freight shipment. Shows origin, destination, consignee/consignor, and amount charged. Copies travel with goods and are retained by originating/delivering agents. Used by carrier for internal record and control, especially during transit. Not a transportation contract. |
| Waybill destination | The final destination of a shipment as noted on the waybill. |
| Wayleave | Term that relates to a situation where the right to use a way is granted by the owner (eg the land owner) in return for a payment. Typical use would be to erect pylons and run telephone wires or power cables along the way. |
| Wayport | A wayport is essentially an airport or port located on the fringe of a metropolitan area which hosts an existing hub already operating at capacity. The Wayport is built to accommodate a large volume of connecting freight traffic thus offload that traffic from the overcrowded hub. |
| WCS | See Warehouse control system. |
| WDA | See Writing down allowance. |
| WDEX | See Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation Immediate Exportation |
| WDT | See Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation |
| WDT&E | See Warehouse Withdrawal for Transportation Exportation |
| Wear and Tear | Loss or deterioration resulting from ordinary use. |
| Weather working day | A day when reasonable weather conditions prevail to allow normal working of the vessel. |
| Web | A computer term used to describe the global Internet. Synonym: World Wide Web |
| Web Browser | A client application that fetches and displays web pages and other World Wide Web resources to the user. |
| Web Services | A computer term for information processing services that are delivered by third parties using Internet Portals. Standardized technology communications protocols; network services a collections of communication formats or endpoints capable of exchanging messages. |
| Web Site | A location on the Internet. |
| Webb-pmerene association | Institutions engaged in exporting that combine the products of similar producers for overseas sales. These associations have partial exemption from U.S. anti-trust laws but may not engage in third country trade. |
| Wedge reader | A data collection device where a magnetic card is swiped, or pulled, through a slot in the middle. |
| Weekly rest | Rest period to be taken by goods vehicle driver under EU law once each week and following six daily driving shifts. Must amount to 45 hours normally but may be reduced to 36 hours when driver at base and 24 hours elsewhere. Reduced time must be made up en bloc by end of the following week. |
| Weigh out | Where the weight capacity of a vehicle/container is reached before the volumetric capacity is filled. |
| Weigh station | Permanent station equipped with scales where motor vehicles transporting goods on public highways are required to stop and obtain gross vehicle and/or axle weights. |
| Weight Break | The shipment volume at which the LTL charges equal the TL charges at the minimum weight. |
| Weight Confirmation | The practice of confirming or validating receipts or shipments based on the weight. |
| Weight limit | Weight limit Restriction on use of certain road sections/bridges by vehicles exceeding specified maximum gvw as shown on road sign (black vehicle, showing weight limit, on white background within red circle). |
| Weight not to be exceeded in GB | Weight shown on DTLR plate for vehicle which indicates the maximum weight for vehicle/trailer and its axles permitted on the road in Great Britain , this may be less than manufacturer’s design weight but takes priority. |
| Weight or measures | A unit by which a good or commodity can be classified so that rate, tariffs, taxes and other regulations and constraints can be applied. |
| Weight ticket | The van is weighed before and after your shipment is loaded. Each time the van is weighed, the driver gets a dated weight ticket listing the weight and where the truck was weighed. A copy of the weight ticket should be with the freight bill. |
| Weight tolerance | No tolerances are allowed in observing permitted maximum vehicle weights but when subjected to dynamic weighing, axle and gvw are determined to within +/, 150 kg per axle (for vehicle 150 kg x number of axles). |
| Weight Ton | A ton of 1000 kilos. |
| Weight Unit Qualifier | The unit of measure that the user wants to see for weight. |
| Weighted moving average | A moving average that assigns different weights to values or periods within the total population, as opposed to an equal weighting as with a simple moving average. More weight is often given to the most recent period or periods. |
| Weighted out | Describes a condition where the weight capacity of a trailer or container has been met. The term “weighted out” is most likely used when you have met the weight capacity of the trailer or container but still have physical space left in the trailer or container. Also see Cubed out. |
| Weighted-Point Plan | A supplier selection and rating approach that uses the input gathered in the categorical plan approach and assigns weights to each evaluation category. A weighted sum for each supplier is obtained and a comparison made. The weights used should sum to 100% for all categories. |
| Weight-losing raw material | A raw material that loses weight in processing |
| Weights and Measures | Measurement ton 40 cubic ft or one cubic meter. Net ton, or short ton 2,000 lbs. Gross ton/long ton 2,240 lbs. Metric ton/kilo ton 2,204.6 lbs. Cubic meter 35.314 cubic ft. |
| Well Car | Also known as stack car. A drop-frame Rail flat car. |
| Well Driven | A campaign to monitor safe and considerate lorry driving. Stickers on the backs of some lorries give a telephone number to ring if you wish to praise or berate the driver. |
| Western hemisphere trade corporation | US corporation whose business is one in any country of North, South or Central America or the West Indies, and which usually receives certain tax advantages. |
| Western regional office | An Export Administration outreach office located in California that is responsible for counseling exporters throughout the Western United States. (USA) |
| Wet goods | Liquids. |
| Wharf | A landing place by the waterside in a harbor or river for loading or unloading cargo. Loading/discharging terminal built parallel to stream/shore line. |
| Wharfage | A charge assessed by a pier or dock owner against the cargo or a steamship company for use of the pier or dock for the handling of incoming or outgoing cargo. |
| What-if analysis | The simulation of the outcome of various scenarios and alternatives when changes to the inputs and parameters is done. |
| Wheel clamp | Device used by authorities (ie police) for immobilizing illegally and obstructively parked vehicles. Driver has to make contact and pay fixed penalty fee plus release charge to recover vehicle. Also used (controversially in many cases) by private contractors. |
| Wheels and sheds | Term used by logisticians (usually derogatively) to describe fundamental aspects of the supply chain, namely lorries and warehouses. |
| Where-used | A list of the all upper-level items that use a given component or material on their bill of material. Often used in tracing requirements and evaluating the impact of standards changes and material substitutions. |
| White goods | Distribution term for domestic appliances/equipment. |
| White ticket | White ticket In connection with fixed penalty system, ticket issued by police or traffic warden for non-endorsable offences. |
| Whole life cost/costing | System for counting the cost of buying and operating a goods vehicle or plant over its whole life (including its value at final disposal) when making purchasing decisions, rather than just comparing initial prices of one vehicle against another. |
| Wholesaler | An intermediary between manufacturers and retailers in various activities such as promotion, warehousing, and the arranging of transport and or distribution. |
| Wide Area Network | A public or private data communications system for linking computers distributed over a large geographic area. Abbreviation: WAN |
| Wide tyre | Vehicle (ie lorry/trailer) tyre which has area of contact with the road of at least 300 mm wide measured at right angle to length of vehicle. |
| Will Call | The practice of taking orders that will be picked up at the selling facility by the buyer. An area where buyers can pick up an order at the selling facility. This practice is widely used in the service parts business. |
| Winters 3 parameter | A forecast method that incorporates exponential smoothing, seasonality and trend analysis. |
| WIP | See Work in Process |
| Wire-guided | Term used to describe vehicles that use a wire embedded in the floor to guide the vehicles. Wire guidance systems are frequently used with order selectors and turret trucks in very narrow aisle applications. They are also used with automated guided vehicles. |
| With average | See WA |
| With particular average | An insurance term meaning that partial loss of damage to goods is insured. Generally must be caused by sea water. May have a minimum percentage of damage before payment. May be extended to cover loss by theft, pilferage, delivery, leakage and breakage. Abbreviation: WPA |
| Without reserve | a term indicatingthet shipper agent or represent is empowered to make the decission and adjustment abroad without approval of the group or individual represented |
| WMF | See Windows Meta File |
| WMS | See Warehouse Management System |
| Work breakdown structure | A hierarchical definition of the tasks and activities of a project that normally begins with the highest-level activities and works downward into the individual tasks and components. |
| Work center | A physical or logical production area used as a unit for scheduling and routing operations. It is usually defined as being either labor or machine constrained, and while it may contain multiple machines or personnel they are considered identical in terms of the capability to process products assigned to that center. A work center may perform multiple operations, but capacity requirements are usually tracked only at the total work center level. Work center definitions can be flexible based on the process and reporting capabilities and requirements of the organization. |
| Work center where-used | A list of all products routed through a given work center. Useful in evaluating the impact of rate, cost or process changes. |
| Work in process | Material that has been partially processed but not yet transformed into its final state and not normally usable as is. The status of WIP material is usually described by its current routing operation location. Abbreviation: WIP |
| Work instructions | The detailed process parameters and operating data required for a specific production operation, which may include both basic production rate data and detailed engineering specifications and notes. Synonym: manufacturing instructions |
| Work Load | The quantity of work ahead assigned to a certain facility such as a work station, capacity group or a department respectively staff-member. |
| Work order | An order that authorizes manufacture of a specific quantity of an item or group of items, contains release and due dates, and documents requirements for the materials and resources used. It is assigned a separate number or identifier used in reporting material and labor transactions. Synonym: production order; manufacturing order |
| Work units | The measure of a process, such as units, hours, weight, etc. |
| Workaround | A response that solves a project or system issue by the use of alternate methods or a change in procedures in place of a program modification. |
| Workflow | The path and systems used in the linked flow of activities with a specific start and finish that describe a process. The flow defines where inputs are initiated, the location of decision points and the alternatives in output paths, and is used in systems that perform automatic routing. |
| Workflow Marketplace | Provides project tracking or collaboration services for complex, iterative, multi-party projects in construction, syndicated bank debt, or licensed trademarks. Charge subscriptions but add transaction fees, such as Bidcom.com charging a contractor to print project blueprints. Create an information-sharing network that gives all parties an appropriate view of the project. Examples: Bidcom (construction), Hurricane (intellectual property). Also, many Net markets incorporate workflow to hold onto users. Once a Net market becomes part of everyday business processes, the switching to another Net market becomes much harder. |
| Workgroup | Personnel that collaborate on a specific project or function, make use of a common database, schedule and method of communication, and update tasks and activities specifically related to that project or function. |
| Working capital | Current assets minus current liabilities. The portion of current assets available for other uses after satisfying current obligations. |
| Working stock | The stock of materials, components and subassemblies (excluding safety stock) held in advance of demand so that ordering can be done on a lot size rather than on an as-needed basis. In other words, the normal stocks formed by products arriving in large regular orders to meet smaller, more frequent customer demand. Also known as cycle stock or lot size stock. |
| Work-in-progress stock | The stock of products and/or materials and components which are still in the production department and are not, or are no longer, included in the stock in the store. |
| Works truck/trailer | Legally defined as truck/trailer designed to be used in private premises and used on road only for delivering goods between or to or from premises or vehicles in the immediate neighbourhood. Special rate of VED applies. |
| Workstation | The assigned location used by labor personnel to perform an operation, which may be composed of multiple tasks. Production lines are often a continuous stream of linked workstations. |
| World class | A general term for a high level of competitive performance as defined by benchmarking and use of best practices. |
| World Health Organization | Abbreviation: WHO The global agency linked with the United Nations and cooperating with other technical agencies relating to health matters at sea and on land. |
| World traders data reports | Reports issued by the Bureau of International Commerce of the U.S. Department of Commerce that give credit-type information on individual foreign firms regarding the type of organization, method of operation, sales volumes, territory, product lines, etc. |
| World Wide Web | A “multi-media hyper-linked database that spans the globe” providing information on desktop and handheld computers and other devices such as web compliant phones and televisions. Unlike earlier Internet services, the “web” provides more than just text combining text, pictures, sounds, and even animation in a graphical user interface for ease of navigation. |
| Worldscale | An index representing the cost of time chartering a tanker for a specific voyage at a given time. The index is given at Worldscale 100, which represents the price in dollars per ton for carrying the oil at that rate. The negotiated rate will be some percentage of the index value. |
| WPA | See With particular average. |
| Write-off | When a vehicle is damaged beyond repair in an accident and constitutes an insurance claim on this basis. |
| Writing down allowance | Term used in depreciation calculations to indicate the amount to be ‘written down’ for this year (ie the amount by which the value of the asset is to be depreciated for one year’s life). Abbreviation: WDA |
| Written off/down | Accounting term referring to an asset which has been fully depreciated in the books of account. |
| WTR | Working Time Regulations 1998 as amended 1999. Imposes limitations on weekly working and minimum break and holiday requirements, etc. |
| WWDSHEX | A charter shipping term meaning ‘Weather working days Sundays and holidays excepted’. |
| WWW | See World Wide Web |
Sales forecasting
and inventory optimization
Become a retail mastermind you always wanted to be.