Action
An action is a step in an operation that typically defines the data to be displayed or the data to be collected during the execution of a workflow.
Activity
The physical work carried out at a work centre. When booked onto a job, time is accrued against the activity. An activity can be direct (associated with a specific job/operation) or indirect (not associated with a job/operation, e.g., meeting).
Activity Group
Groupings of activities used mainly for reporting.
APS
Advanced Planning and Scheduling. It's a modular functionality to support Finite Capacity Planning and detailed scheduling of operations and resources.
Area
A physical location that work centres are assigned to.
Asset Type
A group of assets that share similar statuses and status reasons.
Availability
The proportion of planned time that an asset is running. It is a component of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) that provides a measure of productivity loss due to breakdowns and other stoppages.
Backflushing
A method of accounting for the use of resources – labour, machine time and material, based on the standards defined on the BoM. Transactions to account for the use of backflushed resources such as the consumption of raw material are created on completion of works orders rather than being booked when the resources are actually consumed.
Batch number
A property of a scheduled job that's used for reporting.
BoM
Bill of Materials is the list of components, sub-assemblies, raw material parts, and the quantity of each that is needed to manufacture a product. BoMs can be multi-level such that a parent can contain a child which can contain a grandchild.
Button Profile
The list of buttons that displayed to operators on a workstation. They are either displayed on the right-hand side or at the top of the grid.
Consume
To use a child/component/sub-assembly when building the parent/finished good.
Cycle Time
The time taken to produce a quantity of one at an operation.
Defect
A non-conformance against an attribute check which might result in rework or scrap.
Department
A Department is a collection of areas and teams for performance reporting purposes.
Direct Activity
The labour time which is booked against a scheduled job.
Dispatch Order
A requirement to ship inventory to another site, typically to a customer, but it could also be an internal transfer.
Downtime
The amount of time a machine, asset, plant or workstation is down, i.e., no production is happening in that time.
Due Date
Due date for a scheduled job typically used to represent the deadline date for a customer. Note that this does not reflect when a job is planned or expected to complete.
Expression
The definition of the logic to evaluate a condition which can then be used in conditional workflow. For example, you might define a condition to determine whether an operation is permitted to start or whether rework is required.
Finished Goods
The final sellable product.
Finite Capacity Planning
Scheduling that accounts for the availability and capacity of required resources (labour, material, etc.).
Finite Scheduling
A scheduling method that assumes that limited capacity for labour and machines is available
Forecasted Demand
Future demand in addition to orders that have been raised.
Indirect Activity
Labour time which is booked to an activity that is not associated with a job or Works Order. This is typically used to track non-productive time like training, meetings, etc.
Infinite Capacity Planning
Planning that produces a plan that is not constrained by the availability of resources (labour and equipment).
Item
A uniquely identified stock item or lot stored in a location with a status. An item may be serialised with a quantity of one or may represent a lot with a quantity greater than one.
Job
See Works Order.
Kit
A set of components picked from stores to satisfy some or all of the requirements for material for a Works Order.
Lead time
The minimum amount of time required for the supply of an item.
Line config
A group of work centers, typically planned together, to execute a sequence of work.
Line Type
The parent group of line configs.
Location
The physical location of inventory in the manufacturing plant.
Lot
A uniquely identifiable quantity of inventory. See Item.
Manufacturing Order
See Works Order.
Material issue
A type of component transaction. When components are issued for a manufacturing order they are removed from inventory and added to WIP. Also referred to as Material Use.
Material Item
See Item.
Material Use
A type of component transaction. When components are issued for a manufacturing order they are removed from inventory and added to WIP. Also referred to as Material Issue.
MRP
Material Requirements Planning is a system for calculating the Works Orders and Purchase Orders that are required to satisfy demand for finnished goods. It will typically reflect the lead times for purchase and manufacture but assumes infinite capacity.
MTBF
Mean Time Between Failures is the average time between failures.
MTTR
Mean Time to Repair is the average time it takes to repair an asset.
OEE
Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a standard measure for the productivity of equipment/asset. It measures the percentage of scheduled manufacturing time that an asset is fully productive. There are three sub-components of OEE: Availability, Performance and Quality.
Op Code
Operation Code.
Operation
A step in the workflow or process.
Parallel Flow
When two or more operations may be performed concurrently.
Parent Part
The upper-level assembly which contains child items.
Part Number
An identifier of a particular design of material manufactured or purchased. See also Product.
Performance
Performance is a component of Overall Equipment Effectiveness analysis. It measures the speed at which an asset runs as a percentage of its design or rated speed.It includes losses due to Slow Running and Small Stops.
Phantom BoM
It is a virtual sub-assembly in the BoM that does not actually exist in inventory. It is used to simplify a bill of materials. For example, imagine you're building a bicycle. You need a frame, handlebars, wheels, and a seat. Instead of listing each individual component of the frame, like the head tube, seat tube, and bottom bracket, you list "bicycle frame" as a single item in your main BoM. This "bicycle frame" is a phantom BoM.
Pick List
The list of materials to retrieve from stores at the start of an operation.
Planned Start and End Date
When you plan to start and end an operation. Note that this is distinct from a due date or a deadline date.
Product
The definition of a part/material usually corresponding to part numbers in an ERP system.
Product Type
A group of products that share common attributes such as the quality checks that are performed.
Purchase Order
A document that lists products and/or services to be purchased from a vendor.
QA
Quality Assurance.
Quality
A component of OEE performance analysis. It measures the proportion of units produced that are of good quality and measures losses due to rework or scrap.
Raw Materials
Purchased items on a BoM.
Revision
There is a distinction between a version that was approved and the revisions that were made to that version before it was approved. When you create version 1, you could make several edits, each one being a revision of version 1. When you approve version 1, no further revisions would be permitted on that version.
Routing
See Workflow.
Sales Order
An order placed by a customer for supplied goods. MES-M doesn't model sales orders directly but tracks which sales order(s) a dispatch order satisfies.
Sampling
Selecting n number of items based on logic to do an inspection or quality check.
Scrap
Discarding of material or items due to some issue.
Serial Number
The visual identifier of an item, lot or batch of inventory and are often represented on a barcode. They may follow a dedicated pattern, serial or incremental, but not always. In most cases, serial numbers are unique. In some cases, the visual serial number from two suppliers may not be unique. In these cases, a unique ID is generated in the system.
Setup Time
The time to prepare a work area for production. Setup costs might include the cost of calibrating machines or gathering the necessary tools and resources.
Shift
A specific shift on a day. For example, the Tuesday, 14 May, 9 o'clock shift.
Shift Type
The Shift Type defines the default hours and pay rules for a shift. For example, it's a day shift (9 am - 5 pm) or a night shift (10 pm - 6 am).
Sub-assembly
A manufactured child item on a BoM.
SUID
An external-facing identifier which is typically used to map an object in MESTEC with a third-party system. Alphanumeric and special characters are accepted.
Task
The work required to execute a workflow to carry out a business process. It is most commonly used to manufacture something on a shopfloor but could also be used to repair, rework, perform a maintenance, perform an audit, etc.
TEEP
Total Effective Equipment Performance is a performance metric that provides insights as to the true capacity utilisation of your manufacturing operation. It takes into account both Equipment Losses (as measured by OEE) and Schedule Losses (as measured by Utilization).This definition was derived from oee.com definition.
Unique ID
A unique identifier for an item lot or batch of inventory. It is often the same as the serial number but can be different when multiple items exist with the same serial number. For example, you have the same serial number for two different products or when a batch is split.
Version
There is a distinction between a version that was approved and the revisions that were made to that version before it was approved. When you create version 1, you could make several edits, each one being a revision of version 1. When you approve version 1, no further revisions would be permitted on that version.
Version Control
Three levels for version control:
- Use latest approved version:It always uses the latest approved version.
- Use latest approved minor version for specified major version: It is mandatory to specify the approved major version.
- Use specified version: Use only the specified approved version. It is mandatory to specify the approved major and approved minor versions.
Visit
A log of work done on a specific item at a specific operation. Usually an item will only visit each operation once but multiple visits can be recorded, for example, when there's rework.
WIP
Work In Progress is the status of an item that has started a workflow but has not been completed.
Work Centre
The primary resource used to carry out an operation. This is often a machine or asset but can represent a people or space resource. E.g., CNC machine 1, Assembly bench 3, QA inspectors.
Work Centre Group
Work Centre groups may be used for two purposes: 1. To create groups for filtering reports. 2. To create groups to define the set of Work Centres on which an operation may be performed.
Work Pattern
Work Patterns define a calendar of shifts that an individual might work. For example, Red shift might work 4 x 12-hour days, followed by 4 days off, followed by 4 x 12-hour nights.
Workflow
The step-by-step process that contains one or more operations. It is most commonly used to manufacture something on a shopfloor but could also be used to repair, rework, perform a maintenance, perform an audit, etc. Also commonly referred to as Routing or Process Flow.
Workflow Task
See Task.
Workflow Type
The type of workflow to be completed, e.g., production, repair, rework, etc. The Workflow Type defines the degree of change control applied to workflows of this type.
Works Order
The reqauirement to manufacture or repair a quantity of a product. The works order outlines when, what and how many need to be produced. In MESTEC, a 'work order' can also be referred to as 'order', 'works order', 'job' or 'scheduled job'.