Glossary of Production Terms: What Each Word in the System Means
Simple explanations of all terms encountered on the production pages: from production unit and routing to revision, assembly, flat pattern, and reconciliation.
The system contains many words that sound similar but mean different things: unit and batch, engineering and manufacturing specification, status and readiness. This glossary explains each in simple terms and shows where it appears.
Terms are grouped by topic. English equivalents are provided where they appear on screen.
Orders and What is Manufactured
Customer request. A customer's appeal asking for a quote or to manufacture a product. Lives on the "Customer Requests" page and goes through stages from new to transferred to production.
Production order. A decision to manufacture a specific product in a certain quantity by a certain date. For example: "shelf, 20 pieces, by October 30".
Draft order. An order that has been created but not yet released to production. It can be modified.
Release to production. The moment a draft becomes a working order: the system checks readiness, pins the specification, and creates units.
Production unit. A specific item being made in the workshop: a part, an assembly, or a finished product. It has its own code, status, and history.
Batch. Several identical items that move through the workshop together. "Rack × 10" is one batch of ten items.
Unit type. The type of part: shelf, side panel, pipe, welded assembly. The type determines the route the part will take.
Assembly. Several parts joined together: welded, screwed, or assembled. Assemblies are created by the foreman on the order panel. They have codes like W-1.
Product Description
Bill of materials (BOM). A list of everything a product consists of, with quantities.
Engineering BOM (EBOM). What the product contains from a designer's perspective.
Manufacturing BOM (MBOM). How the product is built at your factory: what is made in-house, what is purchased, and in what sequence it is assembled.
Make or buy. A decision for each item in the specification: whether the factory makes it itself, buys it ready-made, or outsources it to a contractor.
Revision. A version of a document, specification, routing, or drawing. A new revision does not overwrite the old one: the old one remains in history.
Snapshot. An immutable copy of a model or specification at a specific point in time. It always shows exactly what was approved.
Pinning. Linking an order to a specific revision of a specification. If the design changes, the released order will continue to follow its own.
STEP. A 3D model file format understood by all design software. This is what is uploaded in 3D import.
Product family. A description of a product type with parameters and rules, from which any variant can be derived. Lives in the configurator.
Configuration. A specific variant of a product from a family: with specified dimensions, materials, and options.
Technology
Routing. A list of operations a part goes through, and their order.
Routing step. One operation in the routing with a number, type, standard time, and requirements.
Operation. An action performed on a part: cutting, bending, welding, painting, assembly, inspection.
Capability. What a machine can do, for example, laser cutting a sheet. The system uses this to select where a step can be performed.
Standard, standard time. How many minutes an operation should take. This is used to calculate deadlines, load, and cost.
Time model. A method to calculate operation time from part geometry, rather than a single standard for everything.
Actual time. How long an operation actually took previously: the median of previous executions.
Nesting. Arranging parts on a sheet or pipe to minimize waste.
Blank. One sheet or one pipe from which parts are cut.
Remnant. A piece of blank left after cutting that is still usable.
Utilization. The proportion of material that went into parts. The rest is waste and remnants.
Flat pattern. The flat shape of a bent part before bending. It is cut out and then bent.
Flat pattern validation. Verification that the flat pattern has been calculated correctly. Without it, a bent part is not planned.
WPS. Approved welding technology: what parameters to use for a specific joint.
Fixture. A device in which a part is secured during processing.
Planning
Status. What has already happened to the object: planned, in progress, completed.
Readiness. Whether the object can be worked on further. An order may be released but not ready if data is missing.
Blocking. A state where work cannot begin until the cause is removed.
Dependency. A link by which one unit waits for another. An assembly depends on the parts from which it is assembled.
APS. Automatic planning that schedules operations on machines over time.
Finite capacity. The principle that the plan takes into account that a machine cannot do two jobs simultaneously.
Bottleneck. A machine or operation where capacity is lowest and through which everything else is delayed.
Scenario. A "what if" plan variant that does not affect the current plan.
Reservation. Material allocated to a specific order.
Kitting. Gathering materials for an order before transporting them to the workshop.
Workshop
Hall. A part of the factory with its own foreman, people, machines, and terminals.
Station, workstation. A place where an operation is performed: a machine with an operator or an assembly table.
Terminal, kiosk. A tablet or computer in the workshop through which employees clock in and receive work.
Pool. Completed work that has not yet been assigned to anyone.
Assignment. A plan of who will perform a step and where. The operator may deviate from it, and what actually happened is recorded.
Hall task. Work outside the routing: cleaning, material delivery, assistance.
Indirect time. Working time not spent on routing operations.
Competence, skill. What an employee can do, with a level and validity period.
Certification. A skill that needs to be periodically re-validated.
Quality
Inspection. Examination of a part or batch by an inspector.
Defect. A discovered flaw.
Non-conformance (NCR). A formal record that a product does not meet requirements and of the decision made.
Rework. Correction of the same batch.
Scrap. A part that cannot be or is not cost-effective to repair and is written off.
Replacement. A new batch exactly for the rejected items.
Additional production. Extra items beyond the initial quantity.
Traceability. The ability to say who, when, on what, and from what material a specific part was made.
Production trace. The history of one unit: all events with date and time.
Money
Cost. How much a product costs the factory: material, machine work, labor, overhead, scrap.
Purchase form. The form in which you buy material: a sheet of a certain size, a pipe of a certain length.
Rate. The cost of an hour of human or machine work.
Overhead costs. What cannot be attributed to a specific part: rent, management, electricity.
Quotation, estimate. Calculation of cost and price for a product and quantity.
Offer. What is sent to the customer: product, price, terms.
Settings
Industry package. A set of part types, materials, and operations for a specific industry.
Solution package. A ready-made solution for a specific type of product, for example, kitchens.
Workspace. Your space in the system with all factory data.
Rule. A behavior setting that is defined for the entire business, factory, or a separate hall.
Inheritance. The principle by which a hall takes a factory rule, and a factory takes a business rule, until it is locally changed.