A
- Allocation
- Distributing available products among stores, markets or channels according to a plan or demand.
B
- BOM
- Bill of materials: the list of components and quantities needed to make a product.
- BOPIS
- Buy online, pick up in store: an order placed online and collected at a physical location.
C
- Cycle counting
- Counting selected portions of inventory regularly instead of counting all stock at once.
D
- Deadstock
- Stock that remains unused or unsold; in textiles, often surplus fabric or materials.
- Demand planning
- Estimating future customer demand to guide purchasing, production and stock decisions.
E
- ERP
- Enterprise resource planning: software that connects activities such as purchasing, inventory and finance through shared records.
L
- Lead time
- The time between starting or ordering an activity and receiving its result, such as placing an order and receiving stock.
- Loss prevention
- Measures to reduce theft, fraud, damage and other losses involving stock, money or property.
M
- Master data
- Core records shared across activities, such as product, customer and supplier details.
O
- Order fulfillment
- The work of preparing and delivering a customer order, from picking stock to dispatch or collection.
P
- PLM
- Product lifecycle management: coordinating a product's information and development from its initial concept onward.
- Procurement
- Obtaining goods or services through supplier selection, purchasing and related controls.
R
- Replenishment
- Replacing stock that has been sold or used so the required quantity remains available.
- RFID
- Radio-frequency identification: using electronic tags and readers to identify and track items without a visible barcode scan.
S
- S&OP
- Sales and operations planning: a regular process for aligning demand, supply and financial plans.
- SAP
- A business software provider whose products support activities such as finance, procurement and inventory.
- Shrinkage
- The gap between recorded inventory and stock actually available, caused by factors such as theft, damage or recording errors.
- SKU
- Stock keeping unit: an internal identifier for a particular product variant, such as one size and color.
- Stocktaking
- Physically counting stock and checking it against inventory records.
- Supply chain
- The connected activities that source materials, make products and move them to customers.
T
- Traceability
- The ability to follow a product, material or component through recorded stages of its supply chain.
W
- WMS
- Warehouse management system: software for managing warehouse stock and work such as receiving, picking and dispatch.
