The process by which the customer's representative formally agrees to ownership of completed equipment [SAMA]. Updating of active order to indicate acceptance of order
Acceptance Criteria
An acceptance data package describes the form, fit, manufacturing requirements, characteristics, and performance history of a piece of equipment. The package includes specifications, drawings, plans, manufacturing orders, inspection data, test procedures, test data and other data required by the customer. [SAMA].
Accounting Information
Information that accounting has gathered and accumulated, such as the cost of labor, material, equipment, tools, and facilities and transformed into the cost of the product, overhead, operating costs, inventory, etc.
Activity-based Costing
Alternative accounting method that costs products by the production activities performed during actual manufacture.
Actual Cost
An acceptable approximation of the true cost of producing a part, product, or group of parts or products, including all labor and material costs and a reasonable allocation of overhead charges. Actual costs are those labor and material costs that are charged against a job as moves through the production process [APIC].
Actual Cost System
A cost system which collects direct costs as they are incurred during production, and allocates indirect costs based upon their specific costs and achieved volume.
Adaptive Control
A control strategy that automatically changes the type or influence of control parameters to improve overall control systems performance.
AIX (Advanced Interactive Executive)
The UNIX operating system delivered by IBM for its mainframe, workstation and PC hardware.
Alarm
An audible or visible signal indicating abnormal or out-of-limit conditions in a plant or a control system [CMSG]. Syn: Bell, Light, Siren.
Algorithm
A prescribed set of well defined rules or processes for the solution of a problem in a finite number of steps, e.g., a full statement of an arithmetic procedure for evaluating sin x to a stated precision. An explicit, finite set of instructions that is guaranteed to find a solution to a particular problem, although not necessarily by the best or fastest route.
AMT
Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Analog or Analogue
Noun: Something that is analogous, acts similar to another. When used in the context of signals, refers to continuous voltage or current signals (as opposed to digital signals).
ANSI
American National Standards Institute
API (Application Programming Interface)
An interface that enables programs written by users or third parties to communicate with certain IBM program products. The facility enables users and third parties to add functions to IBM-supplied software.
APICS
American Production and Inventory Control Society.
Application
A user or machine oriented function supported by automation technology. Software packages which execute the functions defined in the model of the enterprise. [CIM-OSA].
Application Process
An element within a system that performs the information/data processing for a particular application.
Architectural Resources
The integrating elements used to build a CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) system. Resources can be categorized as interfaces, protocols or handlers, management tools, etc.
Architecture
(1) The set of principles, rules and standards and other supporting data, classified and presented in an orderly form to illustrate the basic arrangement and connectivity of parts of a system. (2) The formation or construction of an object, device or system whether this is the result of the conscious act of, or the gross or random, disposition of the constituent parts. (3) The structure or arrangement of the several steps involved in planning, designing and carrying out the development and implementation of a system.
ART
Automated Reasoning Tool, is an expert system software development environment from Inference-Corporation. ART provides knowledge engineers with a comprehensive set of knowledge representation and storage techniques and graphics capabilities for building expert systems. [DEC].
Artificial Intelligence
A growing set of computer problem- solving techniques being developed to imitate human thought or decision making processes, or to produce the same results as those processes. [DEC].
ASC
Accredited Standard Committee. A standards committee accredited to ANSI.
As-Is Plant
A description of the subject entity of a CIM study at the current time or prior to CIM implementation.
ASN.1
Abstract Syntax Notation One. An ISO standard (DIS 8824 and DIS 8825) that specifies a canonical method of data encoding. This standard is an extension of CCITT Standard X.409.
Assembly Specification
The assembly specification establishes detailed assembly procedures for any combination of parts, subassemblies, etc., that perform a specific function [SAMA].
Attribute
A data fact about an entity or relationship.
AUTOFACT
A yearly trade show sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. It specializes in the technology of CAD/CAM.
Automation
The implementation of processes by automatic means; the theory, art or technique of making a process more automatic; the investigation, design, development and application of methods for rendering processes automatic, self-moving or self-controlling; the conversion of a procedure, a process or equipment to automatic operation. Noun: The automatic operation or control of a process, machine, equipment or system; the mechanical and electronic techniques and equipment used to achieve automatic operation or control; the condition of being automatically controlled or operated.
Available To Promise
The uncommitted portion of a company's inventory or planned production. This figure is frequently calculated from the Master Production Schedule and is maintained as a tool for order promising.
Available Product
Inventory + planned production - accepted orders.
Average Inventory
In an inventory system, this is the sum of one-half the lot sizes plus the reserve stock in formula calculations.