Glossary · 19 terms

Logistics glossary

Clear definitions of the terms used every day on a warehouse floor. No unnecessary jargon.

C

03 entries

Class AAA

Market classification ranking industrial buildings by construction quality and technical specification. Class AAA is the top tier. It is not an official standard.

Clear height

Distance from the floor to the lowest structural point. It determines how many rack levels fit, and therefore how many pallet positions you get per square meter.

Cross-docking

Operation in which freight arrives, is sorted by destination and leaves again without going into storage. Removing the put-away step cuts cycle time out of the chain.

D

01 entries

Distribution center (CEDIS)

Facility from which retail points, customers or branches are supplied. In Mexico it is commonly called a CEDIS. Chosen on transit-time geometry before price.

CEDIS

F

02 entries

FEFO and FIFO

Inventory rotation rules. FIFO ships what arrived first; FEFO ships what expires first. They are not interchangeable once shelf life varies between lots.

FEFO / FIFO

Fill rate

Percentage of demand served from available inventory. It measures whether you had the product when the customer asked, without considering punctuality.

I

02 entries

Intermodal

Freight movement combining two or more transport modes — typically rail and truck — using the same loading unit, without handling the goods when the mode changes.

Inventory turnover

Number of times inventory is fully replaced in a period. It shows whether the capital invested in goods is working or sitting still in the rack.

L

03 entries

LTL and FTL

Two ways to contract trucking. FTL uses the full unit for a single shipment; LTL consolidates freight from several shippers in the same unit.

LTL / FTL

Last mile

Final leg of a shipment, from the last distribution point to the recipient's address. It is the most expensive stretch of the chain and the one that defines the customer experience.

Loading dock

The contact point between the building and the transport vehicle. Count, type and height determine how long each shipment takes and which vehicles you can receive.

M

01 entries

MVA

Megavolt-ampere — unit of apparent power measuring the electrical capacity available in an industrial park. It is the real ceiling on what you can install.

MVA

N

01 entries

NFPA and FM

The two reference standards in industrial fire protection. They determine inventory safety, insurance cost and, often, whether the building is insurable at all.

NFPA / FM

O

01 entries

OTIF

On Time In Full — percentage of orders delivered on time and complete. The hardest service metric, because an order only counts if it meets both conditions.

OTIF

P

02 entries

Pallet position

The slot assigned to hold one pallet within a racking system, identified by level and location. It is the standard unit of a warehouse's storage capacity.

Picking

The process of collecting the products that make up an order from their warehouse locations. It consumes most of the operating time, and most of that goes into walking.

R

01 entries

RFID

Radio Frequency Identification — technology that identifies tags by radio, without line of sight and several at once. Its practical limits are cost and interference.

RFID

S

01 entries

SKU

Stock Keeping Unit — the unique identifier for each distinct item in your inventory. It is not the same as a barcode or a manufacturer part number.

SKU

W

01 entries

WMS

Warehouse Management System — the system that controls the physical movement of goods inside a warehouse. It answers where things are and what was done to them.

WMS

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