Glossary

Manufacturing Glossary

Clear definitions for the terms that drive your shop floor. No jargon. Just what your team actually uses.

5

5S Methodology

A

Application Programming Interface
API
Assembly Line

B

Bill of Materials
BOM
Bottleneck

C

Continuous Improvement
Cycle Time
Changeover Time
Capacity Utilization

D

Downtime
Digital Twin

E

Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP
Economic Order Quantity
EOQ

F

First Pass Yield

H

Human-Machine Interface
HMI

I

International Organization for Standardization
ISO
Industrial Internet of Things
IIoT
Internet of Things
IoT

J

Just-In-Time
JIT

K

Key Performance Indicator
KPI
Kanban
Kaizen

L

Lean Manufacturing

M

Manufacturing Execution System
MES
Material Requirements Planning
MRP
Mean Time to Repair
MTTR
Mean Time Between Failures
MTBF
Manufacturing Cell
Machine Learning in Manufacturing

O

Overall Equipment Effectiveness
OEE

P

Programmable Logic Controller
PLC
Production Line
Predictive Maintenance
Poka-Yoke

Q

Quality Management System
QMS

R

Real-Time Monitoring

S

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SCADA
Statistical Process Control
SPC
Stock Keeping Unit
SKU
Standard Operating Procedure
SOP
Scrap Rate
Six Sigma

T

Total Productive Maintenance
TPM
Takt Time
Throughput

V

Value Stream Mapping

W

Warehouse Management System
WMS
Work in Progress
WIP
Work Cell

Missing a term? We'll add it.

Send us the manufacturing terms your shop uses that aren't here yet. We update this glossary weekly based on real shop floor feedback.