Management and Systems Engineering

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Management and Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles of management, engineering, and systems thinking to solve complex problems and improve organizational performance.  It involves the application of engineering methods and tools to the analysis, design, and optimization of organizational systems and processes.
These engineers work in a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and government.  They may work in a range of roles, including operations management, process improvement, project management, and systems analysis and design.

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Management and Systems Engineering

Management and Systems Engineering GlossaRy

A        

  • Advanced Product Quality Planning  -  A structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessaty to assure that a product satisfies the customer.
  • Accured Cost  -  Earmarked for the project and for which payment is due, but has not been made.
  • Activity  -  The smallest unit of work necessary to complete project work package.
  • Activity List  - Documents all the activities necessary to complete a project.
  • Actual Cost  -  The realized cost incured for the work performed on an activity during a specific time period.
  • Advanced Product Quality Planning  -  A structured method of defining and establishing the steps necessaty to assure that a product satisfies the customer.
  • Allocation  -  The assigning of resources for scheduled activities in the most efficient way possible.
  • Apprenticeship  -  A form of on-the-job training for practitioners that will give them a license or journeyman's level of competencies.
  • Approved Manufacturer List  -  A set of approved relationships between manufacturer parts and a company's internal parts.
  • Approved Vendor List  -  Ensures purchased products arrive on time and meet your quality control.
  • Assembly Bill of Materials  -  A list of the items and resources that are required to assemble the parent item.
  • Asset Turnover  -  A measure of how efficiently assets are used to produce sales.
  • Authorization  -  The dicision that triggers the allocation of funding needed to carry out the project.
  • Authorization Work  -  The effort which has been defined, plus that work for which authorization has been given, but for which defined contract costs have not been agreed upon.
  • Availability  -  Takes into account all events that stop planned production like breaks, lunches, or pre-arranged time.
  • Avoided Cost  -  An estimated saving based on preventive measures.

B         

  • Baseline Schedule  -  A fixed project schedule.
  • Best Practice  -  Something that we have learned from experience on a number of similar projects.
  • Bill of Materials  -  A list of parts, raw materials, and accessories, descriptions, part name, part number, quantity, reference designation, procurement type, that make up the assembly or entire product.
  • Bill of Materials Level  -  The place occupied by a part on the ranking of the bill of materials.
  • Brainstorming  -  The unstructured generation of ideas by a group of people.
  • Budget  -  The funds allocated to the project that represent the estimated planned expenditures.
  • Budget at Completion  -  The sum of all budgets established for the work to be performed.
  • Budget Cost  - The cost anticipated at the start of a project.
  • Budgeting and Cost Management  -  The estimating of costs and the setting of an agreed budget, and the management of actual and forcast costs against that budget.
  • Budgeting  - Time phased financial requirements.

C         

  • Capital Cost  -  The carrying cost in a balance sheet or acquiring an asset and bringing it to the condition where it is capable of performing its intended function over a future series of periods.
  • Cash Flow  -  Cash receipts and payments in a specific period.
  • Change Request  -  Outlines a problem and proposes an action to address the problem.
  • Changeover  -  The time required to modify a system or workstation, including teardown and setup.
  • Child Item  -  An item that appears in the bill of materials of another item.
  • Commercial off-the-shelf  -  Commercially available items that do not require the procuring organization to perform modification to meet requirements.
  • Concept of Operation  -  A document describing how a system operates during the life cycle phase to meet stakeholder expectations.
  • Configurable Bill of Materials  -  Contains all the components that are required for manufacturing the material to the customer's detailed requiremenrs.
  • Conflict Management  - The process of identifting and addressing differences.
  • Contingencies  -  Planned actions for minimizing the damage caused by a problem.
  • Contract Manufacturer  -  A third-party manufacturer of parts or products for a company.
  • Constraint  -  A condition or occurance that might limit, restrict, or regulate the project.
  • Corrective Action/Protective Action  -  Investigates and solves problems, identifies causes, and takes corrective action to solve the problem.
  • Corrective Action Request  -  Sent to a supplier when an item or process needs a remedy.
  • Cost  -  Expenses, overhead or the price of a product or service.
  • Cost Baseline  -  The approved version of work package cost estimates and contingency reserve that can be changed using formal change control procedures.
  • Cost Benefit Analysis  -  The relationship between the costs of undertaking a task or project, and the benefits likely to arise from the changed situation.  
  • Cost Management Plan  -  A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.
  • Cost Performance Index  -  A measure of the cost efficency of budgeted resources expressed as the ratio of earned value to actual cost.
  • Cost of Quality  -  The sum of all costs associated with conformance and nonconformance.
  • Critical Activity  -  A critical activity has zero or negative float.  This activity has no allowance for work slippage.
  • Critical Path  -  The path in a project schedule that has the longest duration.
  • Critical Path Activity  -  Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.
  • Cycle Time  -  The time it takes one part to be processed at an individual process step.

D        

  • Database  -  An organized collection of data with a means of identification and retrieval.
  • Data Management  -  A process to plan for, acquire, access, manage, protect, and use technical data over the entire life cycle of a system.
  • Deliverable  -  Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is performed to complete a process, phase, or project.
  • Design  -  A process to develope and document a solution to a problem utilizing technology, tools, and experts.
  • Design Deliverables  -  Technical drawings and schematics, presentations, reports, and specifications for engineering.
  • Design History File  -  Contains or references the records necessary to demonstrate that the design was developed in accordance with the approved design plan.
  • Device Master Record  -  A record of all information about how a product was produce, including drawings, instructions, and any other records.
  • Direct Costs  -  Costs specifically attributed to an activity or group of activities without apportionment.
  • Direct Labor  -  The time spent by one or more production workers on filling a specific manufacturing order.
  • Discounted Cash Flow  -  The relating future cash flows and outflows over the life of a project or operation to a common base value.
  • Document Control  -  The function of management and controlling product documentation.
  • Down Day  -  A day when the facility, entire shop floor, or a specific work place is not in production.
  • Duration  -  The length of time required or planned for the execution of a project activity.

E        

  • Earned Value  -  The measure of work performed in terms of the budget authorized for that work.
  • End User  -  The person or persons who will eventually use the product of a project.
  • Engineering Bill of Materials  -  Specifies parts or assemblies designed by the engineering department.
  • Engineering Change Notice  -  A form that communicates the details of an approved change to someone who needs to know about the change.
  • Engineering Change Request  -  A suggestion that can be submitted to management to solve a problem or make improvement to a product.
  • Estimating  -  An approximation of project time and costs targets that is refined throughout the project life cycle.
  • Environmental Consequences  -  A failure that can have a potential impact on the environment.
  • Expert Judgment  - The practice of using expert opinion to guide decision making.

F        

  • Failure Rate  -  The anticipated number of times that an asset or piece of equipment fails in a specific period of time.
  • Fast Tracking  -  A schedule compression technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.
  • Fill Order  -  An order that has had all its requirements met and can be closed.
  • Fill Rate  -  The percentage of orders that are shipped in full and on time and were met through current available stock.
  • Finished Goods  -  An item that is manufactured for sale.
  • Fixed Asset  -  A long-term tangible asset or piece of equipment that a business owns and uses in its operations to generate income.
  • Fixed Duration  -  A task in whick the time required for completion is fixed.
  • Fixed Units  -  A task in which the number of resources used is fixed.
  • Fixed Work  -  A task in which the amount of effort required is fixed.
  • Floor Stock  -  Low-cost items that do not require inventory control.
  • Float  -  The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
  • Flowchart  -  A diagram that lays out the complete sequence of steps in a process or procedure.
  • Forecast  -  An estimate of how much of an item should be produced over a specific period of time.
  • Forward Scheduling  -  Businesses that complete manufacturing their products as soon as possible before the due date.
  • Forward Workload  -  All backlog work, work that is due or predicted to become backlog work within a pre-specified future time frame.

G        

  • Good Manufacturing Practice  -  A system of processes, procedures, and documents that help ensure that the products are consistantly produces and controlled according to quality standards.

H        

  • Historical Data  -  Information on archived projects, including documents and reports.
  • Hours per Shift  -  The amount of time per shift actually spent working on the assigner task.

I         

  • Incurred Costs  -  Sum of actual and committed costs, whether invoiced/paid or not, at a specific time.
  • Indirect Cost  -  Costs associated with a project that cannot be directly attributed to an activity or group of activities.
  • Indirect Labor  -  The time spent on tasks that are not directly related to filling a specific manurfacturing order.
  • Information Systems Steering Committee  -  A committee that provides management representatives from all the key organizations across the institution.
  • Item Type  -  A code to designate the accounting class for the item, such as discontinued, inventory, and miscelaneous charges.

J         

  • Just-in-time Manufacturing  -  A production model in which items are created to meet demand, not created in surplus of in advance of need.

K       

  • Key Performance Indicators  -  Calculations that helps you measure the sucess about the performance of the line, plant, and/or company.
  • Kickoff Meeting  -  The first meeting between a project team and stakeholders. 
  • Kit  -  A group of finished items that compose a set.
  • Kitten  -  A process where assemblers are given containers of all parts needed for the production of a product.

L         

  • Labor Time  -  The number of employee hours required to complete the operation.
  • Lag/Lag Time  -  The minimum necessary lapse of time between the finish of on activity and the finish of an overlapping activity or delay incurred between two specified activities.
  • Lead/Lead Time  -  The time between a customer's initial purchase and the delivery of the product.
  • Lessons Learned  -  A set of statements captured after completion of a project or a portion of a project.
  • Life Cycle  -  The entire process used to build its deliverables.
  • Linear Scheduling  -  A graphical scheduling technique used to assign resources when project work consists of repetitive tasks.

M         

  • Management  -  The act of overseeing planning, personnel, and resources to achieve a goal.
  • Management Developement  -  All aspects of staff planning, recruitment, developement, training and assessment.
  • Management Process  -  The act of planning and executing a project or process to meet a defined set of objectives or goals.
  • Manufacturing Bill of Materials  -  A list of all sub-assemblies or items essential to produce a shippable finished product.
  • Markup  -  A markup of price spread is the difference between the selling price of a product and the cost incured to manifacture it.
  • Mission Statement  -  A brief summary, approximately one or two sentences, that sums up the background, purposes and benefits of the project.
  • Mitigation  -  Actions taken to eliminate or reduce risk by reducing the probability and/or impact of occurrence.
  • Multi-level Bill of Materials  -  A list of all components directly or indirectly involved in building the parent part, togeather with the required quantity for each item.

N         

  • Negotiation  -  Satisfying needs by reaching agreement or compromise with other parties.
  • New Product Developement  -  The total process that takes a service or a product from concept to market.
  • New Product Introduction  -  All the activities within an organization to define, develope and launch a new or improved product.

O         

  • Objective  -  Something towards which work is to be directed.
  • Off-the-shelf  -  An item that is producedfrom a supplier as-is, with no modifications.
  • Operative Rule  -  The business rules an organization chooses to enforce as a matter of policy.
  • Opportunity Gap  -  The difference between what an asset is capable of producing and what it actually produces.
  • Organization  -  An autonomous unit within an enterprise under the management of a single individual or board.
  • Organization Modeling  -  An analysis technique used to describe roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that exist within an organization.
  • Organizational Process Asset  -  All materials used by groups within an organization to define, implement, tailor and maintain their processes.
  • Organizational Unit  -  A recognized association of people in the context of an organization or enterprise.
  • Original Equipment Manufacturer  -  A company that manufacturers a product that is sold to another company.
  • Output  -  The number of parts produced during a given time.
  • Outsourced Service  -  A service that is part of the manufacturing processes that is purchased from the vender.
  • Overall Equipment Effectiveness  -  Measures the efficiency and effectiveness of a process.
  • Overhead  -  Costs incured that cannot be directly related to the prducts or serviced produced.

P         

  • Parent Item  -  An item that contains another item in the bill of materials.
  • Part Name  -  A unique name assigned to a part.
  • Part Number  -  A unique numerical value assigned to a part.
  • Peer Review  -  A validation technique in which a small group of stakeholders evaluates a portion of a work product to find errors to improve its quality.
  • Performance  -  Anything that causes the manufacturing process to run at less than maximum possible speed.
  • Performance Reporting  -  Collecting and dissemination information about project performance to help ensure project progress.
  • Phase  -  A distinct stage in a project life cycle.
  • Pick-to-ship Cycle Time  -  The period from when an order is released to be picked until the time the order has shipped.
  • Policy  -  A set of ideas, course of principles of action adopted by or proposed for a system or organization.
  • Preventative Maintenance  -  Maintenance activities performed by machine operators at regularly scheduled intervals to keep equipment in good working order.
  • Process  -  Also called procedure, an operation or an activity.
  • Process Center  -  A resource or collection of resources, commonly people or machines, where an operation or set of operations is performed.
  • Process Control  -  The monitoring of the production process through software.
  • Process Management  -  The act of planning, coordinating, and overseeing processes with a view to improving outputs and reducing costs.
  • Process Map  -  A graphical flowchart identifying the operations in a process, steps in each operation and work time for each step.
  • Process Model  -  A visual model or representation of the sequencial flow and control logic of a set of related activities or actions.
  • Process Security  -  A type of security that allows you to restrict authority for completing a manufacturing process.
  • Process Time  -  The time a job spends at an individual station in a production system from the time the station begins working on it, till the time the station finishes.
  • Product  -  Something that is produced.
  • Product Data Management System  -  System used to hold mechanical CAD files, including parts and assembly models as well as drawing files.
  • Product Developement Process  -  Begins with market research and idea generation, and ends with a successful product offered to the general public.
  • Product Scope  -  The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.
  • Production Lifecycle Management  -  Management of the products records, including bill of materials, specifications, changes and revisions from beginning to end.
  • Production Planning  -  The process of devising or estimating the conversion of resources and information to achieve an end.
  • Production System  -  A specific or defined set of operations within a large supply network or value chain that produces technical or physical output to satisfy an external demand.
  • Project  -  The application of resources to a unique set of coordinated activities, with a defines start and finish, undertaken to meet specific objectives with defined costs.
  • Project Life Cycle  -  All phases or stages between a project's conception and its termination.
  • Project Life Cycle Cost  -  Cumulative cost of a project over its whole life cycle.
  • Project Management  -  The application of knowledge, skills, and principles to a program to achieve the program objectives.
  • Project Management Plan  -  A document that integrates the program's plan and establishes the management controls and overall plan for intergrating and managing the program's individual components.
  • Project Manager  -  The stakeholder assigned by the performing organization to manage the work required to achieve the project objectives.
  • Project Phase  -  A collection of related project activities, usally culminating in the completion of a major deliverable.
  • Project Planning  -  The developement and maintenance of the project plan.
  • Project Schedule  -  The planned dates for performing activities and meeting milestones.
  • Promise Date  -  The date that the customer has been told to expect to receive the order. 
  • Prototype  -  A sample built of a product.
  • Pull Production  -  The process in which products are made only when the customer has ordered a product, and not before.
  • Push Production  -  The process in which products are made using customer estimates rather than the customer has ordered a product, and not before.

Q        

  • Quality  -  The ratio between good count produced and the total units that were started.
  • Quality Assurance  -  Ensures you are doing the right thing the right way.
  • Quality Control  -  Ensures that the results of what you have done is what is expected.
  • Quality Planning  -  Involves identifying expected quality standards and creating mechanisms to ensure these standards are met.
  • Quality Management System  -  A framework for product and service developement that optimizes for the continuous improvement of quality.
  • Quantitative Risk Analysis  -  The mathematical analysis of risk probability and impact.
  • Quantity to Fill  -  An amount of a product that was ordered but has not been received.

R         

  • Replaced Item  -  An item in a mass uptate to bill of materials that is removed from the bills of materials.
  • Return  -  An item or merchandise returned by a customer to your company.
  • Risk  -  A future event or problem that exists outside of the control of the project that will have an adveres impact on the project if it occures.
  • Risk Acceptance  -  Acknowledging a risk and not taking preemptive action against it.
  • Risk Assessment  -  An activity that involves identifying possible risks to a project and examining how these risks, if they occure, would affect objectives.
  • Risk Analysis  -  The examination of risk areas or events to access the propbale consequences for each event, or combination of ecents.
  • Risk Avoidance  -  A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact.
  • Risk Gap  - The difference between estimated risk and the tolerable risk.
  • Risk Identification  -  The process of identifying and examining risks and their affects on project objectives.
  • Risk Impact  -  The harm or consequences for a project of a risk if it occures.
  • Risk Management  -  A process to access potential problems, determine which risks are important to deal with, and impliment strategies to reduce consequences.
  • Risk Mitigation  -  A risk response strategy whereby the project team acts to decrease the probability of occurance or impact of a threat.
  • Risk Plan  - The process of deciding how to approach and conduct the risk management activities of a project.
  • Risk Ranking  -  A process for ranking the severity and likelyhood of a hazard sequence of events to ensure the estimated risk of the sequence of events.
  • Risk Tolerance  -  The level of variation in performance measures that an organization is willing to accept.
  • Risk Sharing  -  The hand ownership of a positive risk to a third party who is typically specialized and better able to realize the opportunity.
  • Run Time  -  The scheduled production time and its running.

S         

  • Sales Bill of Materials  -  Provides information about a product in the sales stage.
  • Sales Order  -  A request for goods or services.
  • Scope  -  Work that must be performed to deliver a product, service, or their related functions.
  • Scope Change  -  Any change to the project scope, which includes any adjustment to the cost, quality, or schedule.
  • Scope Creep  -  Adding features and functions to the project scope without approval.
  • Scope Model  -  A model that defines the boundaries of a business domain or solution.
  • Setup Time  -  The number of hours needed to prepare the work area prior to the operation.
  • Shipping Date  -  The date when a sales order leaves your warehouse or office. 
  • Shipping Method  -  The manner in which the items are transported from the supplier to be manufacturer.
  • Shrinkage  -  The loss of materials.
  • Single-level Bill of Materials  -  A simple list of of parts, not ment for a complex product list.
  • SKU  -  A unique numerical sales stock identifier usually controlled by the business side if the company.
  • Stakeholder  -  A person or group who has intrests that may be affected by an initiative or influence over it.
  • Standard Operating Procedure  -  A set of clearly written instructions which outline the steps or tasks needed to complete a job.
  • Start-to-finish  -  A logical relationship in which a succesor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started.
  • Start-to-start   -  A logical relationship in which a succesor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started.
  • Stock   -  A set of complete transformations or entities.
  • Successor Activity  - A dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in the schedule.
  • Sunk Cost  -  Past costs in a project that can never be recovered.
  • Supplier  -  A person or company that supplies goods or services to a manufacturer.
  • Supply Chain  -  A sequence of processes involved in the manufacturing, transportation and selling of a product.
  • System Design  -  The process by which solutions to users requirements can be defined, selected and described.

T         

  • Total Cost  -  The total of all expenses associated with the manufacturing order.
  • Training  -  An imoortant part of the system since it is unlikely that the delivery system has been operated, maintained or supported by the user before.

U         

  • Unit Cost  -  The value of resources and time consumed to create one unit of product.
  • User  -  A stakeholder, person, device, or system that directly or indirectly accesses a system.

V         

  • Validation  -  The process of checking a product to ensure that it satisifies its intended use and confronts to its requirements.
  • Variance  -  The difference between two values like estimated and calculated expenses

W

  • Walkthrough  -  A type of peer review in which participants present, discuss, and step through a work product to find errors.
  • Warehouse Automation  -  Includes hardware, software, people and processes that are needed to automate warehouse tasks to increase efficiency and improve accuracy.
  • Warehouse Logistics  -  All of the resources, processes and programs required to keep assets and equipment moving in, around, and through a warehouse.
  • Work Around   -  An immediate or temporary response to an issue for which a prior response had not been planned.
  • Work Flow  -  The relationship of the activities in a project from start to finish.
  • Work in Progress  -  The set of entities that are partially transformed within any given process.
  • Work Product  -  The document, collection of notes or diagrams used by the business analyst during the requirements developement process.

X

Y

Z

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