Glossary

Adjustment

Made to the on-hand inventory balance. Measured in units of a particular item.

Allocation

The reservation of inventory for a specific use, usually an order. Inventory is allocated from a specific stock container.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange: The universal standard for the numerical codes computers use to represent all upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and punctuation.

ASN

Advance Shipping Notice. Detailed data from the vendor which identifies the expected delivery of merchandise. In addition to standard data, the data may include container id, specific container content and the container store destination.

Availability

The difference between the quantity of on hand merchandise and the quantity that has been allocated to orders.

Back order

The portion of an order that cannot be filled with current inventory.

BOL

Bill of Lading. A document that accompanies a shipment and describes the shipment's contents. The bill of lading covers the pieces shipped to a single destination. It may include the piece count, weight by item ID, and distribution number, and lists both the shipper's and the consignee's name and address.

Bulk container

A container holding other containers, such as a pallet of cartons.

Carrier

The company responsible for delivering incoming material to the DC or for delivering shipments to ship destinations. This includes company owned trucks.

CC

Cycle Count.

Container

A container that can hold merchandise and/or other containers. This includes pallet, tote, carton, trolley, and hanger set.

Cross Dock

Movement of merchandise directly from receiving to shipping without putting it away.

Cycle counting

The process of counting inventory locations and comparing the counts with the inventory records. Cycle count locations are selected randomly by the system and may also be manually marked.

DAS

Delegated Administration Services.

DC

Distribution Center. Also called Warehouse or Facility.

Distribution

The process of assigning Stock Order/Allocations to specific inventory, and creating a pick directive.

Divert lane

In a conveyor sortation system, one of the lanes to which merchandise is directed.

Download

The transmission of data files from one computer system to another computer system.

EDI

Electronic Data Interface.

Facility

Facility, also called Warehouse or Distribution center (DC).

FCP

Forward Case Pick.

First expired, first out

The selection of the inventory to expire first, based on Pick Not After Date.

First-in, first-out

The selection of the oldest inventory, based on the date received into the DC.

Flow-through

Movement of merchandise directly from receiving to a pick system to shipping without putting it away.

GOH

Garments on Hanger. Apparel merchandise that arrives at the DC already hanging. The merchandise occasionally arrives flat in cartons and is hung in the DC.

Hold

A logical restriction enforced by the system, which prohibits merchandise from being putaway into a location.

Host

A computer system that transmits downloads to the Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System. Typically Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS).

Incoming inspection

The inspection of newly arrived material at a DC.

In-transit

The location of a container that is in transit to a specific location within the DC.

Inventory

The merchandise owned by the DC. All received goods that have yet to be shipped.

Inventory control

The team responsible for accurate inventory balances/records with the DC.

Item

Merchandise inventoried at the DC. Items are usually represented by an item ID.

Label

A slip of paper attached to a container providing container identification. Many labels are adhesive backed paper, which carry information (such as its identifying number and a description), with some of the information in bar-coded form and some of it in human readable form.

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. An Internet protocol that uses e-mail and other programs to look up information from a server.

LDIF

LDAP Data Interchange Format. A standard plain text data interchange format for representing LDAP directory content and update requests.

Location

A specific place within a DC, which is uniquely identified and used to store inventory. Every container within the DC must be in a location or on another container. Yard locations for trailers are also supported.

Location type

A method of identifying specific location characteristic for grouping of like locations.

LOV

List of Values.

LTC

Less than Case.

Manifest

A list of merchandise on a trailer for the shipment.

Move

The movement of inventory from one location to another within the DC. A move may or may not be directed by RWMS.

MSRP

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

OCI

Oracle Call Interface.

OHS

Oracle HTTP Server.

OID

Oracle Internet Directory.

ORW

Oracle Retail Workspace.

OSSA

Oracle Software Security Assurance.

OSSO

Oracle Single Sign-On.

Picking

The process of physically selecting and moving the merchandise to complete a pick directive. The merchandise may be picked from a storage or forward location. Picking feeds other downstream processes and does not directly result in reducing the inventory facility's total on-hand inventory.

PO

Purchase Order. A formal request for a vendor to supply specific merchandise in exchange for a set amount of funds. In the warehouse arena, the PO is issued by the Host system and communicated to RWMS.

Pre-distribution

The allocation of incoming goods directly to a ship destination. This drives the crossdock and flow-through processes.

PTS

Put to Store. This is a Unit Pick system within RWMS.

Putaway

The action of transporting received goods to a storage location.

QA

Quality Assurance.

Receipt

A collection of containers that have been received on a single Appointment.

Receiving

The physical processing of newly arrived containers in the DC. The processing occurs after the creation of an Appointment. and the unloading of the containers.

Replenish

The directed movement of merchandise from a storage location to forward location or a third party pick system.

RF

Radio Frequency.

RIB

Oracle Retail Integration Bus.

RMS

Oracle Retail Merchandising System.

ROP

Re-Order Point. An replenishment methodology whereby the location is refilled based on that location hitting a minimum inventory level.

RTV

Return to Vendor.

RWMS

Retail Warehouse Management System.

Scan

To read and decode a bar code symbol.

Scanner

A device used to read bar codes.

SCP

System Control Parameters.

Security

Functionality that limits window access to users of a certain security level.

Ship destination

A designated location address that RWMS may ship merchandise to. A ship destination may be another DC, a store, or a finisher/repair facility.

Shipping

The physical process of transferring possession of merchandise to a carrier for delivery to a ship destination.

SIM

Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management.

SKU

Stock Keeping Unit.

SSO

Single Sign-On.

Staging location

Is a location type whereby the merchandise is ineligible for distribution. Staging locations are many times a working area, such as Receiving or Work In Process (WIP).

Stock

Same as merchandise inventory.

TLT

Any automated picking sorter.

Unit

One inventoried piece.

Unit picking location

A location from which Unit picks are made. May be referred to as a Grab. Unit picking locations are replenished from storage locations.

UOM

Unit Of Measure.

UPC

Universal Product Code. A symbology designed specifically for the retail industry and its suppliers consisting of a series of vertical bars of variable width that may be scanned to identify the item.

Upload

The transmission of data from RWMS to another computer system.

UPS

Unit Pick Systems.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator.

Utilization

The degree to which effective use is made of an item. In particular: space utilization measures the proportion of the space used in a DC during a given period of time.

Velocity

The speed with which an item moves through the DC. May also be part of inventory turns.

Wave

A group of stock orders/transfers selected to be distributed together. The group of stock orders/transfers are selected from data returned from executed queries.

Zone

A subdivision of the DC used for grouping locations.