Glossary

Takt Time introduces the idea of a specific pulse or cycle time into manufacturing. The Takt Time pulse is the rate at which a product must be completed in order to meet customer demand. The value of the Takt Time helps set cycle times for processes which feed into final assembly.

Tax inversion is a mainly American term for the movement of a company HQ to a lower tax region, whilst still maintaining operations in their home nation. The US imposes income tax on the foreign earnings of American companies. So, by setting themselves up as ‘foreign companies’ by law, these firms can lower their tax obligations but still reap the benefits of access to the US market. The way companies achieve this is to buy an overseas competitor and then make the competitor’s HQ represent the entire legal entity.

Telematics describes the integration of telecommunications and information technology, where information is sent or received through a telecommunications device and then used for monitoring or control.

In industry, the automotive sector makes most use of the term telematics for capabilities such as vehicle tracking, trailer tracking, fleet management, mobile data, vehicle safety communications, car sharing and usage based insurance.

A Third Party Logistics Provider (3PL) is a type of supply chain services company. A 3PL offers packaging, transportation, warehousing and inventory management to a client company, but usually leaves overall supply chain control in the hands of the client.

In manufacturing, throughput is the quantity of materials flowing through a system or process in a given time. It is often used to measure the output of a production facility, but it can also apply to a single machine, or a work cell.

Time to volume is the time taken to achieve target production volume. An estimate of time to volume, based on prior experience, is used to plan the launch of new products and the changeover to introduce a new manufacturing process for an existing product.

Time to volume is particularly important for mass production environments (for example, cars, electronics and food; and also the parts and materials used to make them). The transition from small quantity to high volume production (often called ‘volume ramp-up’) can involve new production facilities, new supplier and distribution arrangements, and new service organizations.

Toluene can be extracted from pine oil, but is mainly manufactured as a petrochemical in a gasoline refinery. It is a widely used solvent, and is used in the synthesis of trinitrotoluene (TNT), benzoic acid, perfumes, saccharin, dyes, and pharmaceuticals.

The Tonne of oil equivalent (TOE) is a measure of energy. It is the quantity of energy released by burning one tonne (which is 1000 kilograms) of crude oil. Like BOE (Barrel of Oil Equivalent), TOE is used to quantify oil or gas in common terms. Because the energy content of crude oil varies, it is an approximate measure.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is an upfront estimate of all costs associated with an asset over its entire life cycle, including acquisition costs, operating costs and insurance, security, and financing costs. As well as IT systems, TCO can apply to products from all sectors – in the automotive industry, for example, it outlines the cost of owning a vehicle from the purchase, through its maintenance, and finally its sale as a used car.

Total Cost of Quality (TCQ) is the total cost of three classes of quality processes – Prevention, Inspection, and Failure. Prevention largely happens in design and manufacturing process design. Inspection (or appraisal) covers all checks between raw material inspection and finished goods delivery. Failure costs can be quantified through warranty costs, but many businesses see reputation damage as the larger cost. Quality initiatives are justified on the basis that TCQ is less than the Cost of Poor Quality.

Total Landed Cost (TLC) helps capture both obvious and hidden costs in the supply chain. It includes item cost, transportation, warehousing, tariffs and taxes. In some environments it also includes inventory carrying costs, currency exchange costs, financial impact of carbon footprint and other cost categories such as corporate taxes and grants. From a seller’s point of view, TLC is the sum of all costs associated with making and delivering products to the point where they produce revenue (usually the customer’s doorstep). From a buyer’s point of view, it makes sense to use TLC to compare purchase of goods from different countries.

To calculate Total Logistics Costs, a manufacturer will consider costs for inbound delivery and storage of material and parts, the total cost to store, transport, and deliver (and possibly set up) product to the customer following final manufacture and assembly. Manufacturers which calculate and monitor total logistics costs are focusing not only on in-house operations, but also on the total order-fulfillment process.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a holistic approach to maintenance which sets goals of:

• no breakdowns
• no slow or reduced running
• no product defects
• no accidents.

TPM shares responsibility for maintenance between equipment operators and maintenance technicians and engineers. The scope of TPM includes unscheduled maintenance prevention (through design or selection of easy-to-service equipment), equipment improvements, preventive maintenance, and predictive maintenance (determining when to replace components before they fail).

Total Quality Management (TQM) aims for long term success through customer satisfaction. To implement TQM, all members of an organization try to improve not only processes, products and services, but also the culture and style of the way they work.

A TQM strategy highlights eight aspects:

• customer focussed
• process centered
• engagement of all staff
• strategic and systematic approach
• integrated system
• evidence based decisions
• communication
• continuous improvement.

TQM implementation uses a variety of quality tools, such as QFD, Taguchi methods, SPC, corrective-action response teams, cause-and-effect analysis, problem-solving methodologies, and making operations fail-safe.

Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) was developed in the US as a measure of occupational safety. Some recordable incidents lead to an employee being unavailable for normal work duties for one or more days, and these incidents are counted in both TRIR and Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR). Both metrics, are calculated as the equivalent number of incidents if 100 people working full time for one year had been monitored.

Some organizations outside the US (for example, the International Marine Contractors Association, IMCA) normalize the rate to ‘per one million hours worked’ rather than the two hundred thousand hours implied by the US definition (40 hours for 50 weeks for 100 people). In the US specification, if local first aid allows immediate return to work, then the injury will be noted in safety logs, but not classified as a recordable incident.

Total Shareholder Return is the total of two quantities:

• payments received by a shareholder due to owning one share (e.g. dividends)
• the change in the price of the share between the start and end of the time period.

The result is expressed as the equivalent annual percentage growth in the original share price.

Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people.

Traceability is the ability to track the history, location, condition and use of materials, component and products. For finished products, the priority is the ability to recover the history, from raw material origin to current status. This information, using batch and serial numbers for identification, helps find the root cause of a problem, and recognise if other products might be affected.

In logistics, the goal of traceability is to identify the location and condition of all goods in the supply chain. In some sectors, for example pharmaceuticals, proof of a documented chain-of-custody is a vital element of traceability, because security is critical.

Track and Trace means the same as traceability but recognises two distinct applications. Tracking is knowing where products are at each stage of the supply chain, so emphasizes the flow of goods from origin to destination, including all the handling and production processes they go through. Tracing usually operates in the reverse direction, for example, tracing the source of a faulty component that ends up in a finished product.

Trade Funds are the monies set aside by CPG companies to support the activities of their retail partners very often associated with promotional activities. It can be a very significant activity, representing as much as 10-20% of CPG company revenues.

Trade funds include a very diverse set of activities undertaken by CPG companies in support of retail sales efforts e.g. discounts, signage, samples and competitions

The term Transhipment (also spelt Transshipment) can be used in a general sense to mean transportation of goods to an intermediate point and handover from one carrier to another. In global trade, transhipment is an important concept, because there may be letters of credit provided by banks related to goods in transit. In some cases, a letter of credit may ban transhipment. However, banks do not usually intend to ban normal hub-and-spoke operations.

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to switch and control electricity in a circuit. Transistors can be built both as individual components and as components in integrated circuits.

A Transport Management Systems (TMS) is a software tool which helps a shipper see what options at what cost are available to the shipper. A TMS will handle timings associated with each route; the order in which to load transport; optimisation of multi-segment deliveries; and compliance with documentation required for customs and shippers.

In general discussion, Transportation Planning relates to roads, railways, public transport and so on. For manufacturers and logistics organizations, it covers strategic and operational business processes to develop, optimize and use the transport links in their supply and distribution networks. Examples include choice of warehouse locations, decisions about logistics providers, matching transport and warehousing equipment to product and package profiles, delivery service levels such as out of hours and pallet unloading as well as operational processes such as load and route planning.

Turnaround is a scheduled stoppage of part or all of a plant’s operations to allow maintenance and upgrade. The term is used mainly in process, particularly continuous process, production facilities (refinery, petrochemical plant, power plant, etc.).  A turnaround has large costs and production implications, and can require weeks, months or sometimes years of elapsed time. It may involve external health, safety and environmental review. So turnarounds are planned as major projects headed by a senior manager.

A Twenty foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) is the  capacity of the standard shipping container used for intermodal transport, which is twenty feet long and eight feet wide. No single height is defined for the container – 8.5 feet and 9.5 feet are the most common heights – so the TEU is regarded as an inexact measure.