WMS Glossary of Terms
The following are terms and vocabulary you might hear in distribution and inventory management. Any of the More Info buttons will connect you with someone at QStock Inventory to answer any additional questions you may have. Hit Ctrl+F to bring up a search for this page to find a specific term.
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ABC Inventory
Instead of looking at inventory as a single unit or product line, ABC is a way to separate items based on proprietary calculations of value and volume to be able to focus on high priority items separately from less critical items.
Adjustment
Inventory is usually brought in using a receipt of a Purchase Order, and relieved through fulfilling Sales Orders. An adjustment is adding or removing inventory outside of that workflow. Common adjustments could be: damage, spoilage, sales samples, or consumption.
Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN)
Advanced shipment notifications (ASNs) are used to notify a customer of a shipment. ASNs will often include PO numbers, SKU numbers, lot numbers, quantity, pallet or container number, carton number.
Allocation
When a Sales Order is allocated that inventory in a specific location is locked to that Sales Order. This allows a sales person to see what is On Hand vs Available.
Application Program Interface (API)
Assembly
Often referred to as Work Order or Final Assembly, assembly is bringing products together to create a new product. This would use a Bill of Material or Recipe to define what parts would be consumed, and the ratios, to get the cost and apply to the finished good.
Auto-Allocation
A background process that allocates a Sales Order as they are created to make sure the first request for an item gets that inventory locked to that order. Orders can be unallocated to free up inventory for higher profile orders.
Available to Promise
Available To Sell (ATS)
With clothing and other matrix items (See Matrix Inventory) ATS will show what is available not just for a single SKU, but for an entire Style of a product in various sizes and colors.
Barcode (1D/2D)
A 1D barcode is the common barcode seen on most products with uniform lines with varying thickness and spacing. It is considered 1D because a perpendicular line could scan the barcode.
A 2D barcode is a collection of dots arranged in a shape that can contain much more data. A QR Code is an example of a 2D barcode. Often used in industries like medical devices which need more information in each scan.
Best By Date
Another term for Expiration Date.
Bill of Lading
A detailed list of a shipment of goods in the form of a printed document given by the carrier to the person buying the finished goods.
Bin
A bin is a defined space on a rack where product is stored. Often a portion of a shelf. This is the location marked as where a product is stored within QStock Inventory and where a person would be directed to find a specific item.
Blind Count
Prior to selecting QStock Inventory, most customers use count sheets that include the current assumed stocking levels, which can allow a user to agree with the current level without counting. Blind counting requires a user to count everything within a bin to ensure accuracy.
Bulk Purchase Order
Very few businesses create a Purchase Order for the exact amount they will receive. Bulk Purchase Orders allow a user to negotiate a better price for a larger purchase that is received in multiple receipts over a period of time.
Challenges for BioTech
- Traceability: looking for ways to keep track of the freshness of their products from a laboratory safety perspective and an efficiency perspective.
- Accuracy and Visibility: better visibility into the warehouse with a boost in order and shipment accuracy. Purchasing Assistant keeps stock as demand shifts.
- Management: track lab workers’ day-to-day activities, including the work they complete, and workforce’s performance.
- Modernization: Laboratory Science companies are hindered by manual and paper based processes.
- Inventory Control: Accurate inventory to reduce the need for full inventory counts, and allowing cycle counts without stopping fulfillment.
Schedule a Demo
Let us know what your biggest challenges are managing multiple sales channels today, and where you want to take your business. We will show you exactly how to bring everything into a single fulfillment and keep all of your systems on the same page.
Cannabidiol (CBD)
Carrying Costs
Catchweight
Consignment
Co-Manufacturer
Commercial Invoice
Co-Packer
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
Cube
Cycle Count
Days on Hand
Dimensions
Direct Move
Directed Pick
Direct Store Delivery (DSD)
Dropship
eCommerce
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Expiry Date
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
The Future for Electronic Devices
- Traceability: Automated RMA Serial validation for Warranty management.
- Accuracy and Visibility: Better visibility into the warehouse with a boost in order and shipment accuracy. Purchasing Assistant keeps stock as demand shifts.
- Management: Track warehouse workers’ day-to-day activities, including the work they complete, and workforce’s performance.
- Modernization: Kick Google Sheets to the curb and shift from firefighting to data driven inventory planning.
- Inventory Control: Accurate inventory to reduce the need for full inventory counts, and allowing cycle counts without stopping fulfillment.
Field Service
First In First Out (FIFO)
Forecasting
Full Truck Load (FTL)
Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
Harmonized System Code (HS)
Intermec
Inventory Control
Inventory Management
Invoice
Item Number
Challenges for Food & Beverages
- Traceability: looking for ways to keep track of the freshness of their products from a food safety perspective and an efficiency perspective.
- Accuracy and Visibility: better visibility into the warehouse with a boost in order and shipment accuracy. Purchasing Assistant keeps stock as demand shifts.
- Management: track warehouse workers’ day-to-day activities, including the work they complete, and workforce’s performance.
- Modernization: Food and Beverage companies are hindered by manual and paper based processes.
- Inventory Control: Accurate inventory to reduce the need for full inventory counts, and allowing cycle counts without stopping fulfillment.
Just In Time (JIT) Inventory
Kit in Distribution
Landed Cost
Last In First Out (LIFO)
Less Than Truck Load (LTL)
Let Down
License Plate
Lot
Manufacture Date
Matrix Inventory
Min Max
Challenges for Medical Devices
- Traceability: Looking for ways to keep track of the freshness of their products from both safety and efficiency perspective.
- Accuracy and Visibility: Better visibility into the warehouse with a boost in order and shipment accuracy. Purchasing Assistant keeps stock as demand shifts.
- Management: Track workers’ day-to-day activities, including the work they complete, and the workforce’s performance.
- Modernization: Medical Device distributors are hindered by manual and paper based processes.
- Inventory Control: Accurate inventory to reduce the need for full inventory counts, and allowing cycle counts without stopping fulfillment.
Negative Inventory
Omnichannel
The Tools You Need For Success In Cannabis
- Barcode scanning and printing
- Track and trace of PackageID, Lot, Serial, Expiry & Manufacture Dates
- eCommerce integrations to WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and PrestaShop
- Powerful integrations to METRC, QuickBooks, and Sage Intacct
- Real time multi-entity, multi-state, multi-license, multi-warehouse, multi-channel integrations
- Kitting and light assembly
- Backorder management and assisted replenishment
- Shipping integrations to FedEx, UPS, Endicia, ShipStation, ShippingEasy, ProShip (65+ options)
Pack Slip
PackageID
Pallet Tag
Palletize
Periodic Inventory
Perpetual Inventory
Pick Ticket
Pick / Pack / Ship
Picking
Point of Sale (POS)
Production Line
Purchase Order
Put Away
QR Code
Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID)
Reorder Point
Retail
Return Material Authorization (RMA)
Replenishment
Routing
Safety Stock
Scanner
Schedule B
Serial
Shipper
Staging
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)
Stock: Allocated, Available, Back Order, On Hand (QOH), On Order (QOO)
Supply Chain
Challenges for Consumer Goods
- Too many systems
- Multi-Entity requirements
- Possible theft/shrink
- High employee turnover
- Multiple systems with little integration
- Multi-Channel need for inventory:
- Delivery
- eCommerce
- B2B
- Wholesale
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
Third-party logistics (3PL)
3PLs provide one or many of a variety of logistics-related services. Types of services would include public warehousing, contract warehousing, transportation management, distribution management, freight consolidation. A 3PL provider may take over all receiving, storage, value added, shipping, and transportation responsibilities for a client and conduct them in the 3PL’s warehouse using the 3PL’s equipment and employees, or may manage one or all of these functions in the client’s facility using the client’s equipment, or any combination of the above. Another term, 4PL is sometimes used to describe businesses that manage a variety of logistics related services for clients by using 3PLs.
Traceability
Transfers
Turnover
Unique Device Identifier (UDI)
Unit of Measure (UOM / U of M)
Universal Product Code (UPC)
Value Added Tax (VAT)
Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
Warehouse Management System
Wholesale
Will Call
Work in Process (WIP)
Work Order
X12
Yield
Schedule a Demo
Let us know what your biggest challenges are managing multiple sales channels today, and where you want to take your business. We will show you exactly how to bring everything into a single fulfillment and keep all of your systems on the same page.
Zebra
Zone
Access Anywhere
Your key data in sync, across systems, desktop, laptop, or mobile devices.
Barcode Scanning
Record the work real-time as its being done, barcode scanned, for speed & accuracy.
Shared Information
Effortless information sharing between the finance and operations teams.
Planning
Shift from scrambling to get orders out to data driven inventory planning.
How Can QStock Inventory Work In Your Business?
Sign up below to see how QStock Inventory can add visibility, traceability, and distribution workflows to your multiple Sales Channels.
What To Expect on the Call
We know you probably have a number of questions about other integrations and industries that QStock Inventory works with or maybe want to see a demo.
Here are the next steps:
- We want to answer your questions and understand your key initiatives.
- We will want to get an idea of the number of warehouses, items and entities.
- Go through your receiving and picking processes to see how you do things today and where you are trying to go.
- Learn about if Work Orders or Kitting is involved and to what degree.
- Plan a demonstration agenda together and schedule to show you how QStock Inventory will work in your business.
