Permanent Storage

An area of the warehouse used for, or the goods themselves, a class of goods intended to be in storage for longer than 90 days.

Permit

A grant of authority to operate as a contract carrier.

Perpetual Inventory

The system of record-keeping tracks book inventory by recording all receipts, issues, and adjustments as they occur.

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

A handheld device that combines computing, telephone/fax, and networking features.

Personal Discrimination

Charging different rates to shippers with similar transportation characteristics, or vice versa.

Phantom Bill of Material

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is used for a product or group of parts that are not normally built and stocked but are immediately used in production. MRP processors ignore the phantom and instead include the component parts in production orders and for planning purposes.

Physical Distribution

The movement and storage functions associated with finished goods from manufacturing plants to warehouses and customers are also used synonymously with business logistics.

Physical Supply

The movement and storage functions associated with raw materials from supply sources to the manufacturing facility.

PI

Packaging Indicator

Pick and pack

This is the process of picking items for a specific order out of storage within a warehouse and packing them for shipping.

Pick and Pass

Segregating your DC pick area into pick zones, where the operators perform picks only in the zones assigned to them, and the order picking container travels (is passed) from one zone to another using conveyors or pick carts, reduces the travel time for pickers.

Pick-by-Light

A laser identifies the bin for the next item in the rack. When the picker completes the pick, the barcode is scanned, and the system then points the laser at the next bin.

Picking

The operations involved in pulling products from storage areas to complete a customer order.

Picking by Aisle

A method by which pickers pick all needed items in an aisle, regardless of the items' ultimate destination. The items must be sorted later. This is a component of Wave Picking.

Picking by Source

A method in which pickers successively pick all items going to a particular destination, regardless of the aisle in which each item is located.

Pick List

A list of items to be picked from stock in order to fulfill an order; the pick list generation and the picking method can be quite sophisticated.

Pick Module

A dedicated area specifically designed to enhance pick operations is usually supported by a belt conveyor or roller assembly to move picked products to a packaging/shipping area. Pick modules are often multi-level rack structures using pallet or case flow storage and pick-to-light systems.

Pick on Receipt

The product is received and picked in one operation (movement); therefore, the product never actually touches the ground within the warehouse. It is unloaded from one vehicle and reloaded onto an outbound vehicle. This process is related to Cross Docking.

Pick/Pack

Picking products from inventory and packing them into shipment containers.

Pick-to-Carton

Pick-to-carton logic uses item dimensions and weights to select the shipping carton prior to the order picking process. Items are then picked directly into the shipping carton.

Pick-to-Clear

A method often used in warehouse management systems is to direct picking to the locations with the smallest quantities on hand.

Pick-to-Light

Pick-to-light systems consist of lights and LED displays for each pick location. The system uses software to light up the next pick and display the quantity to be picked.

Pick-to-Trailer

Order-picking method where the order picker transports the materials directly from the pick location to the trailer without any interim checking or staging steps.

Pickup and Delivery

A type of transportation, usually local, where the carrier follows a regular route, making deliveries and picking up shipments.

Pick-Up Order

A document indicating the authority to pick up cargo or equipment from a specific location.

Piece Count

Number of individual cases, packages, or bundles in an intermodal trailer or container.

Piggyback

Terminology used to describe a truck trailer being transported on a railroad flatcar.

Pin Lock

A hard piece of iron formed to fit on a trailer's pin that locks in place with a key to prevent an unauthorized person from moving the trailer.

Place Utility

A value is created in a product by changing its location. Transportation creates place utility.

PlainText

Data before it has been encrypted or after it has been decrypted, e.g., an ASCII text file.

Plan Deliver

The development and establishment of courses of action over specified time periods that represent a projected allocation of supply resources to meet delivery requirements.

Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA)

A four-step quality improvement cycle, based on a process described by Walter Shewhart, involves continuous improvement based on analysis, design, execution, and evaluation. Sometimes referred to as plan/do/study/act, it emphasizes constant attention and reaction to factors that affect quality. Synonyms: Shewhart Cycle.

Plan Make

The development and establishment of courses of action over specified time periods that represent a projected allocation of production resources to meet production requirements.

Planned Date

The date of an operation, such as a receipt, shipment, or delivery of an order, is planned to occur.

Planned Order

An order proposed by an MRP system to cover forecasted demand in a future period. Planned orders will change dynamically over time to accommodate changes in forecasts and actual usage until they become 'firm planned orders', either through manual intervention or by virtue of the associated period moving within a planning horizon. The next step in the process would be to create an actual purchase or production order.

Planned Receipt

Any line item on an open purchase or production order that has been scheduled but not yet received into stock.

Planning Bill

A Bill of Materials (BOM) has been created to facilitate the practice of forecasting by family group rather than by individual product. It specifies the products as components and the expected percentage of each in terms of overall family usage or sales. The MRP system will then use the family-level forecast to derive individual product forecasts using the relative percentages.

Planning Bill of Material

A Bill of Materials (BOM) has been created to facilitate the practice of forecasting by family group rather than by individual product. It specifies the products as components and the expected percentage of each in terms of overall family usage or sales. The MRP system will then use the family-level forecast to derive individual product forecasts using the relative percentages.

Planning Calendar

A tool used in the production environment to note the capacity available by working day. While it may resemble the traditional calendar with a representation of months and days, the unique features are the units of capacity available and the ability to block specific days, shifts, or work periods. Calendars are set by work center to allow for differing schedules.

Planning Fence

A point, usually a set length of time beyond the current date, is used as a boundary for making changes in a planning system. It is used to stabilize the master production schedule by allowing various changes to planned orders only beyond the fence. However, changes under certain circumstances can be made within the fence. Also, see Cumulative Lead Time, Demand Time Fence, Firm Planned Order, Planned Order, Planning Horizon, and Time Fence.

Planning Horizon

In an MRP system, this is the length of time into the future (number of periods or days) for which the planning system will generate requirements. The horizon should be set long enough to accommodate the longest cumulative lead time for any item in the population. Also, see Cumulative Lead Time and Planning Time Fence.

Planning Time Fence

A point, usually a set length of time beyond the current date, is used as a boundary for making changes in a planning system. It is used to stabilize the master production schedule by allowing various changes to planned orders only beyond the fence. However, changes under certain circumstances can be made within the fence. Also, see Cumulative Lead Time, Demand Time Fence, Firm Planned Order, Planned Order, Planning Horizon, and Time Fence.

Planogram

The end result of analyzing the sales data of an item or group of items is to determine the best arrangement of products on a store shelf. The process determines on which shelf your top-selling product should be displayed, the number of facings it gets, and what is best to surround it with. It results in a graphical picture or map of the allotted shelf space, along with a specification of the facing and depth.

Plan Source

The development and establishment of courses of action over specified time periods that represent a projected allocation of material resources to meet supply chain requirements.

Plan Stability

The difference between planned production and actual production, as a percentage of planned production, is calculated by dividing the sum of the monthly production plans and the sum of the absolute value of the difference between planned and actual production by the sum of the monthly production plans. The base production plan is the three-month removed plan.

Plant Finished Goods

Finished goods inventory is held at the end manufacturing location.

PLM

The process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product, from its conception, design, development, and manufacture, to the management of its introduction, growth, and decline.

PLU

Used for retail products sold loose, bunched, or in bulk (to identify the different types of fruit, for example). As opposed to UPC (Universal Product Codes) for packaged, fixed-weight retail items, a PLU code contains 4-5 digits in total. The PLU is entered before an item is weighed to determine its price.