Discontinuous Demand

A material demand pattern where periods of demand are separated by periods with little or no demand, similar to a cyclical demand pattern but without any expected cyclical pattern. Synonym: Lumpy Demand.

Discrete Manufacturing

Discrete manufacturing processes create products by assembling unconnected, distinct parts, as in the production of distinct items such as automobiles, appliances, or computers.

Discrete Order Picking

An order picking method where each individual order is picked, line by line, prior to beginning the picking of another order. Also, see Batch Picking, Order Picking, Zone Picking.

Discrete Order Quantity

A production planning technique that generates planned orders in quantities equal to the net customer order requirements in each period. See Lot for Lot.

Disintermediation

When the traditional sales channels are disassembled and the middleman is cut out of the deal, such as when the manufacturer ships directly to a retailer, bypassing the distributor.

Dispatching

The carrier activities involved in controlling equipment involve arranging for fuel, drivers, crews, equipment, and terminal space.

Distributed Inventory

Inventory that is geographically dispersed, for example, where a company maintains inventory in multiple distribution centers, is done to provide a higher level of customer service.

Distribution

The activities associated with moving materials from source to destination can be associated with movement from a manufacturer or distributor to customers, retailers, or other secondary warehousing/distribution points.

Distribution Center (DC)

The warehouse facility holds inventory from manufacturing, pending distribution to the appropriate stores.

Distribution Channel

One or more companies or individuals participate in the flow of goods and services from the manufacturer to the final user or consumer.

Distribution Channel Management

The organizational and pipeline strategy for getting products to customers is known as logistics. Direct channels involve company sales forces, facilities, and/or direct shipments to customers. Indirect channels, on the other hand, involve the use of wholesalers, distributors, and/or other parties to supply the products to customers. Many companies utilize both strategies, depending on the markets and their effectiveness.

Distribution On Demand (DOD)

The order fulfillment state that a distribution operation achieves is when it can respond, closest to real-time, to changes in demand while shipping 100 percent customer-compliant orders at the least cost.

Distribution Planning

The process involved in planning for distribution activities includes inbound/outbound transportation, warehouse management, setting inventory levels, putaway and picking, packaging and loading, and various administrative functions.

Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP)

A system for determining inventory demands at distribution centers and consolidating demand information in reverse as input to the production and materials system.

Distribution Resource Planning (DRP II)

A computerized system that integrates distribution with manufacturing by identifying requirements for finished goods and producing schedules for inventory and its movement within the distribution process. Distribution resource planning systems receive data on sales forecasts, customer orders, and delivery requirements, available inventory, logistics, and manufacturing and purchasing lead times. This data is analyzed to produce a time-phased schedule of resource requirements that is matched against existing supply sources and production schedules to identify the actions that must be taken to synchronize supply and demand.

Distribution Warehouse

A warehouse stores finished goods and is used to assemble customer orders.

Distributor

A business and industry that acts as a third-party local representative and distribution point for a manufacturing firm. These firms may perform some light assembly or kitting of goods but generally provide a buffer for finished goods. Distributors typically purchase the goods in quantity from the manufacturer and ship them to customers in smaller quantities. Synonym: Wholesaler.

Diversion

The practice of selling goods to a competitor that the vendor assumes would be used to service that customer's store. Example: Grocery Store Chain A buys orange juice from Minute Maid. Grocery Store Chain A, because of their sales volume or because of promotion, can buy the product for $12.50 per case. Grocery Store Chain B, because of a lower sales volume, buys the same orange juice for $14.50 per case. Grocery Store Chain A and Grocery Store Chain B get together and make a deal. Grocery Store Chain A resells that product to Grocery Store Chain B for $13.50 per case. Grocery Store Chain A makes $1.00 per case, and Grocery Store Chain B gets the product for $1.00 less per case than it can buy from Minute Maid.

Diversity

An aspect of a company's social responsibility program related to the use of all people in the workplace, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, national origin, and sexual orientation.

DMAIC

An acronym used by Six Sigma practitioners to remind them of the steps in a Six Sigma improvement project - Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

DMZSeparation

Demilitarized zones (DMZ) act as buffers between a trusted network (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition or SCADA network) and the corporate network or Internet—separated through additional firewalls and routers—which provide an extra layer of security against cyber attacks. Utilizing DMZ buffers is becoming an increasingly common method to segregate business applications from the SCADA network and is a highly recommended additional security measure. A DMZ is sometimes called a 'Perimeter network' or a 'Three-homed perimeter network.' SI Security, a leading intelligence security company, defines a DMZ as 'a network added between a protected network and an external network in order to provide an additional layer of security.

DOA

Dead on Arrival.

Dock receipt

A receipt that indicates an export shipment has been delivered to a steamship company by a domestic carrier.

Dock-to-Stock

A practice where pre-qualified product is received into inventory, eliminating the normal receiving and inspection handling involved. Also, a warehouse metric used to benchmark the amount of time required to perform the processes associated with getting received items into storage.

Dock-to-Stock Cycle Time

The elapsed time begins with the delivery of goods from the supplier and ends when those goods are put away in the warehouse and recorded into the inventory management system.

Document

In EDI, a form, such as an invoice or a purchase order, that trading partners have agreed to exchange, and that the EDI software handles within its compliance-checking logic.

Documentation

The papers attached or pertaining to goods requiring transportation and/or transfer of ownership include the packing list, hazardous materials declarations, export/customs documents, etc.

DOD

Distribution on Demand.

DoDD

Department of Defense Directive

DoDI

Department of Defense Instruction.

DOE

Design of Experiments, Department of Energy.

Domain

1) The highest subdivision of the Internet is, for the most part, determined by country (except in the U.S., where it is determined by the type of organization, such as educational, commercial, and government). It is usually the last part of a host name. For example, the domain part of ibm.com is .com, which represents the domain of commercial sites in the U.S. 2) In corporate data networks, a group of client computers is controlled by a server system.

Domestic Trunk Line Carrier

An air carrier classification for carriers that operate between major population centers. These carriers are now classified as major carriers.

Dormant Route

A route over which a carrier failed to provide service five days a week for thirteen weeks out of a twenty-six-week period.

Double Bottoms

A motor carrier operation involves two trailers being pulled by one tractor.

Double Order Point System

An inventory management system has two order points: one includes the normal demand expected during the replenishment cycle, and the second is associated with the demand expected during the manufacturing process. The goal is to enable facilities in a distribution network to alert a central warehouse or manufacturing of future replenishment orders.

Double-Pallet Jack

A mechanized device for transporting two standard pallets simultaneously.

Double Stack

Two containers, one on top of the other, loaded onto a railroad flatcar: an intermodal service.

Download

To merge temporary files containing a day's or week's worth of information with the main database in order to update it.

Downside Flex Agreement

This is a flexibility agreement with a supplier where the upside and downside are negotiated in advance for lead time, cost, etc.

Downstream

Referring to the demand side of the supply chain: one or more companies or individuals who participate in the flow of goods and services, moving from the manufacturer to the final user or consumer. This is the opposite of upstream.

DPC

Dynamic Process Control

DPL

Denied Party List

DPO

Days Payable Outstanding

DPP

Direct product profitability

Drayage

Transportation of materials and freight on a local basis, but intermodal freight carriage may also be referred to as drayage.

Driving Time Regulations

Rules administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation that limit the maximum time a driver may drive in interstate commerce; both daily and weekly maximums are prescribed.

Drop

A situation in which an equipment operator deposits a trailer or boxcar at a facility where it is to be loaded or unloaded.