Serpentine Picking

A method used for picking warehouse orders, wherein the pickers are directed to pick from racks on both sides of an aisle as they move from one end to the other. A different method would be to pick from one side (front to back), and then from the opposite side (back to front). When used, serpentine picking can halve travel time and improve traffic flow down the aisles.

Service Level

A metric, shown as a percentage, that captures the ability to satisfy demand or responsiveness. Order fill rate and machine or process uptime are examples of service level measures.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

May be used in lieu of a contract to represent and document the terms of the performance-based agreement for organic support.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

A computer system term that describes a software architectural concept that defines the use of services to support business requirements. In an SOA, resources are made available to other participants in the network as independent services that are accessed in a standardized way. Most definitions of SOA identify the use of web services (using SOAP and WSDL) in its implementation; however, it is possible to implement SOA using any service-based technology.

Service Parts Revenue

The sum of the value of sales made to external customers and the transfer price valuation of sales within the company, of repair or replacement parts and supplies, net of all discounts, coupons, allowances, and rebates.

SET: See

Secure Electronic Transaction

Setup Costs

The costs incurred in staging the production line to produce a different item.

Seven Wastes

Developed by Taiichi Ohno, Toyota's Chief Engineer for many years, who was the innovator at the heart of the Toyota quality system, this refers to the identified seven barriers to improving quality. They are: 1) waste of overproduction, 2) waste of waiting, 3) waste of transportation, 4) waste of inappropriate processing, 5) waste of unnecessary inventory, 6) waste of unnecessary motions, and 7) waste of defects.

SEZ: See

Special Economic Zone

SG &A: See

Selling, General, and Administrative Expense

Shared Services

Consolidation of a company's back-office processes to form a spinout (or a separate 'shared services' unit, to be run like a separate business) provides services to the parent company and, sometimes, to external customers. Shared services typically lower overall costs due to the consolidation and may improve support as a result of focus.

Shareholder Value

Combination of profitability (revenue and costs) and invested capital (working capital and fixed capital).

Shelf life

The recommended length of time that products can be stored before they are considered unsuitable for sale or consumption.

Shewhart Cycle: See

Plan-Do-Check-Act

Ship Agent

A liner company or tramp ship operator representative facilitates ship arrival, clearance, loading and unloading, and fee payment while at a specific port.

Ship broker

A firm that serves as a go-between for the tramp ship owner and the chartering consignor or consignees.

Shipper

The party that tenders goods for transportation is the shipper.

Shipper-Carriers

Shipper carriers (also called private carriers) are companies with goods to be shipped that own or manage their own vehicle fleets. Many large retailers, particularly groceries and 'big box' stores, are shipper-carriers.

Shipper’s Agent

A firm that primarily acts to match up small shipments, especially single-traffic piggyback loads, to permit the use of twin-trailer piggyback rates.

Shipper’s Association

A nonprofit cooperative consolidator and distributor of shipments owned or shipped by member firms, it acts in much the same way as for-profit freight forwarders.

Shipping

1) The act of conveying materials from one point to another is known as logistics. 2) Logistics is the functional area that prepares the outgoing shipment for transport.

Shipping Lane

A predetermined, mapped route on the ocean that commercial vessels tend to follow between ports helps ships avoid hazardous areas. In general transportation, the logical route between the point of shipment and the point of delivery is used to analyze the volume of shipment between two points.

Shipping Manifest

A document, typically presented to the carrier, outlining the individual shipping orders included in a shipment, is called a manifest. The manifest will show the reference number of each shipping order in the load, the weight and count of boxes or containers, and the destination.

Shop 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.

Shop Floor Production Control Systems

The systems assign priority to each shop order, maintain work-in-process quantity information, provide actual output data for capacity control purposes, and provide quantity by location by shop order for work-in-process inventory and accounting purposes.

Short-Haul

A short move that is usually under 1,000 miles.

Short-Haul Discrimination

Charging more for a shorter haul than for a longer haul over the same route, in the same direction, and for the same commodity.

Short Sea Shipping

Refers to the use of coastal waters for the transport of cargo between coastal port areas as an alternative to the use of the highway system between the same two areas. An example would be using roll-on, roll-off vessels and truck trailers to transport cargo from the Northeast US to the Southeast or Gulf Coast.

Short Shipment

A piece of freight is missing from the shipment, as stipulated by the documents on hand.

Shrinkage

Refers to the loss of inventory count due to pilferage, damage, spoilage, etc., shrinkage can occur while material is in stock and while it is in transit.

SIC

A United States government system for classifying industries by a four-digit code was established in 1937. It is being supplanted by the six-digit North American Industry Classification System, which was released in 1997. However, certain government departments and agencies, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), still use the SIC codes.

Sigma

A Greek letter (Σ) commonly used to designate the standard deviation of a population, sigma is a statistical term that measures how much a process varies from perfection based on the number of defects per million units produced. In a process audit measurement, sigma would be the number of times the process failed for each million times the process was run. In either case, the subject is generally referred to as an 'opportunity.

Silo

Also frequently called 'foxhole' or 'stovepipe', silo mentality relates to a management/organizational style where each functional unit operates independently and with little or no collaboration between them and other units regarding major business processes and issues.

Simulation

A mathematical technique for testing the performance of a system due to uncertain inputs and/or uncertain system configuration options, simulation produces probability distributions for the behavior (outputs) of a system. A company may build a simulation model of its build plan process to evaluate the performance of the build plan under multiple product demand scenarios.

Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)

A manufacturing procedure that provides a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from running the current product to running the next product.

Single-Period Inventory Models

An inventory model, sometimes called the 'newsboy' model, is used to define economical or profitable lot-size quantities when an item is ordered or produced only once (newspapers, perishables, etc.). It balances the cost of a potential shortage with the cost of excess stock.

Single Source Leasing

Leasing both the truck and driver from one source.

Single Sourcing

When an organization deliberately chooses to use one supplier to provide a product or service, even though there are other suppliers available.

Six-Sigma Quality

Six Sigma is a term coined to emphasize the continuous reduction in process variation to achieve near-flawless quality. When a Six Sigma rate of improvement has been achieved, defects are limited to 3.4 per million opportunities.

Skill Based Pay System

An incentive-based pay system that promotes and rewards workers based on the number, type, and depth of skills acquired, mastered, and applied.

Skills Matrix

A visible means of displaying people's skill levels in various tasks is used in a team environment to identify the skills required by the team and which team members have those skills.

SKU

A category of unit with a unique combination of form, fit, and function (i.e., unique components held in stock). For example, if two items are indistinguishable to the customer, or if any distinguishing characteristics visible to the customer are not important to the customer, so that the customer believes the two items to be the same, these two items are part of the same SKU. As a further illustration, consider a computer company that allows customers to configure a product from a standard catalog of components, choosing from three keyboards, three monitors, and three CPUs. Customers may also individually buy keyboards, monitors, and CPUs. If the stock were held at the configuration component level, the company would have nine SKUs. If the company stocks at the component level, as well as at the configured product level, the company would have 36 SKUs (9 component SKUs + 333 configured product SKUs). If, as part of a promotional campaign, the company also specially packaged the products, the company would have a total of 72 SKUs.

Sleeper Team

The use of two drivers to operate a truck equipped with a sleeper berth is common practice in logistics. While one driver sleeps in the berth to accumulate the mandatory off-duty time, the other driver operates the vehicle.

Slip Seat Operation

A term used to describe a motor carrier relay terminal operation where one driver is substituted for another who has accumulated the maximum driving time hours.

Slip Sheet

Similar to a pallet, the slip sheet, which is made of cardboard or plastic, is used to facilitate the movement of unitized loads.

Slot Based Production

A lean manufacturing term used to describe a production system that has been level loaded (Heijunka), with a few slots held open for situations where demand must be met immediately.

Slotting

Inventory slotting or profiling is the process of identifying the most efficient placement for each item in a distribution center. Since each warehouse is different, proper slotting depends on a facility's unique product, movement, and storage characteristics. An optimal profile allows workers to pick items more quickly and accurately while reducing the risk of injuries.

Slurry

Dry commodities are made into a liquid form by the addition of water or other fluids to permit movement by pipeline.