Unbundled Payment/Remittance

The process where payment is delivered separately from its associated details.

Under Utilization

To use too little or inefficiently.

Uniform Communication Standard (UCS)

A set of standard transaction sets for the grocery industry that allows computer-to-computer, paperless exchange of documents between trading partners. Using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), UCS is a rapid, accurate, and economical method of business communication. It can be used by companies of all sizes and with varying levels of technical sophistication.

Uniform Product Code (UPC)

A standard product numbering and barcoding system is used by the retail industry. UPC codes are administered by the Uniform Code Council. They identify the manufacturer as well as the item and are included on virtually all retail packaging.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A string that supplies the internet address of a website or resource on the World Wide Web, along with the protocol by which the site or resource is accessed.

Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act

The act that sets forth the regulations governing public warehousing defines the legal responsibilities of a warehouse manager and the types of receipts issued.

Unit Cost

The cost associated with a single unit of a product is the total cost of producing a product or service divided by the total number of units. The cost associated with a single unit of measure underlying a resource, activity, product, or service is calculated by dividing the total cost by the measured volume. Unit cost measurement must be used with caution as it may not always be practical or relevant in all aspects of cost management.

United Nations Standard Product and Service Code (UN/SPSC)

Developed jointly between the UN and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), this system has a five-level coding structure (segment, family, class, commodity, business function) for nearly 9,000 products.

United States Railway Association

The planning and funding agency for Conrail was created by the 3-R Act of 1973.

Unitization

In warehousing, the consolidation of several units (cartons or cases) into larger units is done to improve efficiency in handling and reduce shipping costs.

Unitize

To consolidate a number of packages into one unit, the several packages are strapped, banded, or otherwise attached together.

Unit Load Device (ULD)

Refers to airfreight containers and pallets.

Unit of Driver Measure

The common denominator among groupings of similar activities is the example of 20 hours of process time being performed in an activity center. This time corresponds to a number of common activities that vary in process time duration. The unit of measure is a standard measure of time, such as a minute or an hour.

Unit-of-Measure Conversion

A conversion ratio is used whenever multiple units of measure are used with the same item. For example, if you purchased an item in cases (meaning that your purchase order stated a number of cases rather than a number of pieces) and then stocked the item in eaches, you would require a conversion to allow your system to calculate how many eaches are represented by a quantity of cases. This way, when you received the cases, your system would automatically convert the case quantity into an each quantity.

Unit of Measure (UOM)

The unit in which the quantity of an item is managed, e.g., pounds, each, box of 12, package of 20, or case of 144. Various UOMs may exist for a single item. For example, a product may be purchased in cases, stocked in boxes, and issued in single units.

Units Moved per Man Hour

Measures the number of units moved in per man hour. Calculation: (number of units moved) / (total number of hours worked to move units).

Unit Train

An entire, uninterrupted locomotive, car, and caboose movement is routed between a single origin and destination.

Unplanned Order

Orders that are received and do not fit into the volumes prescribed by the plans developed from forecasts.

UN/SPSC

United Nations Standard Product and Service Code.

UOM

Unit of Measure

UPC

Uniform Product Code

Upcharges

Charges added to a bill, particularly a freight bill, to cover additional costs that were not envisioned when a contract was written. These might include costs related to rapidly increasing fuel charges or costs related to government mandates. See also: Accessorial Charges.

Upsell

The practice of attempting to sell a higher-value product to the customer.

Upside Flex Agreement

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

Upside Production Flexibility

The number of days required to complete the manufacture and delivery of an unplanned sustainable 20% increase in the end product supply of the predominant product line is uncertain. The one constraint estimated to be the principal obstacle to a 20% increase in end product supply, represented in days, is Upside Flexibility: Principal Constraint. Upside Flexibility could affect three possible areas: direct labor availability, internal manufacturing capacity, and key components or material availability.

Upstream

Refers to the supply side of the supply chain, upstream partners are the suppliers who provide goods and services to the organization needed to satisfy demands which originate at the point of demand or use, as well as other flows such as return product movements, payments for purchases, etc. This is the opposite of downstream.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration

An agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation is responsible for developing comprehensive mass transport systems for urban areas and providing financial aid to transit systems.

URL

A string that supplies the internet address of a website or resource on the World Wide Web, along with the protocol by which the site or resource is accessed.

Usage Rate

Measure of demand for a product per unit of time (e.g., units per month, etc.).

Validation

To check whether a document is the correct type for a particular EDI system, as agreed upon by the trading partners, in order to determine whether the document is going to or coming from an authorized EDI user.

Value-Added

Increased or improved value, worth, functionality, or usefulness.

Value-Added Network (VAN)

A company that acts as a clearinghouse for electronic transactions between trading partners is a third-party supplier. This supplier receives EDI transmissions from sending trading partners and holds them in a 'mailbox' until they are retrieved by the receiving partners.

Value-Added Productivity Per Employee

Contribution made by employees to total product revenue, minus the material purchases, divided by total employment. Total employment refers to the overall number of employees in the surveyed entity. This includes the average full-time equivalent employee in all functions, such as sales and marketing, distribution, manufacturing, engineering, customer service, finance, general and administrative, and others. Total employment should also encompass contract and temporary employees on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis. Calculation: Total Product Revenue - External Direct Material / [FTEs].

Value-Adding/Nonvalue-Adding

Assessing the relative value of activities according to how they contribute to customer value or to meeting an organization's needs, the degree of contribution reflects the influence of an activity's cost driver(s).

Value Analysis

A method to determine how features of a product or service relate to cost, functionality, appeal, and utility to a customer (i.e., engineering value analysis). Also, see Target Costing.

Value Based Return (VBR)

A measure of the creation of value, it is the difference between economic profit and capital charge.

Value Chain

A series of activities, which combined, define a business process: the series of activities from manufacturers to the retail stores that define the industry's supply chain.

Value Chain Analysis

A method to identify all the elements in the linkage of activities that a firm relies on to secure the necessary materials and services, starting from their point of origin, to manufacture, and to distribute their products and services to an end user.

Value-Engineering

A systematic method to improve the value of products or services by examining the function of the product or service.

Value Engineering Change Proposal (VECP)

A change proposal resulting from an organized effort directed at analyzing the function of the Department of Defense systems, equipment, facilities, procedures, and supplies is made for the purpose of achieving the required function at the lowest total cost of effective ownership. This is consistent with the requirements for performance, reliability, quality, and maintainability.

Value-of-Service Pricing

Pricing according to the value of the product being transported: third-degree price discrimination, demand-oriented pricing, charging what the traffic will bear.

Value of Transfers

The total dollar value (for the calendar year) associated with the movement of inventory from one 'bucket' to another, such as raw material to work-in-process, work-in-process to finished goods, plant finished goods to field finished goods or customers, and field finished goods to customers, is referred to as the Value of Transfers. This value is based on the inventory withdrawn from a specific category and is often approached from a costing perspective, using cost accounts.

Value Proposition

What the supply chain member offers to other members is the value proposition. To be truly effective, the value proposition has to be two-sided: a benefit to both buyers and sellers.

Value Stream

All activities, both value-added and non-value-added, are required to bring a product from the raw material state into the hands of the customer, bring a customer requirement from order to delivery, and bring a design from concept to launch.

Value Stream Mapping

A pencil and paper tool is used in two stages: 1. Follow a product's production path from beginning to end and draw a visual representation of every process in the material and information flows. 2. Then, draw a future state map of how value should flow. The most important map is the future state map.

VAN

Value-Added Network

Variable Cost

A cost that fluctuates with the volume or activity level of business.

VBR

Value-Based Return