Charging Area

A warehouse area where a company maintains battery chargers and extra batteries to support a fleet of electrically powered materials handling equipment. The company must maintain this area in accordance with government safety regulations.

Chock

1) A wedge, usually made of hard rubber or steel, that is firmly placed under the wheel of a trailer, truck, or boxcar to stop it from rolling. 2) Churning: The practice of customers switching to another supplier based on special discount offers. This term is particularly used in the cellular telephone or credit card industries. Sometimes, this term is applied to supplier management where the emphasis is on choosing the low-price vendor over maintaining strategic relationships.

CI

Continuous Improvement, Catalog Item.

CIF

Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) - A trade term requiring the seller to arrange for the carriage of goods by sea to a port of destination and provide the buyer with the documents necessary to obtain the goods from the carrier.

City Driver

A motor carrier driver who drives a local route, as opposed to a long-distance intercity route.

Civil Aeronautics Board

A federal regulatory agency implemented economic regulatory controls over air carriers.

CL

Carload rail service requires the shipper to meet a minimum weight.

Claim

A charge made against a carrier for loss, damage, delay, or overcharge.

Class I carrier

A classification of regulated carriers based upon annual operating revenues is as follows: motor carriers of property with annual operating revenues greater than or equal to $5 million; railroads with annual operating revenues greater than or equal to $50 million; motor carriers of passengers with annual operating revenues greater than or equal to $3 million.

Classification

An alphabetical listing of commodities, the class or rating into which the commodity is placed, and the minimum weight necessary for the rate discount are used in the class rate structure.

Classification Yard

A railroad terminal area where rail cars are grouped together to form train units.

Class II carrier

A classification of regulated carriers based upon annual operating revenues is as follows: motor carriers of property: $1-$5 million; railroads: $10-$50 million; motor carriers of passengers ≤ $3 million.

Class III carrier

A classification of regulated carriers based upon annual operating revenues is as follows: motor carriers of property with annual operating revenues of $1 million or less, and railroads with annual operating revenues of $10 million or less.

ClassRate

A rate constructed from a classification and a uniform distance system. A class rate is available for any product between any two points.

CLCA

A sophisticated engineering system is designed to document, verify, and diagnose failures, recommend and initiate corrective action, provide follow-up, and maintain comprehensive statistical records.

Clearinghouse

A conventional or limited-purpose entity is generally restricted to providing specialized services, such as clearing funds or settling accounts.

Click-and-Mortar

With reference to a traditional brick-and-mortar company that has expanded its presence online, many brick-and-mortar stores are now trying to establish an online presence but often have a difficult time doing so for various reasons. Click-and-mortar is 'the successful combination of online and real-world experience.

CLIN (Contract Line Items Number)

Specific items or services that are separately priced under a contract.

Clip Art

A collection of icons, buttons, and other useful image files, along with sound and video files, that can be inserted into documents or web pages.

CLM

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Closed-Loop Corrective Action (CLCA)

A sophisticated engineering system is designed to document, verify, and diagnose failures, recommend and initiate corrective action, provide follow-up, and maintain comprehensive statistical records.

Closed-Loop MRP

A production and operations environment that manages materials and production processes through a full closed-loop cycle, beginning with planning, proceeding through the execution process, and providing any resulting feedback and corrective actions back to the planning function to validate and improve future processes.

Cloud Computing

An emerging computing paradigm where data and services reside in massively scalable data centers and can be ubiquitously accessed from any connected devices over the internet. Similar to the 'on-demand' concept of SaaS or ASP computing services, with the exception of the broad nature of the network of computers.

CLS (Contractor Logistics Support)

A term in performance-based logistics, which refers to support in which maintenance operations for a particular military system are performed exclusively by contract support personnel.

CLS(CostPlus)

Used for transitional support while cost and resource baselines are being tracked and defined.

CLS (Fixed Price)

Used when cost and resource baselines are well-documented, cost and pricing risks are minimal, and both the DoD and contractor can define price, incentives, and performance outcomes with a high degree of confidence.

Cluster Picking

Cluster picking is a methodology of picking multiple order containers at one time. The containers could be totes containing order batches, discrete order shippers, or discrete order totes.

CM

A document issued to provide authorization for a customer account credit, typically due to product returns, billing errors, or other adjustments.

CMI

A form of continuous replenishment in which the manufacturer is responsible for the replenishment of standard merchandise, while the retailer manages the replenishment of promotional merchandise.

CMM

A framework that describes the key elements of an effective software process, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is an evolutionary improvement path from an immature process to a mature, disciplined process. The CMM covers practices for planning, engineering, and managing software development and maintenance. When followed, these key practices improve the ability of organizations to meet goals for cost, schedule, functionality, and product quality.

CMMS

Software-based systems that analyze operating conditions of production equipment - vibration, oil analysis, heat, etc. - and equipment failure data, and apply that data to the scheduling of maintenance and repair inventory orders and routine maintenance functions. A CMMS prevents unscheduled machine downtime and optimizes a plant's ability to process products at optimum volumes and quality levels.

COA

A document, often required by an importer or governmental authorities, attesting to the quality or purity of commodities.

Coastal Carriers

Water carriers that provide service along coasts serving ports on the Atlantic or Pacific oceans or on the Gulf of Mexico.

Code

A numeric or alphanumeric representation of text is used for exchanging commonly used information. For example, commodity codes and carrier codes.

Co-Destiny

A concept that begins with the idea of long-term buyer-supplier relationships and assumes that organizations are uniquely, and in most cases, inextricably tied to their suppliers and customers.

Codifying

The process of establishing a new standard.

COGS

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is the sum of direct materials, direct labor, and allocated overhead associated with products sold during a specific period of time. This amount is determined in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Collaboration

Joint work and communication among people and systems – including business partners, suppliers, and customers – are necessary to achieve a common business goal.

Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR®)

A concept that aims to enhance supply chain integration by supporting and assisting joint practices, CPFR seeks cooperative management of inventory through joint visibility and replenishment of products throughout the supply chain. Information shared between suppliers and retailers aids in planning and satisfying customer demands through a supportive system of shared information. This allows for continuous updating of inventory and upcoming requirements, essentially making the end-to-end supply chain process more efficient. Efficiency is also created through the decrease in expenditures for merchandising, inventory, logistics, and transportation across all trading partners.

Collect Freight

Freight is payable to the carrier at the port of discharge or ultimate destination. The consignee does not pay the freight charge if the cargo does not arrive at the destination.

Co-Managed Inventory (CMI)

A form of continuous replenishment in which the manufacturer is responsible for the replenishment of standard merchandise, while the retailer manages the replenishment of promotional merchandise.

Combined Lead Time

The total time required to source components, build, and ship a product.

Commercial Invoice

A document created by the seller, it is an official document used to indicate, among other things, the name and address of the buyer and seller, the product(s) being shipped, and their value for customs, insurance, or other purposes.

Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS)

A computer software industry term, which describes software offered for sale by commercial developers, includes products from vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, etc., as well as from smaller vendors.

Commercial Zone

The area surrounding a city or town to which rates quoted for the city or town also apply. The area is defined by the ICC.

Committed Capability

The level of operational capability, which is currently either part of a planned schedule or is in actual use.

Committee of American Steamship Lines

An industry association representing subsidized U.S. flag steamship firms.

Commodities Clause

A clause that prohibits railroads from hauling commodities that they produced, mined, owned, or had an interest in.