Fhyzics brought out this series of articles on supply chain terminologies to help the supply chain aspirants better prepare for supply chain and procurement job interviews. Each article will contain a set of terminologies in one of the supply chain or procurement sub-domains and are equally applicable to all industries.

Fhyzics Business Consultants Pvt. Ltd. – a boutique business consulting firm specialising in supply chain management, procurement, business analysis and new product development. Fhyzics offers consulting, certifications, and civil services training and conducts conferences. Fhyzics represents the Association of Supply Chain Management (ASCM/APICS), USA; Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), UK; EEP of International Institute of Business Analysis, IIBA, Canada; REP of International Requirements Engineering Board, IREB, Germany; Indian Affiliate of Product Development and Management Association, PDMA, USA.

Top Supply Chain and Operations Terminologies

Advisory, conciliation and arbitration service (ACAS)
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
Arm’s-length relationship
Attrition
Blog
Blue-washing
Boycott
BARICS countries
Capital
Cartel
Categorisation
Child labour
Civic obligations
Closed-loop supply chain
Cloud
Coercion
Collective consultation
Community benefit clause
Confederation of British industry (CBI)
Corporate social responsibility
Corrective action plan (CAP)
Cottage industry
Debt bondage
Demand variability
Descent-based slavery
Differentiate
Disaster recovery planning
Domestic
Downstream
Driver
Due diligence
E-commerce
Economic ordering quantity (EOQ)
Economy of scale
Electronic data interchange (EDI)
Employment and support allowance (ESA)
Employment tribunals (ET)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Environmental management system
Escalate
Exit strategy
Expert determination
Express terms
Externalities
Fair trade
Fairtrade
Fair trade organisations
Fair-washing
Fiscal functions
Fixed costs
Forecast
Formal economies
Formal sector
Freedom of association
Geopolitical
Globalisation
Green bullwhip effect
Greenwashing
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Homeworkers
Host naion
Human trafficking
IDEF (integrated definition on integrated programme)
Implicit knowledge
Implied terms
Import duties
Incandescent
Informal economies
Informal economy
Insider trading
Internal suppliers
International procurement organisations (IPOs)
In transit
Inventory
Inventory level
Jurisdiction
Just in time (JIT)
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Kraljic matrix
Lead time
Left wing
Legal liability
Letter of intent
Level of service timeline
Liability
Life-cycle costing (LCC)
Light-emitting diode (LCC)
Litigation
Lobby
Local living wage
Logistics
Low-cost country sourcing (LCCS)
Lucrative
Macro-environmental factors
Market capitalisation
Member states of the ILO
Minimum efficient scale
Minimum pricing
Monopoly
Monopsony
Multi-cultural
Multi-national
Multi-national organisation
Mutual infromation system on social protection (MISSOC)
National contact point
National insurance (NI)
National living wages (NLW)
National standards bodies
Niche
Non-governmental organisations (NGOS)
Obsolescence
Of the essence
Oligopoly
Oligopsony
Organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD)
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
Outsourcing
Overservice
Pandemic
Pay when paid
Piece price
Political economy
Process capability
Qualitative
Rapport
Redundancy
Remuneration
Responsible procurement
Retention of title (ROT)
Right wing
Root cause analysis
Safety stock
SCOR (Supply chain operations reference
Service level
Service level agreement (SLA)
Social advocacy
Social protection
Sourcing
Stakeholders
Standards-developing organisations
Stock keeping unit (SKU)
Strict liability
Subcontracting
Subcontractor
Subsidiary
Substitutable
Sunk costs
Supplier relationship management (SRM)
Supply chain
Supply chain mapping
Sweatshope
SWOT analysis
Tacit knowledge
Target service levels
Tariff
Tendering
Third sector
Tort
Total cost
Total landed cost
Touchpoints
Trade unions
Transparency
Triple bottom line
Turnover
Union
Upstream
US food and Drug administration (FDA)
Value chain
Value chain mapping
Value engineering
Variable costs
VSM
Weightings
Whole-life costs (WLC)

The fifty questions presented above will help the following supply chain job interviews. Demand Planner; Production Planner; Supply Planner; Supply Chain Analyst; Supply Chain Head; Inventory Controller; Materials Planner; VP Supply Chain; Warehouse Executive; Warehouse Manager; Inventory Analyst; Master Planner; Master Scheduler; Materials Manager; Category Manager; Commodity Manager; Procurement Specialist; Purchasing Manager; Sourcing Manager; Operations Manager; Operations Director; Production Manager; Production Scheduler; Logistics Coordinator; Logistics Manager; Transportation Analyst; Inventory Manager; Director of Supply Chain; Consultant; Buyer Planner; Logistics Resource Planner; Load Planner; Quality Manager; Production Supervisor; Production Operative; Strategic Sourcing Manager; Purchasing and Inventory Clerk; Logistics Administrator; Reverse Logistics Manager; Transport Administrator; Supply Chain Solution Design Analyst; Warehouse Clerk; Production Clerk; Production Technician; Inventory Associate; Export Manager; Capacity Manager; Manufacturing Manager; Plant Manager; VP of Operations; VP of Manufacturing; Supply Clerk; Replenishment Manager; Director of Procurement; Purchasing Agent; Vendor Manager; Fulfillment Associate; Route Manager; Import Manager; Distribution Manager; Director of Transportation; Operations Assistant; Quality Technician; Business Process Analyst; Quality Assurance Engineer; Continuous Improvement Manager; Planning Engineer; Lean, Six Sigma Specialist; SAP Consultant; Import Export Executive; Supply Network Specialist; Material Availability Analyst; Team Manager SCM; SCM Trainer; Sr. Specialist Supply Chain Logistics Management; Sustainable Supply Chain Specialist; Supply Chain Planner; Manager Supply Chain Management Analytics; Procurement Lead; Manager Store; Procurement Professional; Logistics Specialist; Global Delivery Manager; Sourcing Support Specialist; Category Head; Regional Logistics Incharge; Dispatch Incharge; Digital Transformation Leader for Supply Chain; Field Delivery Executive; Indirect Procurement Officer; DC Manager; Regional Procurement Lead; Yard Supervisor; Principal Buyer; Procurement HR; Fleet Coordinator; Supplier Developer; Vendor Consultant; Transportation Analyst; Manager Hub Operations; Supply Chain Planning System Manager;