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

Activity-based costing
Added value
Benchmarking
Blockchain
Blue ocean
Built-to-order (BTO) supply chain
Bullwhip effect
Business continuity plan
Business process
Business process engineering (BPR)
CAPEX
Capital expenditure
Client experience strategy (CX)
Closed-book Costing
Closed-loop Supply chain (Revere supply chain)
Collaborative
Competitive
Competitive advantage
Competitive pricing
Continuous improvement
Core competencies
Corporate positioning
Cost leadership
Cycle time
Demand flow manufacturing
Differential advantages
Differentiated products
Digital age
Dynamic pricing
Dynamic purchasing system
Economic value added
Efficiency frontier
Electronic data interchange (EDI)
Emotional quotient
Everyday low price (EDLP)
First-mover advantages
Global sourcing
Growth hacking
Heterogeneous
Horizontal collaboration
Immobile
Industry 4.0
Inefficiency trap
Inter-organisational trust
Internet of things
Interpersonal trust
Inventory
Invoice to cash (I2C)
Just in time (JIT)
Kaizen
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Knowledge capital (Infromation capital)
Lean distribution
Lean supply
Localisation
Loosely coupled supply chain
Low-cost country sourcing
Low-cost supply
Material requirements planning (MRP)
Maverick spending
Mean
Minimum order quantity (MOQ)
Multi-sourcing
Myopic and far-sighted contracts
Network sourcing
Normal distribution
Offshoring
Open-book contract
Open-book costing
Open-loop supply chain (traditional/forward-loop supply chain)
Operational expenditure
Operational supplier relationship
Outsourcing
Pareto analysis
Pareto principle
Partnership sourcing
Price anchor
Primary data
Procure to pay (P2P)
Purchase order (PO)
Purchase requisition (PR)
Quality assurance (QA)
Quality inspection (Quality control)
Quality management (QM)
Quality management system (QMS)
Quota system
Radio frequency identification (RFID)
Red ocean
Redundant costs
Relationship life cycle
Request for information (RFI)
Request for proposal (RFP)
Request for quotation (RFQ)
Return on capital employed (ROCE)
RIDDOR statistics
Scaled advantage
Secondary data
Six sigma
Source to contract (S2P)
Standard deviation
Statistical process control (SPC)
Stock-keeping unit (SKU)
Strategic position
Strategic sourcing
Strategic supplier relationship
Supplier performance monitoring scheme (SPMS)
Supplier ratoionalisation
Supply chain
Supply chain management
Sustainable competitive advantage
Theory of swift, even flow
Tier skipping
Tiering
Tightly coupled supply chain
Time-based competition
Total cost of ownership (TCO)
Total landed cost (TLC)
Total quality management (TQM)
Total target cost
Transaction
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Value analysis
Value chain
Value creation
Value engineering
Value stream
Vendor-managed inventory
Vertical collaboration
Vertically integrated
Virtual enterprises
Waste
Work-in-progress
Zero defects

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;