Glossary

BACK ORDER

Customer orders which cannot be immediately fulfilled and are awaiting future stock delivery/manufacture before fulfillment.

BALANCED SCORECARD

An approach to measuring performance that looks at multiple variables. The variables might be equally important, or given different weightings to reflect degrees of importance.

BAR CODE

An optical, machine-readable representation of data.

BARRIER TO ENTRY

Often high costs or high levels of competition, linked to supplying a new product or service into a market.

BASE PRICE

The initial price of something without the added costs such as handling, transport and profit.

BATCH QUANTITY

Amount of products produced at a time.

BENCHMARKING

Comparing an element of one business, such as price, quality or service, against another.

BESPOKE

Made or provided especially for a specific end user.

BEST VALUE

A result intended in the acquisition of all goods and services. Price must be one of the evaluation criteria when acquiring goods and services. Other evaluation criteria may include, but are not limited to environmental considerations, quality, and vendor performance.

BID

Offer of a price.

BIDDER (OR TENDERER)

A potential supplier who makes an offer (a bid is an offer or tender).

BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS

An exchange agreement between two nations or trading groups that gives each party favored trade status connected to certain goods obtained from the signatories. The agreement sets purchase guarantees and removes tariffs and other trade.

BILL OF LADING

A written receipt or contract, given by a carrier, showing a list of goods delivered to it for transportation. The straight bill of lading is a contract which provides for direct shipment to a consignee. The order bill of lading is negotiable; it enables a shipper to collect for a shipment before it reaches its destination (this is done by sending the original bill of lading with a draft drawn on the consignee through a bank). When the consignee receives the lading indicating that payment has been made, the lading will be surrendered to the carrier’s agent, and the carrier will then ship the goods to the consignee, and the bill of lading will be surrendered to the carrier. Note: Shippers frequently consign shipments to themselves on order bills of lading so that delivery is made only upon the shipper’s order; the person or firm to be notified upon arrival of the shipment at destination must be designated.

BILL OF MATERIALS (BOM)

A comprehensive list of components, items, materials and parts to create a product, essentially a recipe for the production of an item.

BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity is short for biological diversity. It refers to a high level of the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat – it is considered to be both important and desirable.

BIOMASS

Biomass is organic matter or plant material converted for use as a fuel (biofuel).

BIOPHYSICAL

A branch of science concerned with the application of physical principles and methods to biological problems.

BLANKET ORDER

A contract under which a vendor agrees to provide goods or services on a purchase-on-demand basis. The contract generally establishes prices, terms, conditions and the period covered (no quantities are specified); shipments are to be made as required by the purchaser.

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

An encrypted network that stores records of a transaction and communicates this to all other nodes points within the network.

BOARD MEETING

Regularly held meetings between all the directors of an organization.

BOTTLENECK

A specific stage in a process which slows down the flow of production and limits the overall output rate.

BOTTOM LINE

An accounting term meaning a company’s income after all expenses have been deducted from revenues.

BOUNCE BACK

An automated e-mail sent in response to an e-mail or contact form.

BRAND

The image of an organization. The name, logo, slogan, colors, etc., that differentiate it from the competition.

“BRAND NAME OR EQUAL” SPECIFICATION

A specification that uses one or more manufacturers brand names or catalog numbers to describe the standards of quality, performance and other characteristics needed to meet the requirements of a solicitation and provide for the submission of equivalent products.

BREAK EVEN

The point at which a business recovers what it has spent and starts to make a profit.

BROKER

A business that carries no inventory and that has no written ongoing agreement with any manufacturer or manufacturer’s authorized distributor to sell the products of the manufacturer.

BUDGET

Financial plan for a set period of time on how much can be spent.

BUFFER STOCK

Amount of stock held in stores at any time in addition to actual requirements.

BUSINESS

A contractor, subcontractor, supplier, consultant, or provider of technical, administrative, or physical services organized as a sole proprietorship, partnership, association, corporation, or other entity formed for the purpose of doing business for profit.

BUSINESS-CRITICAL

A supply or service without which the business could not operate.

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS (B2B)

A transaction between businesses (e.g., in the supply chain).

BUSINESS-TO-CUSTOMER (B2C)

A transaction between a business and the end user of its product or service (e.g., an individual shopper).

BUSINESS CASE

A justification for a proposed project or undertaking on the basis of its expected benefits.

BUSINESS CYCLE

The rise and fall over time of output in an economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

BUYER’S VIEW

The buyer’s perspective on a supply market and the suppliers and products in it.

BUYING

The physical act of placing orders to make a purchase.

BUY IN

When people believe and support an idea.