Ubiquitous Language & Terminology
Comprehensive glossary table for WMS operations, tracking units, documents, and stock states.
Ubiquitous Language & Terminology
A unified glossary guarantees that business analysts, operators, and software contracts share an identical understanding of system processes.
Terminology Glossary
| Term | Category | Business Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Inbound Operation | The physical process of unloading, counting, and verifying incoming supplier shipments at the receiving dock. |
| Quality Inspection | Inbound Operation | Verification of items against quality standards, logging damage, and flagging serial/batch units for quarantine if necessary. |
| Putaway | Inbound Operation | Moving goods from the temporary receiving area to their designated storage location based on routing algorithms. |
| Cross-docking | Inbound Operation | Routing incoming stock directly to the shipping bay to fulfill outbound orders immediately, bypassing storage bins. |
| Allocation | Outbound Operation | Vertically reserving specific items or batches for an approved order, converting stock status from ATP to Reserved. |
| Picking | Outbound Operation | The physical extraction of allocated goods from warehouse storage bins to fulfill an outbound shipping order. |
| Packing | Outbound Operation | Grouping, protecting, and loading picked goods into standardized shipping cartons, pallets, or crates. |
| Dispatching | Outbound Operation | Handing over packed shipping containers to carrier custody, updating the inventory ledger to reflect custody transfer. |
| Goods Received Note (GRN) | Business Document | An immutable document generated upon receiving, certifying the quantities, conditions, and tracking units received. |
| Goods Issue Note (GIN) | Business Document | An immutable authorization document recording stock removal for internal assembly, maintenance, or transit. |
| Delivery Note (DN) | Business Document | The shipping ledger document sent alongside a carrier, listing items and serial/batch metadata delivered. |
| Proof of Delivery (POD) | Business Document | A signed receipt returned by the consignee, verifying the transfer of ownership and liability. |
| Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) | Tracking Unit | A unique, alphanumeric identifier classifying a distinct product catalog item. Represents the product class. |
| Serial Number (S/N) | Tracking Unit | An exclusive, individual string assigned to a single physical item instance for absolute serialization tracing. |
| Batch / Lot Number | Tracking Unit | A tracking identifier assigned to a group of items processed together under uniform conditions. |
| Expiry Date | Tracking Unit | The final expiration timestamp for a lot or batch, triggering FEFO rules and safety blocks. |
| Physical On-Hand | Stock State | The sum of all quantities physically resting inside the warehouse location grid. |
| Allocated / Reserved | Stock State | The quantity of physical stock locked for active orders or staging tasks. Cannot be sold or relocated. |
| Available to Promise (ATP) | Stock State | The net available balance for new transactions (ATP = Physical On-Hand - Reserved). |
| Safety Stock | Stock State | A calculated buffer quantity maintained to mitigate stockout risks caused by supply chain delays or demand surges. |
| Replenishment Threshold | Operational Parameter | The minimum stock level in a pickable bin that triggers a replenishment task from reserve bins. |
| ABC Classification | Operational Parameter | Mappings that group items into classes (A, B, or C) based on unit value and velocity to drive counting schedules. |
| Compensating Entry | Audit Concept | A reversing double-entry ledger record posted to cancel a previous error, maintaining transaction history. |
| Audit Adjustment | Audit Concept | A corrective ledger movement between physical bins and virtual scrap bins to reconcile count variances. |
| Cycle Counting | Audit Concept | The continuous audit method of counting inventory in stages to avoid a complete warehouse shutdown. |