Glossary 355

of an item as material is issued from stock, and increases the book inventory
as material is received into stock. The key concept here is that the
book record is updated together with the movement of material out of or
into stock. As a result, the book record represents what is physically in
stock. See Post-Deduct Inventory Transaction Processing.
DISPATCH LIST A listing of manufacturing orders in priority sequence according
to the dispatching rules being used. The dispatch list is usually
communicated to the manufacturing floor via hard copy or CRT display,
and contains detailed information on priority, location, quantity, and the
capacity requirements of the manufacturing order by operation. Dispatch
lists are normally generated daily or more frequently and oriented
by work center. Used primarily in job shops (see Appendix B).
DISTRIBUTION CENTER (DC) A facility stocking finished goods and/or
service items. A typical company, for example, might have a manufacturing
facility in Philadelphia and distribution centers in Atlanta, Dallas,
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. A DC serving a group of satellite
warehouses is usually called a regional distribution center.
DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS PLANNING The function of determining
the needs to replenish inventory at distribution centers. A time-phased
order point approach is used, where the planned orders at the branch
warehouse level are exploded via MRP logic to become gross requirements
on the supplying source. In the case of multilevel distribution networks,
this explosion process can continue down through the various
levels of master DC, factory warehouse, and so on, and become input to
the master schedule. Demand on the supplying source(s) is recognized as
dependent, and standard MRP logic applies.
DISTRIBUTION RESOURCE PLANNING (DRP) The extension of Distribution
Requirements Planning into the planning of the key resources contained
in a distribution system: warehouse space, manpower, money,
trucks and freight cars, and so forth.
EFFICIENT CONSUMER RESPONSE (ECR) A strategy in which the grocery
retailer, distributor, and supplier trading partners work closely together
to eliminate excess costs from the grocery supply chain. This is a
global movement to enhance the efficiency of product introductions,
merchandising, promotions, and replenishment.
ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI) The computer-to-computer
exchange of information between separate organizations, using specific
protocols.
ENGINEER-TO-ORDER PRODUCT A product that requires engineering
design, and bill of material and routing development before manufacturing
can be completed. Such products typically require master scheduling
of average or typical items or expected activities and capacities, with