Terminology 

E-Commerce - See Electronic Commerce



E-mail - See Electronic Mail



EAI - See Enterprise Application Integration



EAN.UCC - European Article Numbering/ Uniform Code Council. The EAN.UCC System provides identification standards to uniquely identify trade items, logistics units, locations, assets, and service relations worldwide. The identification standards define the construction of globally-unique and unambiguous numbers. For additional reference, please see http//www.uccouncil. org/ ean



Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) - The process of involving suppliers early in the product design activity and drawing on their expertise, insights, and knowledge to generate better designs in less time and designs that are easier to manufacture with high quality.



Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) - A measure of a company's earning power from ongoing operations, equal to earnings (revenues minus cost of sales, operating expenses, and taxes) before deduction of interest payments and income taxes. Also called operating profit.



EBIT - See Earnings Before Interest and Taxes



EC - See Electronic Commerce



ECO - See Engineering Change Order



Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) - An inventory model that determines how much to order by determining the amount that will meet customer service levels while minimizing total ordering and holding costs.



Economic Value Added (EVA) - A measurement of shareholder value as a company's operating profits after tax, less an appropriate charge for the capital used in creating the profits.



Economy of Scale - A phenomenon whereby larger volumes of production reduce unit cost by distributing fixed costs over a larger quantity.



ECR - See Efficient Consumer Response



EDI - See Electronic Data Interchange



EDI Standards - Criteria that define the data content and format requirements for specific business transactions (e.g. purchase orders). Using standard formats allows companies to exchange transactions with multiple trading partners easily. Also see American National Standards Institute, Uniform Code Council



EDI Transmission - A functional group of one or more EDI transactions that are sent to the same location, in the same transmission, and are identified by a functional group header and trailer.



EDIA - See Electronic Data Interchange Association



EDIFACT - Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport. The United Nations EDI standard.



Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) - A demand driven replenishment system designed to link all parties in the logistics channel to create a massive flow-through distribution network. Replenishment is based upon consumer demand and point of sale information.



EFT - See Electronic Funds Transfer



Electronic Commerce (EC) - Also written as e-commerce. Conducting business electronically via traditional EDI technologies, or online via the Internet. In the traditional sense of selling goods, it is possible to do this electronically because of certain software programs that run the main functions of an e-commerce website, such as product display, online ordering, and inventory management. The definition of e-commerce includes business activity that is business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C).



Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - Intercompany, computer-to-computer transmission of business information in a standard format. For EDI purists, "computer-to-computer" means direct transmission from the originating application program to the receiving, or processing, application program. An EDI transmission consists only of business data, not any accompanying verbiage or free-form messages. Purists might also contend that a standard format is one that is approved by a national or international standards organization, as opposed to formats developed by industry groups or companies.



Electronic Data Interchange Association - A national body that propagates and controls the use of EDI in a given country. All EDIAs are nonprofit organizations dedicated to encouraging EDI growth. The EDIA in the United States was formerly TDCC and administered the development of standards in transportation and other industries.



Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) - A computerized system that processes financial transactions and information about these transactions or performs the exchange of value. Sending payment instructions across a computer network, or the company-tocompany, company-to-bank, or bank-to-bank electronic exchange of value.



Electronic Mail (E-Mail) - The computer-to-computer exchange of messages. E-mail is usually unstructured (free-form) rather than in a structured format. X.400 has become the standard for e-mail exchange.



Electronic Product Code (EPC or ePC) - An electronically coded tag that is intended as an improvement to the UPC bar code system. The EPC is a 96-bit tag which contains a number called the Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN). Unlike a UPC number, which only provides information specific to a group of products, the GTIN gives each product its own specific identifying number, giving greater accuracy in tracking.



Electronic Signature - A form of authentication that provides identification and validation of a transaction by means of an authorization code identifying the individual or organization



Elkins Act - An amendment to the IC Act that prohibits giving rebates.



Empirical - Pertaining to a statement or formula based upon experience or observation rather than on deduction or theory.



Empowerment - A condition whereby employees have the authority to make decisions and take action in their work areas without prior approval. For example, an operator can stop a production process if he or she detects a problem, or a customer service representative can send out a replacement product if a customer calls with a problem.



Encryption - The transformation of readable text into coded text for security purposes.



End item - A product sold as a completed item or repair part



End-of-Life - Planning and execution at the end of the life of a product. The challenge is making just the right amount to avoid A) ending up with excess, which have to be sold at great discounts or scrapped or B) ending up with shortages before the next generation is available.



End-of-Life Inventory - Inventory on hand that will satisfy future demand for products that are no longer in production at your entity.



Engineer-to-Order - A process in which the manufacturing organization must first prepare (engineer) significant product or process documentation before manufacture may begin.



Engineering Change - A revision to a drawing or design released by engineering to modify or correct a part. The request for the change can be from a customer or from production, quality control, another department, or a supplier. Synonym Engineering Change Order.



Engineering Change Order (ECO) - A documented and approved revision to a product or process specification.



Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) - A computer term for the tools and techniques used in linking ERP and other enterprise systems together. Linking systems is key for e-business. Gartner say 'firms implementing enterprise applications spend at least 30% on point-to-point interfaces'.



Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System - A class of software for planning and managing "enterprise-wide" the resources needed to take customer orders, ship them, account for them and replenish all needed goods according to customer orders and forecasts. Often includes electronic commerce with suppliers. Examples of ERP systems are the application suites from SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and others.



Enterprise-Wide ABM - A management information system that uses activity-based information to facilitate decision making across an organization.



Enveloping - An EDI management software function that groups all documents of the same type, or functional group, and bound for the same destination into an electronic envelope. Enveloping is useful where there are multiple documents such as orders or invoices issued to a single trading partner that need to be sent as a packet.



Environmentally Sensitive Engineering - Designing features in a product and its packaging that improve recycling, etc. It can include elimination of compounds that are hazardous to the environment.



EOL - See End-of-Life.



EOQ - See Economic Order Quantity



EPC or ePC - See Electronic Product Code.



EPS - A computer term. Encapsulated Postscript. An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS lets PostScript graphics files be incorporated into other documents.



Ergonomic - The science of creating workspaces and products which are human friendly to use.



ERP - See Enterprise Resources Planning System



ERS - See Evaluated Receipts Settlement



ESI - See Early Supplier Involvement



Ethernet - A computer term for the most commonly used type of local area network (LAN) communication protocol using coaxial or twisted pair wiring.



Ethical standards - A set of guidelines for proper conduct by business professionals.



European Article Number (EAN) - A defined numbering mechanism used in Europe to uniquely identify every retail product and packaging option. The EAN is similar in concept and design to the UPC code and is usually what the barcode represents on goods. Also see Uniform Product Code.



EVA - See Economic Value Added



Evaluated Receipts Settlement (ERS) - A process for authorizing payment for goods based on actual receipts with purchase order data, when price has already been negotiated. The basic premise behind ERS is that all of the information in the invoice is already transmitted in the shipping documentation. Therefore, the invoice is eliminated and the shipping documentation is used to pay the vendor.



Exception Message - See Action Message



Exception rate - A deviation from the class rate



Exception-Based Processing - A computer term for applications that automatically highlight particular events or results which fall outside pre-determined parameters. This saves considerable effort by automatically finding problems and alerting the right persons. An example would be where a shorted item on a purchase order receipt would automatically notify a purchasing agent for follow-up.



Exclusive patronage agreements - A shipper agrees to use only member liner firms of a conference in return for a 10% to 15% rate reduction.



Exclusive use - Carrier vehicles that are assigned to a specific shipper for its exclusive use.



Exempt Carrier - A for-hire carrier that is free from economic regulation. Trucks hauling certain commodities are exempt from Interstate Commerce Commission economic regulation. By far the largest portion of exempt carriers transports agricultural commodities or seafood.



Expediting - 1) Moving shipments through regular channels at an accelerated rate. 2) To take extraordinary action because of an increase in relative priority. Synonym Stockchase.



Expert system - A computer program that mimics a human expert.



Explode-to-Deduct - See Backflush



Exponential Smoothing Forecast - In forecasting, a type of weighted moving average forecasting technique in which past observations are geometrically discounted according to their age. The heaviest weight is assigned to the most recent data. The smoothing is termed exponential because data points are weighted in accordance with an exponential function of their age. The technique makes use of a smoothing constant to apply to the difference between the most recent forecast and the critical sales data, thus avoiding the necessity of carrying historical sales data. The approach can be used for data that exhibit no trend or seasonal patterns. Higher order exponential smoothing models can be used for data with either (or both) trend and seasonality



Export - 1) In logistics, the movement of products from one country to another. For example, significant volumes of cut flowers are exported from The Netherlands to other countries of the world. 2) A computer term referring to the transfer of information from a source (system or database) to a target.



Export Compliance - Complying with rules for exporting products, including packaging, labeling, and documentation



Export declaration - A document required by the Department of commerce that provides information as to the nature, value, etc., of export activity.



Export sales contract - The initial document in any international transaction



Exports - A term used to describe products produced in one country and sold in another. Also see Export



Express - 1) Carrier payment to its customers when ships, rail cars, or trailers are unloaded or loaded in less than the time allowed by contract and returned to the carrier for use. Also see demurrage, detention. 2) The use of priority package delivery to achieve overnight or second-day delivery.



Extended Enterprise - The notion that supply chain partners form a larger entity which works together as though it were a single unit.



Extensible Markup Language (XML) - A computer term for a language that facilitates direct communication among computers on the Internet. Unlike the older hypertext markup language (HTML), which provides data tags giving instructions to a web browser about how to display information, XML tags give instructions to a browser or to application software which help to define the specifics about the category of information.



External Factory - A situation where suppliers are viewed as an extension of the firm's manufacturing capabilities and capacities. The same practices and concerns that are commonly applied to the management of the firm's manufacturing system should also be applied to the management of the external factory.



Extranet - A computer term describing a private network (or a secured link on the public internet) that links separate organizations and that uses the same software and protocols as the Internet. Used for improving supply chain management. For example, extranets are used to provide access to a supply chain partner's internal inventory data which is not available to unrelated parties. Antonym Intranet.



Extrinsic Forecast - In forecasting, a forecast based on a correlated leading indicator, such as estimating furniture sales based on housing starts. Extrinsic forecasts tend to be more useful for large aggregations, such as total company sales, than for individual product sales. Antonym intrinsic forecast method. See Functional Acknowledgment