Glossary

Manufacturing glossary

The vocabulary you meet when evaluating a smart factory, written from the shop floor rather than from a textbook — including what each term is most often confused with.

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Terms: 20
Groups: 5
Reviewed by: IYULAB engineering

Systems

What each layer of the factory software stack is responsible for

Manufacturing Execution System

MES

A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) records and manages how a work order is actually carried out …

Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ties orders, purchasing, inventory and accounting into one shared…

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

SCADA

SCADA monitors — and where needed controls — many machines from a single screen. Its job is to show …

Bill of Materials

BOM

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is the structured list of which parts, and how many of each, go into one f…

Work Order

A work order is the execution unit that tells the floor what to make, how many, and under what condi…

Metrics

How equipment and processes are measured

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

OEE

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) expresses how much of its planned time a machine actually deli…

Mean Time Between Failures

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is the average running time between one failure and the next. It i…

Mean Time To Repair

MTTR

Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) is the average time from a failure until the machine is running again. It…

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance inspects and replaces on a defined interval or condition threshold, before eq…

Quality

How quality is recorded and traced back

Statistical Process Control

SPC

Statistical Process Control (SPC) watches the variation in measured values statistically so that a d…

Corrective and Preventive Action

CAPA

CAPA manages, as one procedure, the corrective action that fixes a problem that occurred and the pre…

Nonconformance

A nonconformance is any product or process that fails to meet a defined requirement. Recording when …

Traceability

Traceability is the ability to go from a finished product back to the material, process conditions a…

Equipment & Protocols

How data gets out of the machine

Programmable Logic Controller

PLC

A PLC is the industrial controller that actually runs a machine. It reads sensor inputs, applies fix…

Modbus

Modbus is a communication protocol for exchanging values between industrial devices. It is simple an…

OPC Unified Architecture

OPC UA

OPC UA is an industrial communication standard that carries names, units and structure along with th…

RS-485

RS-485 is a serial wiring standard widely used on the factory floor. It carries multiple devices on …

Edge Gateway

An edge gateway sits close to the equipment, collects data across incompatible protocols, normalises…

Data & AI

What you do with the data once you have it

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

RAG

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) finds relevant passages in your own documents first, then compo…

On-Premise

On-premise means running a system on servers inside your own facility rather than in an external clo…

Quick Answers

About this glossary

Common questions about how to use it.

What are these definitions based on?

They describe how each term is actually used on a manufacturing floor. Every entry gives a one-line definition, a fuller explanation, shop-floor usage and the distinction it is most often confused with.

Do we need to know these terms to start a project?

Not strictly. But agreeing on vocabulary makes scoping far easier — when terms drift, requirements drift with them.

A term I need is not here. Where else can I look?

Each product page and case study shows the terms in context. If something is missing, tell us and we will look at adding it.

Should I read MES or ERP first?

Start with how the two divide responsibility. ERP covers planning and accounting, MES covers execution; once that boundary is clear the rest of the vocabulary falls into place.

Vocabulary matters less than your actual conditions

Your equipment mix and the history you need to keep decide the scope.

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