Supply Chain & AI Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the acronyms used across the site — supply-chain operations first, then the AI vocabulary now built on top of them.

Quick answer — what is this glossary?

A reference of 49 supply-chain and AI acronyms used across the site — each with its full expansion and a plain-language definition. Search a term or filter by category (planning, logistics, procurement, systems, AI, sustainability & regulation).

49 terms

3PLThird-Party Logistics: A provider that a company outsources logistics activities to — typically warehousing, transportation, and fulfillment — rather than running them in-house.
4PLFourth-Party Logistics: A provider that manages and coordinates a company's entire logistics network, including the third-party logistics providers, acting as a single point of orchestration.
Agentic AIAgentic AI: AI systems that can pursue a goal across multiple steps — planning, calling tools, and acting — with limited step-by-step human direction. Distinct from a single prompt-and-response.
AGVAutomated Guided Vehicle: A mobile robot that moves goods within a facility along fixed, pre-defined paths (guided by wires, magnets, or markers).
AIArtificial Intelligence: The broad field of building software that performs tasks normally associated with human intelligence — recognizing patterns, making predictions, understanding language, or planning.
AMRAutonomous Mobile Robot: A mobile robot that navigates a facility dynamically using onboard sensors and maps, choosing its own route rather than following a fixed path (contrast with AGV).
APIApplication Programming Interface: A defined way for two software systems to exchange data or trigger actions — the mechanism that lets, for example, a TMS pull live tracking from a carrier's system.
APSAdvanced Planning & Scheduling: Software that plans production and distribution against real constraints (capacity, materials, lead times) to build feasible schedules, rather than planning each step in isolation.
ASRSAutomated Storage & Retrieval System: A system of computer-controlled machinery (cranes, shuttles, grids) that automatically places goods into storage and retrieves them, usually in high-density warehouses.
ATPAvailable to Promise: The quantity of a product that can be committed to a new customer order at a given date, based on current stock and planned incoming supply.
COGSCost of Goods Sold: The direct costs of producing the goods a company sells — materials and labor — a core figure in gross-margin and sourcing analysis.
CPFRCollaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment: A practice where a retailer and its suppliers share forecasts and inventory data to plan replenishment together instead of each side forecasting on its own.
CSDDDCorporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: An EU directive requiring large companies to identify and address adverse human-rights and environmental impacts across their chain of activities, including beyond direct (Tier 1) suppliers.
CSRDCorporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: An EU directive that expands the scope and detail of sustainability information companies must report, including supply-chain-related environmental and social data.
CVComputer Vision: AI that interprets images and video — used in warehouses and yards for tasks like reading labels, detecting damage, or guiding robots.
DDMRPDemand-Driven Material Requirements Planning: A planning method that positions inventory buffers at strategic points and replenishes them based on actual demand signals rather than long forecast chains.
EDIElectronic Data Interchange: A long-standing standard for exchanging structured business documents (purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices) between companies computer-to-computer.
ERPEnterprise Resource Planning: The central software system that runs a company's core processes — finance, procurement, inventory, manufacturing — on shared data.
ESGEnvironmental, Social & Governance: A framework for assessing a company on environmental impact, social responsibility, and governance practices — increasingly applied to supplier and supply-chain evaluation.
ETAEstimated Time of Arrival: The predicted arrival time of a shipment or vehicle at its destination — increasingly computed from live tracking and traffic data rather than a static schedule.
FTL / LTLFull Truckload / Less-Than-Truckload: Two road-freight modes: FTL uses a whole truck for one shipment; LTL combines several shippers' smaller shipments in one truck, each paying for the space they use.
GenAIGenerative AI: AI that produces new content — text, images, code, or plans — rather than only classifying or scoring existing data.
GHGGreenhouse Gas: Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that contribute to climate change. In supply chain, emissions are grouped into Scope 1, 2, and 3 for measurement and reporting.
IoTInternet of Things: Physical objects — sensors, trucks, containers, machines — connected to networks so they can report data (location, temperature, condition) and be monitored remotely.
KPIKey Performance Indicator: A measurable value that tracks how well an activity meets a target — for example OTIF for delivery reliability or inventory turns for working capital.
LLMLarge Language Model: A machine-learning model trained on large amounts of text to understand and generate language — the technology behind AI chat assistants and text summarization.
MLMachine Learning: A subset of AI where a system learns patterns from data to make predictions or decisions, instead of following rules written explicitly by a programmer.
MLOpsMachine Learning Operations: The practices and tooling for deploying, monitoring, and maintaining machine-learning models in production reliably over time.
MPSMaster Production Schedule: The plan that states which finished products a facility will build, in what quantity, and by when — the bridge between demand planning and shop-floor execution.
MROMaintenance, Repair & Operations: The category of supplies and services needed to keep a business running (spare parts, tools, consumables) that are not part of the finished product itself.
MRPMaterial Requirements Planning: A method that turns a production plan into the exact quantities and timing of raw materials and components needed to build it, netting demand against inventory on hand.
NLPNatural Language Processing: The area of AI focused on understanding and generating human language — used for reading documents, extracting data, and powering chat interfaces.
OTIFOn Time, In Full: A delivery performance metric: the share of orders delivered both by the promised date and in the complete quantity ordered.
P2PProcure-to-Pay: The end-to-end process from requesting and ordering goods or services through to receiving them and paying the supplier.
RAGRetrieval-Augmented Generation: A technique that lets a language model answer using retrieved source documents, so its output is grounded in specific data rather than only its training.
RFQ / RFPRequest for Quotation / Request for Proposal: Formal documents a buyer sends to suppliers: an RFQ asks for pricing on defined items; an RFP asks for a broader proposed solution, including approach and terms.
RLReinforcement Learning: A machine-learning approach where a system learns by trial and error, receiving rewards or penalties — applied to problems like routing and dynamic dispatch.
S&OESales & Operations Execution: The shorter-horizon companion to S&OP: managing the near-term (days to weeks) gap between the agreed plan and what is actually happening in operations.
S&OPSales & Operations Planning: A recurring cross-functional process that aligns demand (sales, marketing) with supply (operations, procurement, finance) on a single agreed plan, usually monthly.
S2PSource-to-Pay: The full procurement cycle from finding and selecting suppliers (sourcing) through contracting, ordering, and paying — a superset of Procure-to-Pay.
SaaSSoftware as a Service: Software delivered over the internet on a subscription, hosted and maintained by the vendor, rather than installed and run on a company's own servers.
Scope 3Scope 3 Emissions: Greenhouse-gas emissions that occur across a company's value chain rather than from its own operations — for many companies the largest and hardest share to measure, much of it in the supply chain.
SKUStock Keeping Unit: A unique identifier for a distinct sellable item — a specific product in a specific variant, size, or pack — used to track inventory and sales.
TCOTotal Cost of Ownership: The full cost of a purchase over its life — not just the price, but delivery, maintenance, downtime, and disposal — used to compare sourcing options.
TMSTransportation Management System: Software to plan, execute, and track the movement of freight — carrier selection, routing, load building, and freight settlement.
VLAVision-Language-Action model: A model that combines visual perception, language understanding, and physical action — an approach used in robotics to turn instructions and camera input into movement.
WCSWarehouse Control System: Software that directs the automated equipment on a warehouse floor (conveyors, sorters, robots) in real time, sitting between the WMS and the machinery.
WESWarehouse Execution System: Software that orchestrates and sequences warehouse work across people and automation in real time, blending functions of a WMS and a WCS.
WMSWarehouse Management System: Software that manages day-to-day warehouse operations — receiving, put-away, inventory location, picking, and shipping.

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The software behind the acronyms — WMS, TMS, planning and more.

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