| ABC | activity based costing |
| ABD | all but dissertation |
| ABL | Absolutely bloody last |
| ACD | Automatic Call Director |
| AFK | Away from Keyboard |
| AGV | automatic guided vehicle |
| AHT | Average Handle Time |
| AIM | Agile Intelligent Manufacturing |
| AMH | automated material handling |
| ANOVA | analysis of variance |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute |
| AOQ | Average Outgoing Quality |
| AOQL | Average outgoing quality level |
| APICS | American Production and Inventory Control Society |
| APT | Automatic programmed tools |
| AQL | Acceptable Quality Level |
| AQL | average quality level |
| AS/RS | automated storage and retrieval system |
| ASA | Average Speed of Answer |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
| ASN | Average Sample Number |
| ASQC | American society of quality control |
| ATI | Average Total Inspection |
| ATP | available to promise |
| BFA | Bloody freaking awful |
| BFD | big fat (or other word of your choice starting with F) deal |
| BMOC | big man on campus |
| BOHICA | Bend Over, Here It Comes Again! |
| BOM | bill of materials |
| BPR | Business Process Re-engineering |
| BTW | By the way |
| C&E | Cause and Effect |
| CAD | computer aided design |
| CAD/CAM | Computer Aided Design/Manufacture |
| CAE | Computer Aided Engineering |
| CAIT | computer aided inspection and test |
| CAM | computer aided manufacturing |
| CAPP | computer aided Process planning |
| CAR | Corrective Action Request |
| CASE | computer aided systems engineering |
| CAT | computer aided testing |
| CC | Call Centre |
| CEO | Chief Executive Officer |
| CFO | Chief Financial Officer |
| CFPIM | certified in production and inventory management at fellow level |
| CIB | computer integrated business |
| CIF | cost, insurance, and freight |
| CIM | Computer Integrated Manufacturing |
| CLM | Career limiting move |
| CLSP | capacitated lot sizing problem |
| CLV | Customer Lifetime Value |
| CNC | computer numerically controlled |
| COQ | Cost of Quality |
| CP/M | Computer Process Manager |
| CPA | certified public accountant |
| CPH | Calls Per Hour; Average number of calls that a TSR handles per hour |
| CPI | continuous process improvement |
| CPIM | certified in production and inventory management |
| CPM | certified purchasing manager |
| CPM | critical path method |
| CPU | central processing unit |
| CQE | certified quality engineer |
| CQI | Continuous Quality Improvement |
| CQT | certified quality technician |
| CR | critical ratio |
| CRP | capacity requirements planning |
| CRT | cathode ray tube |
| CSF | Critical Success Factor |
| CSI | Customer Satisfaction Index |
| CSP | continuous sampling plan |
| CTI | Computer-Telephone Integration unit |
| CTS | Contact Tracking Software |
| CWQC | company wide quality control |
| CWQI | Company-Wide Quality Improvement |
| DDLT | demand during lead time |
| DEA | data envelopment analysis (1/2 credit for drug enforcement agency) |
| DFA | design for assembly |
| DFM | Design For Manufacturability |
| DFX | design for X(X being the goal or attribute of your choice) |
| DNC | direct numerically controlled |
| DOA | dead on arrival |
| DOE | Design of Experiments |
| DRP | distribution requirements planning |
| DSS | decision support system |
| DTF | demand time fence |
| ECN | engineering change notice |
| ECO | engineering change order |
| EDD | earliest due date first |
| EDDLT | expected demand during lead time |
| EDI | electronic data interchange |
| EI | employee involvement |
| EIS | executive information system |
| ELC | Employee Learning Centre |
| EOH | ending on-hand inventory |
| EOQ | economic order quantity |
| EPLS | economic production lot size |
| FAS | final assembly schedule |
| FCFS | first come first serve |
| FEW | Federal Employed Women |
| FIFO | first in first out |
| FMBA | Financial Management & Business Analysis |
| FMC | flexible machining center |
| FMEA | Failure Mode Effects Analysis |
| FMS | Flexible Manufacturing System |
| FOB | freight on board |
| FOE | Factory Overall Efficiency |
| FPO | firm planned order |
| FTA | Fault Tree Analysis |
| FTZ | free trade zone |
| FUBAR | #$!#$%!$@! |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| GAAP | generally accepted accounting practices |
| GT | group technology |
| GUT | Grand Unified Theory |
| HALT | Highly Accelerated Life Testing |
| HLL | high level language |
| HRD | Human Resource Development |
| HRM | Human Resources Management |
| IIE | institute of industrial engineers |
| IMS | Integrated Management Services |
| IMS | Intelligent Manufacturing Systems |
| IRR | internal rate of return |
| ISO | International Standards Organization |
| IVR | Interactive Voice Response unit |
| JIT | Just In Time |
| JUSE | Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
| KPR | Key Performance Report |
| L4L | lot for lot |
| LAN | local area network |
| LBO | leveraged buy out |
| LCL | less than car load |
| LCL | lower control limit |
| LIFO | last in first out |
| LIMIT | lotsize inventory management interpolation technique |
| LOB | line of balance |
| LPC | Least Preffered CoWorker |
| LRC | Learning Resources Centre (Library) |
| LSL | lower specification limit |
| LT | lead time |
| LTL | less than truck load |
| LTPD | lot tolerance percent defective |
| MAD | mean absolute deviation |
| MANOVA | multivariate analysis of variance |
| MAP | manufacturing automation protocol |
| MAPE | mean absolute percentage error |
| MBO | Management by Objectives |
| MBWA | Management by Walking Around |
| MDS | material dominated scheduling |
| MEOST | Multiple Environment Overstress Tests |
| MI | manufacturing instruction |
| MILSPEC | Military specification |
| MIS | management information systems |
| MPS | master production schedule |
| MRB | material review board |
| MRO | maintenance repair and operating supplies |
| MRP | Material Requirements Planning |
| mrp | material requirements planning |
| MRP | material resource planning |
| MRPII | manufacturing resource planning |
| MSE | mean square error |
| MTBF | Mean Time Between Failures |
| MTM | motion-time methods |
| MTTF | Mean time to failure |
| MTTR | Mean time to restore/repair |
| NC | numerically controlled |
| NFG | No freaking good |
| NFW | No freaking way |
| NIH | Not Invented Here |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology |
| NMJ | Not My Job |
| NOAC | Next Operation As Customer |
| NPV | net present value |
| NTED | no touch exchange of die |
| OC | operating characteristic (curves) |
| OCC | Percent agent occupancy |
| OCD | Organisational Change and Development |
| OCR | optical character recognition |
| OEM | original equipment manufacturing |
| OFI | Opportunities for Improvement |
| OFS | Out-freaking-standing |
| OIH | Organisationally Induced Helplessness |
| OJT | on the job training |
| OPT | optimized production technology |
| OS/D | over, short, or damaged |
| OTED | one touch exchange of die |
| PAC | Production activity control (1/2 credit for political action committee) |
| PDCA | Plan Do Check Act |
| PDQ | Pretty Damn Quick |
| PERT | program evaluation and review technique |
| PFS | process flow scheduling |
| PFS | Pretty freaking stupid |
| PIMS | Profit Impact of Market Strategy |
| PLC | programmable logic controller |
| PO | purchase order |
| Poka-Yoke | Prevention of operator-controllable defects |
| POM | Production & Operations Management |
| PONQ | Price of Non-Quality |
| POQ | periodic order quantity |
| POS | point of sale |
| PPB | part period balancing |
| QA | Quality Assurance |
| QC | quality control, quality circles |
| QFD | Quality Function Deployment |
| QWL | Quality of Working Life |
| RBI | runs batted in |
| RCA | Request for Corrective Action |
| RCCP | rough cut capacity planning |
| RCH | Very small/thin measurement |
| RFN | Immediately |
| RFP | request for proposal |
| RFQ | request for quote |
| RFT | Right First Time |
| RMA | Return Merchandise Authorization |
| ROA | Return On Assets |
| ROI | Return On Investment |
| ROI | Return on Investment |
| ROP | reorder point |
| RPD | robust product design |
| SBQ | standard batch quantity |
| SBU | Strategic Business Unit |
| SCAR | Supplier Corrective Action Request |
| SEP | Somebody else's problem |
| SFA | A very small amount; Sweet Fanny Adams |
| SFC | shop floor control |
| SIC | standard industrial code |
| SKU | stock keeping unit |
| SME | small management enterprise |
| SMED | single minute exchange of die |
| SNAFU | situation normal, all fouled up |
| SPC | Statistical Process Control |
| SPC | Stop Producing Crap |
| SPT | shortest processing time first |
| SQC | Statistical Quality Control |
| SQL | structured query language |
| SQM | Strategic quality management |
| TEI | total employee involvement |
| TKO | technical knock-out |
| TL | truck load lot |
| TLA | Three Letter Acronym |
| TMI | Team Management Index |
| TOC | Theory of Constraints |
| TOE | Theory of Everything |
| TOP | technical/office protocol |
| TPM | Total Productive Maintenance |
| TPM | total preventative or (productivity) maintenance |
| TPOP | time phase order point |
| TQC | Total Quality Control |
| TQI | Total Quality Improvement |
| TQM | Total Quality Management |
| TRC | total relevant cost |
| TSR | Telephone Service Representative |
| TWK | total work content |
| UCL | upper control limit |
| UNA | Use No Acronyms |
| USL | upper specification limit |
| VDT | video display terminal |
| VDU | video display unit |
| VMS | visual management systems |
| VRU | Voice Response Unit |
| WIP | work in process |
| WWW | World-Wide Web |
| XFT | Cross Functional Team |
