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Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Inventory and Materials

Inventory

Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples

/ˈɪnvəntɔːri/nounCore term

In industrial engineering & manufacturing, inventory means: All the materials and products a company holds: raw materials, parts, work in progress and finished goods waiting to be sold.

In Turkish: stok, envanter

How it is used

Used in planning, finance and lean. Companies hold, carry, count, reduce and manage inventory, and finance looks at inventory value and turns. In lean, excess inventory is a waste because it hides problems and ties up cash.

Example sentences

  1. We are holding six weeks of inventory for this part, which is far too much.

  2. The year-end inventory count starts on Friday after the last shift.

Common collocations

  • inventory level
  • reduce inventory
  • inventory count
  • excess inventory
  • inventory turns
  • work in progressProducts that have been started but are not finished yet, such as parts waiting between machines. Often shortened to WIP.
  • raw materialA basic material, such as steel coil, plastic granules or cotton, that a factory turns into parts or products.
  • finished goodsProducts that are completely made, checked and ready to be shipped or sold to customers.
  • safety stockExtra stock kept on top of normal needs to protect against unexpected demand or supplier delays.
  • FIFOShort for first in, first out: using or shipping the oldest stock first, so that materials do not age, expire or get forgotten at the back of the shelf.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Inventory and Materials

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