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Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Inventory and Materials

Work in progress

Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples

nounCore term

In industrial engineering & manufacturing, work in progress means: Products that have been started but are not finished yet, such as parts waiting between machines. Often shortened to WIP.

In Turkish: yarı mamul, süreç içi stok, ara stok

How it is used

The abbreviation is said as a word, 'wip'. Lean teams limit and reduce WIP because piles of half-finished parts hide problems and slow the flow. Finance also reports WIP as part of inventory value. In US English 'work in process' is also common.

Example sentences

  1. There is too much work in progress between welding and painting; the racks are full.

  2. Cutting work in progress by half also halved our production lead time.

Common collocations

  • reduce work in progress
  • WIP limit
  • WIP inventory
  • level of work in progress
  • inventoryAll the materials and products a company holds: raw materials, parts, work in progress and finished goods waiting to be sold.
  • finished goodsProducts that are completely made, checked and ready to be shipped or sold to customers.
  • lead timeThe total time between the start of a process, such as receiving an order, and its end, such as delivering the product to the customer.
  • pull systemA way of controlling production in which a step makes or delivers parts only when the next step uses them up, instead of working to a forecast.

More terms: Inventory and Materials

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