【正文】 on.　　Supply Chain： The ponents of business operations such as vendors， procurement， operations or manufacturing， warehousing and distribution， customers， and third party suppliers that service or manage segments of the supply chain that interact with the products from the raw material stage to delivery to the customer.　　Supply Chain Management （SCM）： Enpasses all of the activities associated with moving goods from raw materials stage through to the end user. This includes systems management， sourcing and procurement， production scheduling， order processing， inventory management， transportation， warehousing， and customer service. Successful supply chain management， then， coordinates and integrates these activities for sustainable petitive advantage.　　Supply Chain Network： The infrastructure required to support emerce with the Internet functioning as an enabler to the physical distribution of goods. Infrastructure will consist of suppliers， manufacturers， warehouses， transportation partners， and the software that ties it all together for the epany for the purpose of providing flawless execution of orders.　　Supply Channel： Members of the supply chain that hold， control， or effect inventory of raw materials， parts or goods.　　SupplyOriented Capabilities： Related to a firm39。s operational capabilities， supplyoriented capabilities emphasize the internal customers of a pany such as production and marketing departments. Focused on distribution networks to gain petitive advantage， supplyoriented logistics capabilities include widespread product availability， selective distribution coverage， and low total distribution cost.　　SWOT： Managerial analysis of a pany39。s specific strengths， weaknesses， opportunities and threats.　　Synchronous manufacturing： Advanced control system that aims to increase throughput while minimizing inventory investment by manufacturing the right ponents timely and in the right order. Combines JIT with flexible manufacturing， also known as “flexflow”?！　CP： Abbreviation for “total cost of production” in manufacturing.　　Unsalables： Product returns resulting from goods not sold by a customer （. grocery store， retail chain， department store） or goods damaged enroute to and/or at the distribution center. Leading causes of unsalables are management indifference， outofcode product， inefficient handling practices， seasonal product returns， and pallet overhang. When panies begin to deal with unsalables a team manager is usually appointed to remend policies， review packaging requirements， consider a reclamation approach， and set up benchmarks to track progress in reducing unsalables to， for example， less than 1% of sales.　　Valuechain： The strategy to build collaborative relationships and select trading partners from the outset of raw materials procurement to the delivery of the finished product to the ultimate customer. Involves linking the customer39。s customer and the supplier39。s supplier through electronic b2b.　　Visioneering： The ability to look into the future and anticipate customer responses， business processes， knowledge capital of a pany， and determine windows of opportunity.　　VOC： Voice of the customer； term used by panies when describing an element of their customer service/quality initiatives. 3PLS： See Logistics Provider in this Section.Section 2： Distribution and Warehousing　　There are some experts in this field that predict the demise of warehouses because inventory stocking will no longer be needed. They claim that ECR and JIT in bination with POS data will fully synchronize the pany39。s demand chain. Most other experts disagree and believe that integrated logistics will spur DCs to modify their roles， which will be based on speeding the flow of product and providing valueadded services. Examples of the changing role of warehouses can be seen in consolidations of shipments， crossdocking， and valueadded processes such as packaging， subassembly， kitting， labeling， and final custom work such as providing color and style to products based on customer orders. Certainly， eCommerce has led to warehouse expansion in the USA and Europe and refocus by existing warehousing panies.　　Basically， warehouses hold inventory and inventory itself should not be viewed as a total liability because only bad inventory is a liability （bad is defined as obsolete or excess）。 Therefore， the right inventory available in the right location at the time needed allows a pany to achieve customer satisfaction. This remains the underlying role of the warehouse regardless of technology advances. As a general benchmark， warehousing averages approximately % of sales for a manufacturing pany.　　Bar Code： Information embedded into an identification pattern of parallel bars that can be read by an electronic scanner （hand held or stationary scanner）。　　Bar Code Scanner： A device that reads bar codes with a builtin laser and transmits information to a puter for inventory management and sales purposes.　　Batch picking： A process whereby the goods are selected in quantities to meet the demand for more than one order. Goods are first picked by SKU， and later sorted by order， address， and other criteria.　　Batch： A group of orders in the same wave， picked in one pass through the warehouse.　　Bin： A barcoded location in the warehouse where product is stored.　　Bill of Lading： A document used to record the receipt of goods.　　Carrier： A trucking pany usually unrelated to Shipper， that transports a shipment.　　Carton： A box into which an order is packed.　　Compliance Label： A type of shipping label for cartons that conforms to major retailers39。 standards for format， size， and bar code size （length/type）?！　onsignment： Occurs in warehousing where consignor （property or merchandise owner） appoints consignee as a merchandise depository （the warehouse operator） and the consignee holds and cares for property； however， title to the merchandise remains in the name of the consigno