manufacturing engineering

The engineering discipline concerned with designing and improving production processes. See: process engineering.

The framework in which manufacturing strategy is developed and implemented. Elements of the manufacturing environment include external environmental forces, corporate strategy, business unit strategy, other functional strategies (marketing, engineering, finance, etc.), product selection, product/process design, product/process technology, and management competencies. Often refers to whether a company, plant, product, or service is make-to-stock, make-to-order, or assemble-to-order. Syn: production environment.

Programs and systems that participate in shop floor control, including programmed logic controllers and process control computers for direct and supervisory control of manufacturing equipment; process information systems that gather historical performance information, then generate reports; graphical displays; and alarms that inform operations personnel what is going on in the plant currently and a very short history into the past. Quality control information is also gathered and a laboratory information management system may be part of this configuration to tie process conditions to the quality data that are generated. Thereby, cause-and-effect relationships can be determined. The quality data at times affect the control parameters that are used to meet product specifications either dynamically or off line.

A set of detailed instructions for carrying out a manufacturing process. It is usually referenced by the routing and thus can simplify the content of the routing.

An element of manufacturing strategy. It is the analysis of physical capacity, geography, functional needs, corporate philosophy, and product-market/process focus to systematically respond to required facility changes driven by organizational, strategic, and environmental considerations.

The total time required to manufacture an item, exclusive of lower level purchasing lead time. For make-to-order products, it is the length of time between the release of an order to the production process and shipment to the final customer. For make-to-stock products, it is the length of time between the release of an order to the production process and receipt into inventory. Included here are order preparation time, queue time, setup time, run time, move time, inspection time, and put-away time. Syn: manufacturing cycle, production cycle, production lead time. See: lead time.

A document, group of documents, or schedule conveying authority for the manufacture of specified parts or products in specified quantities. Syn: job order, manufacturing authorization, production order, production release, run order, shop order, work order. See: assembly parts list, batch card, blend order, fabrication order, mix ticket, work order.