Production Scheduling Glossary 2026: APS, MRP, MES and 114 More Terms

This glossary defines 114 production planning and scheduling terms, from advanced planning and scheduling (APS) to work in progress (WIP), in plain English. Each entry gives a one-sentence definition and explains why the term matters when you build or run a production schedule. Entries link to our guides and software rankings where a topic is covered in depth.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M O P Q R S T U W

A

Advanced planning and scheduling (APS)

Advanced planning and scheduling is software that builds a production schedule against real capacity, materials and constraints, operation by operation and resource by resource. It replaces the infinite-capacity plan an ERP produces with a sequence the shop floor can actually run, and it recalculates when orders, machines or materials change. See what is APS software and the criteria we score APS products on.

Alternative routing

An alternative routing is a second valid sequence of operations or work centers that can produce the same item. Schedulers use it to move work off an overloaded or broken resource without changing the product, so an APS that knows alternative routings can protect due dates that a single fixed routing would miss.

APS add-on

An APS add-on is a scheduling application that runs next to an existing ERP, reads orders, routings and stock from it and writes the finished schedule back. It gives a company finite capacity scheduling without replacing its ERP. SkyPlanner APS is an example: it connects to any ERP or MES through a two-way REST API, with webhooks and CSV import. The APS vs ERP planning module guide explains when an add-on is the right call.

Assemble-to-order (ATO)

Assemble-to-order is a production strategy where components and subassemblies are made or bought to stock and the final product is assembled only after a customer order arrives. Scheduling focuses on the final assembly line and on keeping component stock aligned with the order mix, so short assembly lead times depend on the component plan being right.

Available-to-promise (ATP)

Available-to-promise is the quantity of a product that is not yet committed to customer orders and can be promised for a given date. It lets sales quote delivery dates from real stock and planned production instead of guesses, which cuts the number of orders that start late.

B

Backlog

A backlog is the set of released or confirmed orders that have not yet been completed. Its size against available capacity tells planners how far out the next free slot is, and a growing backlog is the first sign that quoted lead times are no longer realistic.

Backward scheduling

Backward scheduling places operations by starting from the due date and working backwards to find the latest possible start for each step. It minimizes work in progress and holding cost, but leaves no slack, so it is usually combined with finite capacity checks and a buffer.

Batch production

Batch production makes a set quantity of one item through each operation before moving on to the next item. It suits products with shared equipment and repeated demand, and scheduling it well means choosing batch sizes and sequences that balance setup time against stock and due dates.

Batch sizing

Batch sizing is the decision of how many units to run in one production batch. Larger batches spread setup time over more units but raise inventory and lengthen lead time for other orders, so the right size depends on setup cost, demand and capacity at the bottleneck.

Bill of materials (BOM)

A bill of materials is the structured list of components, subassemblies and raw materials, with quantities, needed to make one unit of a product. Scheduling and MRP both read it to know what must be ready before each operation can start, so an incorrect BOM produces schedules that stop on missing parts.

Bottleneck

A bottleneck is the resource whose capacity limits the output of the whole production system. Every hour lost at the bottleneck is an hour lost for the plant, so good schedules load the bottleneck first, protect it from starvation and sequence it to minimize setups.

Buffer

A buffer is deliberate extra time, stock or capacity placed in front of a constraint or a due date to absorb variation. In drum-buffer-rope scheduling the buffer protects the bottleneck, and sizing it is a trade-off between delivery reliability and work in progress.

C

Campaign planning

Campaign planning groups orders that share a setup, material, color or recipe into one continuous run, or campaign, before switching. It is common in process, food and chemical production where changeovers are long or require cleaning, and it lets planners cut total setup time sharply at the cost of longer waits for some orders.

Capable-to-promise (CTP)

Capable-to-promise is a delivery date calculation that checks not only stock but also whether capacity and materials allow a new order to be produced by a requested date. It needs a finite capacity scheduler underneath, which is why CTP is an APS feature rather than a basic ERP one.

Capacity planning

Capacity planning is the process of comparing the load placed on resources by planned production with the capacity those resources have. It answers whether the plant can make what has been sold and where to add shifts, overtime or equipment, at horizons from weeks to years.

Capacity requirements planning (CRP)

Capacity requirements planning calculates the detailed load that MRP planned orders put on each work center, period by period. Classic CRP shows overloads but does not fix them because it assumes infinite capacity, which is the gap a finite capacity APS closes.

Changeover

A changeover is the work needed to switch a machine or line from producing one item to producing another, including tooling, cleaning, adjustment and first-piece checks. Changeover time is lost output, so sequencing jobs to reduce changeovers is one of the largest levers a scheduler has.

Constraint

A constraint is anything that limits when or how an operation can run: machine capacity, labor, tooling, material availability, shift calendars, precedence or quality hold times. An APS is only as good as the constraints it models, because a schedule that ignores a real constraint will fail on the floor.

Constraint programming

Constraint programming is an optimization method that describes a problem as variables, their possible values and the rules they must satisfy, then searches for solutions that meet every rule. It is well suited to scheduling because rules like resource capacity, precedence and setup dependencies map directly onto constraints.

Continuous production

Continuous production runs material through a process without interruption, as in refining, paper, bulk chemicals or cement. It is scheduled with flow rates, campaigns and grade transitions rather than discrete jobs, so it needs different planning tools from discrete, batch or assembly production.

Cycle time

Cycle time is the time it takes to complete one unit, or one pass of an operation, from start to finish. Schedulers use it with quantities to calculate how long each operation occupies a resource, and comparing it with takt time shows whether a line can keep up with demand.

D

Delivery reliability

Delivery reliability is the share of orders delivered on or before the date promised. It is the headline result manufacturers expect from better scheduling, because reliable delivery depends on promises made against real capacity.

Demand forecasting

Demand forecasting estimates future customer demand from history, orders and market signals. It drives make-to-stock production plans and the master production schedule, while short-term scheduling works from confirmed orders and released work.

Digital twin

A digital twin is a software model of a factory, line or process that mirrors its real state and can be used to test decisions before they are made. In scheduling, the term usually means a capacity and routing model rich enough to simulate what happens to deliveries when an order, machine or shift changes.

Discrete manufacturing

Discrete manufacturing produces distinct, countable items such as machines, parts, furniture or electronics, usually from a bill of materials and a routing. Most APS software is built first for discrete, batch and assembly production, where operations, work centers and setups can be modeled job by job.

Dispatch list

A dispatch list is the ordered list of jobs a work center or operator should run next, generated from the schedule. It is the main way a schedule reaches the shop floor, and it must update when the schedule changes or operators fall back on their own priorities.

Dispatching rules

Dispatching rules are simple priority rules that decide which waiting job a resource runs next, such as earliest due date, shortest processing time or first in, first out. They are fast and easy to explain but look at one resource at a time, so they rarely match the delivery performance of a full finite capacity schedule.

Drum-buffer-rope (DBR)

Drum-buffer-rope is the scheduling method of the theory of constraints. The drum is the bottleneck schedule that sets the pace, the buffer is time placed in front of it so it never starves, and the rope releases material into the plant only as fast as the drum can use it, which keeps work in progress low.

Due date

A due date is the date by which an order or operation must be finished to meet the customer commitment. It is the main input of most scheduling objectives, and the gap between scheduled completion and due date is how delivery performance is measured.

E

Earliest due date (EDD)

Earliest due date is a dispatching rule that runs the waiting job with the nearest due date first. It is simple and tends to reduce maximum lateness on a single resource, but it ignores setups and downstream load.

Engineer-to-order (ETO)

Engineer-to-order is a strategy where each product is designed or adapted to a customer specification after the order is received. Scheduling ETO work means planning engineering, procurement and production together with incomplete data, so tools that reschedule quickly as details firm up matter more than fine sequencing.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Enterprise resource planning is the business system that records orders, inventory, purchasing, finance and production data in one database. Most ERP planning modules calculate material needs against infinite capacity, which is why many manufacturers add a finite capacity APS on top; see APS vs ERP planning module.

Event-driven rescheduling

Event-driven rescheduling updates the schedule automatically when an event occurs, such as a new order, a machine breakdown, a late material delivery or an operation reported done. It keeps the plan valid without a planner rebuilding it by hand. SkyPlanner APS does this with Autopilot, which reschedules continuously on an interval or on events; see automatic rescheduling and the best AI rescheduling software.

F

Finite capacity scheduling

Finite capacity scheduling builds a schedule that never loads a resource beyond what it can actually do in the available time. It produces start and finish times that are achievable, unlike infinite capacity planning, and it is the core function of APS software; see finite vs infinite capacity.

Firm planned order

A firm planned order is a planned order that the planner has locked so MRP will not change its quantity or date automatically. It gives stability to key orders while the rest of the plan keeps recalculating.

First in, first out (FIFO)

First in, first out is a dispatching rule that runs jobs in the order they arrived at a resource. It is fair and predictable but takes no account of due dates or setups, so it often delivers worse on-time performance than a scheduled sequence.

Flow shop

A flow shop is a production layout where all jobs pass through the same machines in the same order. Scheduling a flow shop is mainly about sequencing jobs to reduce setups and idle time, which makes it simpler than a job shop but still sensitive to the bottleneck.

Forward scheduling

Forward scheduling places each operation as early as possible, starting from today or the material availability date and moving forward. It shows the earliest achievable completion date for every order, which makes it the standard way to quote realistic delivery dates.

Free trial

A free trial is a time-limited period in which a buyer can use the full software with their own or demo data before paying. For scheduling software it is the fastest way to test whether the engine handles your routings and constraints. SkyPlanner APS offers a 30-day trial with no card for up to 20 workstations; the free trials page lists trial lengths across vendors.

Frozen zone

A frozen zone, or frozen horizon, is the near-term period of the schedule that is locked against changes. It gives the shop floor and suppliers stability, and the planner decides how long it is by balancing responsiveness against the cost of disruption.

G

Gantt chart

A Gantt chart shows scheduled operations as bars on a time axis, one row per resource or order. It is the standard view of a production schedule because planners can see load, gaps, conflicts and dependencies at a glance and, in most APS tools, drag operations to adjust the plan.

Genetic algorithm

A genetic algorithm is an optimization heuristic that evolves a population of candidate schedules through selection, crossover and mutation toward better objective values. It handles large, messy scheduling problems where exact methods are too slow, at the price of not proving that the result is optimal.

H

Heuristics

Heuristics are rule-based or approximate methods that find good solutions quickly without guaranteeing the best one. Most practical scheduling engines rely on heuristics because exact optimization of a real factory schedule is too slow to rerun every time something changes.

I

Infinite capacity planning

Infinite capacity planning schedules work against lead times and due dates while assuming every resource has unlimited capacity. It is how MRP and most ERP planning modules work, and it produces plans that look valid on paper but overload machines in practice; see finite vs infinite capacity.

J

Job

A job is a unit of work released to production, usually a manufacturing or work order with a quantity, routing and due date. A scheduler places each job’s operations on resources, so job count and operations per job are the main drivers of how hard a schedule is to build.

Job shop

A job shop is a production layout where jobs follow different routings through shared, general-purpose machines. It is the hardest common environment to schedule by hand because every order competes for different resources in a different order; see the best scheduling software for job shops.

Just-in-time (JIT)

Just-in-time is a production philosophy that makes and delivers items only when they are needed, in the quantity needed. It cuts inventory and exposes waste, but it depends on reliable schedules, short setups and suppliers who can deliver to a tight plan.

K

Kanban

Kanban is a pull-based signaling system where a card, bin or electronic signal authorizes production or replenishment of a fixed quantity. It works well for stable, repetitive demand and is often combined with an APS that schedules the non-repetitive, make-to-order part of the plant.

L

Lead time

Lead time is the total time from the start of a process to its end, such as from order receipt to delivery or from material release to finished goods. Long and variable lead times force higher stock and earlier commitments, and shortening them is a primary goal of better scheduling.

Lean manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is a management approach focused on removing waste, reducing work in progress and creating flow toward customer demand. Lean and APS are complementary: lean simplifies the flow, and finite capacity scheduling handles the variety and constraints that remain.

Load leveling

Load leveling, also called heijunka or capacity leveling, spreads work evenly across periods and resources so no resource is overloaded while another sits idle. It turns an infinite capacity plan into a feasible one, and APS software does it automatically when it schedules to finite capacity.

Lot sizing

Lot sizing is the planning decision of how much to order or produce at a time, using rules such as lot-for-lot, fixed order quantity or economic order quantity. It sets the quantities MRP passes to scheduling, so lot sizes that ignore capacity can create bottleneck overloads downstream.

M

Machine downtime

Machine downtime is time a resource cannot produce because of breakdowns, maintenance, missing operators or missing material. Unplanned downtime is the most common reason a schedule breaks, which is why fast rescheduling after a stoppage is a core APS capability.

Make-to-order (MTO)

Make-to-order is a strategy where production starts only after a customer order is received. It keeps finished stock low but makes delivery dates depend directly on available capacity, so MTO manufacturers gain the most from finite capacity scheduling and reliable delivery date quoting.

Make-to-stock (MTS)

Make-to-stock is a strategy where products are made against a forecast and held in inventory until sold. Scheduling MTS production is mostly about batch sizes, campaign sequences and replenishing stock before it runs out.

Makespan

Makespan is the total time from the start of the first operation to the end of the last one in a set of jobs. Minimizing makespan raises throughput and is a common optimization objective, though it can conflict with meeting individual due dates.

Manufacturing execution system (MES)

A manufacturing execution system tracks and controls work on the shop floor in real time: which operation is running, what was produced, scrap, downtime and labor. An MES feeds actual progress back to the scheduler, and an APS feeds the plan to the MES, so the two work best connected.

Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II)

Manufacturing resource planning extends MRP with capacity planning, shop floor control and financial data into one closed-loop planning system. It is the direct ancestor of ERP, and like MRP it typically checks capacity rather than scheduling to it.

Master production schedule (MPS)

The master production schedule states which end items will be produced, in what quantities and in which periods. It sits between sales and operations planning and MRP, and it is the commitment that drives material planning and detailed scheduling.

Material requirements planning (MRP)

Material requirements planning calculates which materials and components are needed, in what quantity and by when, by exploding the bill of materials against the master schedule and stock. Classic MRP assumes infinite capacity, so its planned orders tell you what to make but not whether the plant can make it on time.

Mixed-model scheduling

Mixed-model scheduling sequences different product variants on the same line in a repeating pattern rather than in long single-product runs. It smooths component demand and keeps output matched to the order mix, but it needs short setups to work.

Multi-site scheduling

Multi-site scheduling plans production across several plants in one model, including transfers between sites and the choice of which plant makes what. It lets a company balance load between factories instead of planning each one in isolation.

O

Objective function

An objective function is the measure a scheduling optimizer tries to minimize or maximize, such as total lateness, makespan, setup time or a weighted mix. Choosing it is a business decision, because a schedule that minimizes setups can still deliver late.

On-time delivery (OTD)

On-time delivery is the share of orders or order lines shipped by the promised date. It is the most direct measure of schedule quality, and tracking it per customer and product family shows where schedules or quoted lead times fail.

On-time in-full (OTIF)

On-time in-full measures the share of orders delivered both by the agreed date and in the full quantity ordered. It is stricter than on-time delivery alone and is the delivery metric most customers track for their suppliers.

Operation

An operation is one step in a routing, performed on a specific work center with a setup time and a run time per unit. Operations are the building blocks a scheduler places on resources, and their precedence links decide which can run in parallel.

Optimizer

An optimizer, or solver, is the engine inside scheduling software that searches for a schedule that meets constraints and scores best on the chosen objective. Its speed decides whether the schedule can be recalculated many times a day, which matters as much as its theoretical quality.

Order promising

Order promising is the process of giving a customer a delivery date when the order is placed, using ATP, CTP or a scheduling run. Promises made from a finite capacity schedule are the ones a plant can actually keep.

Order release

Order release is the step that moves a planned order onto the shop floor as a work order with materials and documents. Releasing too early floods the floor with work in progress, and releasing too late wastes capacity, so APS tools often time release from the finite schedule.

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

Overall equipment effectiveness measures how much of planned production time a machine is truly productive, calculated as availability times performance times quality. It shows where capacity is lost, and realistic OEE figures are what make the capacities in a schedule believable.

Overlapping operations

Overlapping operations let the next operation start on part of a batch before the previous operation has finished the whole batch, by sending transfer batches forward. It shortens lead time significantly on long runs, and the scheduler must model transfer quantities to use it.

P

Pegging

Pegging links each supply, such as a work order or purchase order, to the demand it serves, such as a customer order. It shows which customer is affected when a job runs late, which turns a rescheduling decision into a clear customer conversation.

Planned order

A planned order is a proposal created by MRP to make or buy a quantity by a date. It becomes a production or purchase order when firmed or released, and until then a planner or APS can still move or resize it.

Planning board

A planning board, or electronic planning board, is an interactive view, usually a Gantt chart, where planners see and adjust the schedule. It is the main working screen of most APS tools and the feature buyers compare most in demos.

Precedence constraint

A precedence constraint states that one operation cannot start until another has finished, or has reached a defined point. Routings and multi-level BOMs create chains of precedence, and a scheduler that respects them prevents plans where assembly starts before its parts exist.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance is planned servicing of equipment at set intervals or usage levels to prevent breakdowns. Scheduling it as reserved capacity in the production schedule avoids clashes between maintenance and urgent orders.

Priority

Priority is a rank or weight given to an order or customer that tells the scheduler which work to protect first when capacity is short. Clear priorities make automatic scheduling predictable and stop urgent orders from being decided by whoever shouts loudest.

Process manufacturing

Process manufacturing produces goods by mixing, blending, cooking or reacting ingredients according to recipes or formulas, as in food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Batch process plants schedule with recipes, vessels, cleaning and campaign constraints, while continuous process plants schedule flow rates.

Production order

A production order, also called a work order or manufacturing order, is the instruction to make a specified quantity of an item by a date using a given routing and BOM. It is the object an ERP creates and an APS schedules, so clean production order data is the precondition for a good schedule.

Production planning

Production planning decides what to produce, how much and in which period, based on demand, stock and capacity. Production scheduling then turns that plan into a detailed sequence of operations on specific resources at specific times.

Production scheduling

Production scheduling assigns each operation of each order to a resource and a start and finish time, respecting capacity and constraints. It is where plans meet the shop floor, and it is the function APS software automates; see replacing Excel scheduling.

Pull system

A pull system starts production only when downstream demand signals it, through kanban, a constant work-in-progress limit or customer orders. It limits overproduction and work in progress, in contrast to push systems that release work according to a forecast-driven plan.

Push system

A push system releases work to production according to a plan or forecast, regardless of current downstream status. MRP is the classic push system, and it needs capacity-aware scheduling to stop work piling up in front of bottlenecks.

Q

Queue time

Queue time is the time a job waits in front of a resource before processing starts. In most job shops it is the largest part of lead time, which is why better sequencing shortens lead times more than faster machines do.

R

Real-time scheduling

Real-time scheduling keeps the schedule continuously aligned with what is happening on the shop floor by feeding in progress, stoppages and new orders as they occur. It depends on data from an MES or operator reporting and on a scheduling engine fast enough to recalculate within minutes.

Rescheduling

Rescheduling is the act of revising an existing schedule after something has changed, such as a rush order, breakdown, late material or quality problem. How fast and how automatically a tool reschedules is one of the biggest differences between APS products; see automatic rescheduling.

Resource

A resource is anything with limited capacity that an operation needs: a machine, line, work center, operator, skill, tool or fixture. A scheduler books operations against every resource they need at the same time, and modeling secondary resources such as operators and tools is a mark of a capable APS.

REST API

A REST API is a web interface that lets one system read and write another system’s data over HTTP using standard requests. In scheduling it is the usual way to connect an APS to an ERP, MES or other software in both directions, which removes the need for a vendor-built connector for each ERP.

Rough-cut capacity planning (RCCP)

Rough-cut capacity planning checks the master production schedule against the capacity of key resources, using aggregated load profiles. It catches plans that cannot be met before detailed MRP and scheduling run, at a horizon of weeks to months.

Routing

A routing is the ordered list of operations needed to make an item, with the work center, setup time and run time for each. Together with the BOM it is the master data a scheduler needs, and inaccurate routing times are the most common reason schedules look feasible but run late.

Run time

Run time is the time an operation needs per unit, or per batch, once the resource is set up. Multiplied by quantity and added to setup time, it gives the duration the scheduler books on a resource.

S

Safety stock

Safety stock is extra inventory held to protect against variation in demand or supply. It trades inventory cost for service level, and reliable schedules with short lead times let a company carry less of it.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP)

Sales and operations planning is a monthly management process that aligns sales forecasts, production capacity, inventory and financial plans into one agreed plan. It sets the volume and mix that the master production schedule and detailed scheduling then execute.

Scheduling horizon

The scheduling horizon is the period into the future that a schedule covers, from hours to months. Detailed sequences matter most in the near term, while further out the schedule mainly shows load and expected delivery dates.

Sequence-dependent setup

A sequence-dependent setup is a changeover whose length depends on which item ran before, for example light to dark colors or allergen-free to allergen recipes. It makes job order a direct driver of lost capacity, and only schedulers that model setup matrices can optimize it.

Setup matrix

A setup matrix is a table that gives the changeover time or cost from every item or family to every other one. It is the data an APS needs to model sequence-dependent setups and to find sequences that minimize total changeover time.

Setup time

Setup time is the time needed to prepare a resource for an operation, such as changing tools, loading programs or calibrating, before productive run time starts. Setup time consumes capacity without producing output, so it shapes batch sizes and job sequences.

Shift calendar

A shift calendar defines when each resource is available, including shifts, breaks, weekends, holidays and planned stops. Finite capacity scheduling depends on it, because capacity is only real during the hours the calendar makes available.

Shop floor control

Shop floor control covers the release, dispatching, tracking and reporting of work orders on the shop floor. It closes the loop between the schedule and reality, and it is usually handled by an MES, an ERP module or operator reporting in the APS.

Shortest processing time (SPT)

Shortest processing time is a dispatching rule that runs the waiting job with the shortest operation time first. It minimizes average waiting and flow time on a single resource but can leave long jobs waiting and late.

Simulation

Simulation runs a model of the production system forward in time to see how a plan or policy behaves under realistic conditions and variation. In scheduling it is used to compare scenarios and to test the effect of new orders, shifts or equipment before committing.

Single-minute exchange of die (SMED)

Single-minute exchange of die is a lean method for shortening changeovers by moving setup work outside machine downtime and simplifying the rest. Shorter setups let schedulers run smaller batches and more frequent sequences without losing capacity.

Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SME)

Small and medium-sized manufacturers are companies below enterprise scale that usually run one or a few plants with lean planning teams. They need APS tools with public pricing, fast self-onboarding and ERP connections that do not require a consulting project; see the best scheduling software for small manufacturers.

Spreadsheet scheduling

Spreadsheet scheduling is planning production in Excel or a similar tool, usually with one row per order and manual capacity checks. It is flexible and cheap at the start but breaks down as order counts, routings and changes grow; see how to replace Excel for production scheduling.

T

Takt time

Takt time is the available production time divided by customer demand, giving the pace at which one unit must be completed to meet demand. Comparing takt time with cycle time shows whether a line has enough capacity and where to balance work.

Theory of constraints (TOC)

The theory of constraints is a management method that improves a system by finding its single limiting constraint and organizing everything else around it. In production it leads to bottleneck-focused scheduling such as drum-buffer-rope.

Throughput

Throughput is the rate at which a production system produces finished output, measured in units, orders or revenue per period. It is set by the bottleneck, so schedules that keep the bottleneck busy raise throughput for the whole plant.

Transfer batch

A transfer batch is the quantity moved from one operation to the next, which can be smaller than the process batch. Small transfer batches allow overlapping operations and shorten lead time without increasing setups.

U

Utilization

Utilization is the share of available time a resource is busy producing. High utilization at the bottleneck is the goal, while pushing every non-bottleneck resource toward full utilization only builds work in progress and queues.

W

Webhook

A webhook is an automatic HTTP message one system sends to another when an event happens, such as an order created or an operation completed. In scheduling, webhooks let an ERP or MES trigger an immediate schedule update instead of waiting for a nightly batch import.

What-if scenario

A what-if scenario is a copy of the schedule in which a planner tests a change, such as a rush order, extra shift or machine outage, before applying it. Comparing scenarios on delivery and utilization lets planners make decisions with numbers instead of guesses.

Work center

A work center is a group of machines, people or both that perform similar operations and are planned as one capacity unit. Routings point operations at work centers, and the level of detail chosen for them decides how precise the schedule can be.

Work in progress (WIP)

Work in progress is material that has entered production but is not yet finished goods. High WIP ties up cash, hides problems and lengthens lead time, and finite capacity scheduling with controlled order release is one of the most direct ways to reduce it.

Workstation

A workstation is a single machine, cell or manned position that performs operations and is scheduled as an individual resource. Several APS products price by workstation, so counting workstations is the first step in estimating cost; see APS software cost and the pricing index.