Glossary
Glossary
The terms that come up in conversations about business systems. Each one explained in two sentences, with how it works in a real company and a link to the solution that uses it.
General and AI
- API (application programming interface) An API is an agreed way for one program to ask another for data or to tell it to perform an operation. Systems exchange information by themselves, in a format they have agreed on, instead of waiting for someone to export a file and upload it by hand.
- Data migration Data migration moves master records, documents and history from an old system into a new one. The hard part is not the copying but the decisions: what to move, how to convert it, and how to tell that the result adds up.
- Document data extraction (OCR and language models) Document data extraction turns an invoice, a delivery note, a CMR consignment note or an order from a PDF or a photo into fields the system understands: number, counterparty, dates, line items, amounts. OCR reads the characters, and a language model works out what each part of the document is.
- KSeF (Poland's national e-invoicing system) KSeF is the Polish Ministry of Finance platform through which structured XML invoices pass. An invoice issued in KSeF gets an identifying number and is available to both sides of the transaction without emailing a PDF.
- LLM (large language model) An LLM is a model trained on very large amounts of text that predicts the next words, and can therefore read, summarise, classify and write. It is not a knowledge base about your company, and on its own it does not check whether what it wrote is true.
- RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) RAG is a way of using a language model in which the system first searches the company's documents for matching passages and only then asks the model to answer from them. The answer comes with a link to the source, so it can be checked.
- System integration System integration connects the programs a company already runs so that data moves between them without being re-keyed. It sets the direction of each flow, the data format, and which system is the source of truth for a customer, an item code and a price.
Logistics
- CMR (international consignment note) A CMR is the consignment note used for road transport between countries that are party to the CMR Convention. It records who sent the goods, what is moving and who receives them, and the consignee's signature on the carrier's copy is the proof that the shipment arrived.
- Cross-docking Cross-docking is a transfer in which goods never reach a rack: they arrive, are split by consignee and move on the same day. The warehouse works as a sorting point rather than a place to store stock.
- Delivery slot booking Slot booking is the reservation of a time window at a loading dock: the carrier declares when it will arrive, with what vehicle and what load, and the warehouse assigns it a place in the schedule. Unloading then spreads across the day instead of crowding into the yard first thing in the morning.
- POD (proof of delivery) A POD is the evidence that a shipment reached the consignee: a signed consignment note, a receipted delivery note, or a confirmation captured in the driver's app. Without it a carrier has nothing to close the order with and nothing to defend itself with in a claim.
- TMS (transport management system) A TMS is where a transport order is created and carried all the way to the invoice: truck and driver assignment, route, status updates from the road, documents and freight settlement. In a forwarding company it also covers subcontracted carriers and loads bought on a freight exchange.
- WMS (warehouse management system) A WMS knows where every unit sits in the warehouse and walks people through receiving, picking and shipping. Every movement is confirmed by a scan, so the stock in the system matches the stock on the shelf.
Manufacturing
- BOM (bill of materials) A BOM lists everything a product is made of: materials, components and sub-assemblies, with the quantity needed per unit. The structure is multi-level, because a sub-assembly has a bill of its own, and so does the one below it.
- ERP (enterprise resource planning system) An ERP holds a company's master data, orders, stock, production and accounting on one database. A single entry, such as a goods receipt, updates the stock level, the cost of the production order and the supplier balance at once.
- MES (manufacturing execution system) An MES collects data on how production is running on the shop floor: machine states, piece counters, downtime and operation confirmations. It shows what is happening at a work cell right now instead of reconstructing yesterday's shift from paper notes.
- MRP (material requirements planning) MRP is the calculation of what has to be bought or produced, and by when, to deliver the plan. It explodes bills of materials against orders, subtracts stock on hand and deliveries in transit, and shifts what is missing back in time by the lead time or the production time.
- OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) OEE tells you how much of the time scheduled for production turned into good parts. It is calculated as the product of three components: availability, performance and quality.
- Routing (process plan) A routing is the ordered list of operations a product goes through, each tied to a work centre and to the times it takes. It answers where each step is done and how long it runs.
Distribution
- B2B portal (customer ordering platform) A B2B portal is a site where a trade customer logs in and places the order themselves, seeing their own prices, discounts, stock and purchase history. The order lands in the system as data, so nobody re-keys it from an email or from a note taken during a phone call.
- Customer credit limit A credit limit is the maximum amount a company agrees to sell to a given customer on deferred payment. Once the limit is used up or invoices go past due, further orders need a decision, a prepayment, or they are put on hold.
- EDI (electronic data interchange) EDI is the exchange of trade documents between the systems of two companies in a format agreed in advance: orders, dispatch advices, invoices. The document leaves one side's system and enters the other's as data ready to process, with no email, no PDF and no re-keying.
- EDIFACT (EDI message standard) EDIFACT is a UN-backed standard that describes how an EDI message is built: which segments it contains, in what order, and what each field means. In trade the messages used most often are ORDERS (purchase order), DESADV (dispatch advice) and INVOIC (invoice).
- GS1 and GTIN (product and logistics numbering) GS1 runs a global numbering system that identifies products, logistic units and locations: GTIN on the product, SSCC on the pallet, GLN on the delivery point. The number is unique worldwide, so the same product means the same thing at the manufacturer, at the wholesaler and at the retail chain.
- Inventory turnover Inventory turnover says how many times in a given period a company sold and replaced its stock. It is calculated as cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory value for the same period, with both sides taken at purchase cost.
Construction
- Bill of quantities (przedmiar robót) A bill of quantities lists the planned works in technological order, with quantities and a costing basis for every item. It is calculated from the design before work starts, and the cost estimate as well as later settlements with subcontractors are built on it.
- Construction log and EDB (Poland's electronic construction log) The construction log (dziennik budowy) is the official record of how the works proceeded, written by the site manager, the site inspector and the designer. Since 2023 it can be kept electronically in EDB, a system provided by GUNB, the Polish national building supervision authority.
- Employer's cost estimate (kosztorys inwestorski) An employer's cost estimate is the client-side pricing of the planned works, built from the bill of quantities and unit prices. In Polish public procurement it establishes the value of the contract and has to follow the method set out in a ministerial regulation.
- Retention money (kaucja gwarancyjna) Retention money is the part of the payment the client holds back as security for fixing defects during the warranty and statutory defect liability period. The amount, the way it is withheld and the release dates come from the contract, not from statute.
- RFI (request for information) An RFI is a formal question from the site asking the designer or the client to resolve a gap or a clash in the documentation. It carries a number, an addressee, a deadline and a trail, so the answer ends up next to the drawing instead of in somebody's inbox.
- Works acceptance protocol (protokół odbioru robót) A works acceptance protocol is the document in which the client confirms that the contractor completed a scope, listing the defects found and the deadlines to fix them. Acceptance releases payment, starts the warranty and statutory defect liability periods, and sets the date for releasing retention.
Agriculture and food processing
- Crop treatment records Crop treatment records are the register a farm keeps of the plant protection products and fertilisers it has applied: field, crop, date, product, dose, area and the reason for the treatment. In Poland they are checked by PIORiN, the plant health and seed inspection service, and the same data feeds quality standard audits and subsidy paperwork.
- GlobalG.A.P. (good agricultural practice standard) GlobalG.A.P. is a private certification standard for farm production that retailers and exporters use to check the conditions a crop was grown in. The audit covers plant protection, fertilisation, water, worker hygiene and the ability to trace a batch back to a specific field.
- HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) HACCP is a method for keeping food safe: the plant lists biological, chemical and physical hazards for each step of the process, picks the points where those hazards can be controlled, and measures them as the work runs. EU food hygiene law requires food businesses to have procedures based on HACCP principles, with primary production excluded.
- IFS Food (food safety standard for processing) IFS Food is the standard used to audit plants that process and pack food, from raw material intake to dispatch. It covers the quality management system, HACCP, plant hygiene, process control and batch traceability, and the result is expressed as a score rather than a plain pass.
- Production batch (lot) A batch is a defined quantity of product made or harvested under comparable conditions and marked with a single number. That number is the key used to reconstruct where the raw material came from and to identify the customers who received it if anything has to be recalled.
- Traceability Traceability is the ability to follow food, feed and raw material through every stage of production, processing and distribution. EU Regulation 178/2002 requires food businesses to work one step back and one step forward: you have to know who supplied the goods and who you released them to.
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