Glossary
Production Planner Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential production planner terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key production planner vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in production planner training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Backlog
- Orders waiting.
- BOM
- Bill of materials.
- Capacity
- Maximum output.
- Expedite
- Speed up delivery.
- Firm order
- Confirmed order.
- Kanban
- Pull signal.
- Lead time
- Time to get materials.
- Master schedule
- Plan of what to build.
- MRP
- Material requirements planning.
- On-time delivery
- Orders shipped on time.
- Routing
- Steps to make a part.
- Safety stock
- Extra inventory buffer.
- Shortage
- Missing material.
- WIP
- Work in process.
- Work order
- Instruction to make a product.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Production Planner practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Production Planner training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.