Glossary

Each individual user is assigned a different level of access based on their project role, which determines the administrative functions he / she may perform. These administrative access levels range from 0 to 5, and are unrelated to team access rights (Read-Only, Write Access or Team-Level Access). The higher the admin level assigned to an individual user, the more administrative functionalities the user can access.

A Production Plan that has been closed out.

The Archived Production Plan Report provides access to a historical record of a Production Plan that has been committed and closed out in SPS|PM including how each task on the plan was updated i.e., completed, not completed and completed not planned tasks for a given date / period according to the team’s Planning Horizon.

Parameter that defines the characteristics of an object such as work structure, team, user, task, etc.

In the case of Task Attributes, each task is uniquely identified by its attributes, which are displayed as column headings for example, in the Lookahead view data table gray header and in reports, Decision-Support Mechanisms and Analytics. The Task Attributes include the task description, responsible team, responsible team member, the number of man-days for the task (if enabled), task start date (LRM and Forecast), task duration, task end date (LRM and Forecast), the variance between the LRM and Forecast dates, whether or not the task is a Milestone, task priority, task status, when the task was completed (if it is completed) as well as any additional customer-specific fields included in the system configuration.

Standard Process Logic (Predecessor – Successor Dependency) that has been disconnected. This may indicate work was performed out-of-sequence or an incorrect dependency was represented in a Standard Process.

Excess resource that corrects for misaligned demand and transformation (production) taking one of three forms: Inventory, Time or Capacity

Work calendar represented by number of shifts, work hours and number of days per week. Selecting the correct calendar is critical to ensure LRM and forecast dates accuracy. SPS|PM’s base configuration includes calendars at three different levels: project, team and member.

The capacity of a process is the maximum average rate at which items, units and information can flow through the system. The base capacity of a process refers to the maximum rate at which the process can handle items / units / information under ideal conditions. Equivalently, capacity is the maximum amount of customer demand that can be satisfied over a certain period of time, where the “customer” might be the next station or operation in a production system.

Measurement of how reliable a team’s commitments are for a given planning horizon

Ratio between the number of tasks committed on a Production Plan and the number of tasks completed, but not committed through the Plan to better understand how much work is being completed outside Production Plans

Task whose status has been updated as completed

A task completed without having been committed on a Production Plan. A Completed-Not-Planned Task can be created by updating the status of an existing task or by creating a new one.

Predecessor task that must be completed for work to flow through the process

Process of identifying constraints to pending tasks at the execution level

Decision-Support Mechanism in SPS|PM that exposes a network of constraints for a given Milestone / Task. It enables a user to answer the question: “What are all the tasks that would have to be completed to get to that certain Milestone / Task completed?” Constraint Network Analysis depicts all paths (rather than a single path) leading to the selected Milestone / Task.

Task that prevents the execution of another task. The constraint task must be completed to allow the “constrained” task to become “released.”

Constraint Network History Log captures how the entire constraint network for a given Milestone / Task has evolved since it was created in SPS|PM. If new tasks are added to the constraint network, new standard processes inserted, new links are made, etc., all actions are tracked and reported through the Constraint Network History Log, which captures actions in real time.

A continual improvement process, also often called a Continuous Improvement process (abbreviated as CIP or CI), is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. For example, by repeated iteration of the PDCA cycle. Continuous Improvement, often known as Kaizen, is essentially a small step-by-step incremental improvement strategy. It is based upon a belief that continual improvement can be brought about by a never-ending series of small changes. Even in the face of enormous innovative improvement strategies, there will always be the need and opportunity to supplement such strategies and initiatives with continual small step changes.

To take actions or steps to regulate or limit the behavior of processes in a production system

Forecasting, updating, and reporting of the status of the project in accordance with a baseline plan

Tools in SPS|PM that enable teams to better assess situations, make better informed decisions, and take the appropriate actions

Attribute to define and organize work in support of optimization. All Disciplines / Trades are created when a new user is created in SPS|PM. In order to successfully deliver project objectives, ensuring integration across Disciplines / Trades is critical.

Form of electronic file uploaded to SPS|PM using Document Manager

Feature that enables documents to be loaded into SPS|PM or hyperlinks to be specified so that they can be associated with a Milestone / Task or a given work structure

Unit of security block that SPS|PM uses to control the visibility of data. Depending on the specific SPS|PM configuration, a Domain may be a company, a business unit or a project.

Tasks that have become released more than 7 days prior (or do not have predecessors) and are forecast to begin in the next 7 days, but are not on a Production Plan and do not have Manual Forecast Dates

Ability to generate a new Milestone / Task as a replica of an existing Milestone / Task

Customized email templates for the Production Plan Report that SPS|PM auto-emails to team members and subscribers when Production Plans are committed

Ability to extract data from SPS|PM and generate an output file in a particular format

Estimate or prediction of conditions and events in the project’s future based on information and knowledge available at the time of the forecast. The information is based on the project’s past performance and expected future performance, and includes information that could impact the project in the future, such as estimate at completion and estimate to complete.

Dates for when a task is likely to start and / or finish based on a given workflow logic and associated work calendar. Due to variability, forecast dates are always dynamic, and therefore, often differ from LRM dates.

Decision-Support Mechanism in SPS|PM that enables project teams to determine all tasks that drive the forecast date for a given Milestone / Task. It answers the question: “What are all the tasks that drive the current forecast date for certain Milestone / Task?”

Report in SPS|PM that graphically represents workflow logic and progress of any work stream (or portion of a work stream) using a bar chart format

Aggregation of teams, team members, Disciplines / Trades, companies or attributes that facilities management, reporting and information analysis

Record of the lifecycle of a Milestone / Task in SPS|PM

Defined time period that represents how frequently a team commits to execute work through the creation of Production Plans

Decision-Support Mechanism in SPS|PM that exposes how not executing a task impacts Milestones / Tasks in a Production Schedule. It answers the question: “If we don't do this task, which Milestones / Tasks does it affect?”

Function that enables data upload into SPS|PM from other sources. SPS|PM provides an import template under this function.

Working stock: Inventory that is actively being processed or moved

Congestion stock: Inventory that builds up unintentionally as a consequence of variability in the system

Cycle stock: Inventory that results from batch operations

Safety stock: Inventory that exists intentionally to buffer variability

Anticipation stock: Inventory that is built up in expectation of future demand

All work within a production process. In the context of a project, all work that is or has occurred prior to completion of the project. In the context of a manufacturing production system, inventory refers to all work that has occurred – raw materials, partially finished products, finished products prior to sale and departure from the manufacturing system.
In the context of services, inventory refers to all work done prior to sale, including partially processed information.

Moment beyond which a decision to select one of several alternatives cannot be taken either because the cost of selecting the alternative exceeds the benefit, or because the alternative is no longer available for selection

Little's Law defines the relationship between system Throughput (TH), Cycle time (CT), and Work-in-Process. (WIP). TH = WIP/CT

The Lookahead allows users to create and edit tasks and work streams, to define and view task dependencies within a work stream, and to determine the status of any portion of work across the project within SPS|PM. The Lookahead displays all data loaded by a project team(s) in SPS|PM, organized in a tabular format along with the Main Menu, Legend and Work Structure Attributes.

One of the four main SPS|PM views along with the Lookahead view, Lookahead (Network Manager) view and Gantt Charter view. The Lookahead (Gantt Chart) enables better visualization, adjustment and commitment of work through the Gantt Chart interface.

One of the four main SPS|PM views along with the Lookahead view, Lookahead (Gantt Chart) view and Gantt Charter view. The Network Manager view allows users to graphically create and edit tasks and work streams, define and view task dependencies within a work stream and to determine the status of any portion of work across the project.

A team's ability to forecast work through a measurement called Percentage of Anticipated Tasks (PAT)

Report in SPS|PM that summarizes completed and pending Milestones / Tasks in a tabular format allowing for data filtering through several parameters

Decision-Support Mechanism in SPS|PM that enables users to clearly see which Milestone, and the tasks leading up to it, drive the LRM date. This information enables users to answer the question: “What are all the tasks that drive the current LRM date for a certain task?”

Decision-Support Mechanism that allows you to view and analyze the forecasted labor capacity requirements for upcoming work, either by team member or Discipline / Trade, in order to alert you to any peaks or valleys in labor capacity requirements

A critical project objective / milestone

Master Level Milestone (MLM) represents the end of a workflow, has no successor tasks and serves as the basis for determining Last Responsible Moment (LRM) dates for a workflow.

A Milestone represents the end of a workflow and serves as the basis for determining Last Responsible Moment (LRM) dates for a workflow. Thus, a Milestone does not have any successor tasks. A Milestone is different than a Master Level Milestone in SPS|PM in that, although they both represent the end of a workflow, a Milestone may not be a critical project objective.

A significant event on the master plan or schedule of a project that defines the end or beginning of a phase or a contractually required event. Typically, a Milestone represents completion of a certain portion of project scope as measured by the achievement of predefined criteria.

Analytic in SPS|PM that provides the change over time in LRM Finish Date and Forecast Start Date for a specific Milestone, starting from a selected date

Analytic in SPS|PM that determines the percentage of tasks completed out of sequence to their defined successors and predecessors for a selected date range

Any task not yet completed. A pending task may be released, released-at-risk, or constrained.

Defined period of time that represents how frequently a team commits to execute work through the creation of Production Plans

The preceding task or constraint to a given task

Method of graphically representing a process using symbols to describe aspects of a process and illustrate its behavior. For instance, in one convention for process flow diagrams, rectangles represent processes or operations, triangles represent inventories or stocks and lines with arrows represent flows of materials, Work-in-Process or information.

Act of transforming or changing the shape, composition or combination of materials, parts, subassemblies or information in a production system to increase their value.

Policies, protocols and mechanisms to control transformational processes and the use of resources and variability

An integrated configuration of sensor measurements, business processes, rules and performance indicators to enable effective control based on desired objectives

The combination of a finite amount of work and capacity allocated for its execution for a given Planning Horizon across areas, systems and functions within a project

Analytic in SPS|PM that measures how well a team is following the business process of updating and creating Production Plans within the agreed Planning Horizon. It enables Production Planning process optimization by exposing teams / members that are not adhering to the agreed process.

Analytic in SPS|PM that measures how well an individual or team follows the process of updating the status of planned tasks that are on a Production Plan

Process that enables the identification, coordination and capacity (labor, equipment and space) allocation for knowledge and craftwork through the creation and updating of Production Plans.

An integrated set of tasks / processes that define how transformation occurs through the use of resources (capacity, inventory and time) to meet certain objective (e.g., milestone)

Process that enables those directly responsible for the work to effectively identify the need for resources such as capacity (labor, equipment, space), time (lead time, cycle time), and inventory (stocks and Work-in-Process), as well as to integrate any support processes (need for information) required to perform a specific scope of work within a predefined timeframe

Report in SPS|PM that calculates progress for a given scope based on Man-Days and through the following formula:

It does not measure earned and burned hours, which is typically part of project controls

Report in SPS|PM that measures progress by comparing the total number of tasks in the Production Schedule (according to selected filters) with the number of tasks already completed

Report in SPS|PM that shows total Man-Hours, completed Man-Hours and % completed based on the selection of attributes in the available controls

Temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. A project team often includes people who don’t usually work together — sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies. The development of software for an improved business process, the construction of a building or bridge, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market — all are projects. And all must be expertly managed to deliver the on-time, on-budget results, learning and integration that organizations need. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.

The data gathering, management and analytical processes used to predict, understand and constructively influence the time and cost outcomes of a project or program; through the communication of information in formats that assist effective management and decision making

A set of business processes, rules, performance indicators and enabling system that makes project production control operational based on project requirements

The application of the scientific techniques in operations research, queueing theory and industrial engineering to the optimization and execution of projects. As Factory Physics formed a scientific framework for manufacturing management, PPM is the application of the same Factory Physics principles to the execution of projects.

Type of access right in SPS|PM that constrains a team member from creating a new Milestone / Task and / or modifying any Milestone / Task attributes, even for those under his / her responsibility. Access to SPS|PM is enabled, but only for data viewing purposes; editing is not enabled. Only a user with Team-Level Access can set Read-Only Access for another team member.

Why a task was not completed as planned

Analytic in SPS|PM that measures why work was not completed as planned using pre-defined root cause categories. It provides the foundation to implement Performance Improvement by exposing reasons for task non-completion

Task with no pending constraints or predecessors. In SPS|PM, a task’s status automatically changes from Constrained to Released when all existing predecessors are updated as Complete or Completed-Not-Planned. Once the predecessors have been completed, work on the task may begin at any time, provided the required resources (capacity, inventory and time) are available. Therefore, if desired, any released task can be loaded on a Production Plan.

Task constrained by one or more predecessors, which are all either loaded on the Next Production Plan, or committed to the Current Production Plan. Before loading a Released-At-Risk task onto the Next Production Plan, it is important to consider whether both the predecessors and the Released-At-Risk tasks can actually be completed during the next Production Cycle.

Summary of project production data selected for given criteria and based on actual work execution

Production systems at their most abstract level are transformation processes, which use resources to produce useful goods and services. Examples of resources are labor, capital, machinery and equipment, land and buildings, raw materials and knowledge (of methods and information). A characteristic of all these examples of resources is that they are generally “scarce” or limited – the production system does not have access to arbitrarily large quantities of a given factor of production. It may be that different amounts of resources have to be traded off against each other in maximizing output of the production system.

A production system uses resources to transform inputs into outputs, which ultimately are goods or services.

Reason why a task or tasks have not been completed as planned. Understanding why tasks are not completed as planned is essential to reducing variability by eliminating recurrence to the extent optimal and thereby improving overall project performance.

Analytic in SPS|PM that provides a log of root causes for task non-completion according to pre-defined categories and as described by those directly responsible for the work

Difference between the LRM and forecast dates for a given Milestone / Task

Analytic in SPS|PM that enables analysis of schedule variance for one or more Master Level Milestones

Analytic in SPS|PM that provides the average of actual values of schedule variance associated with only completed Milestones / Tasks for a given period of time

Repetitive sequence of work. A standard process may combine physical and / or support tasks.

Analytic in SPS|PM that enables making process design as robust as possible by analyzing 1) tasks that belong to standard processes that have been committed to execution through a Production Plan, 2) tasks that belong to standard processes but were split to be committed for execution and 3) tasks that do not belong to any standard process but were committed for execution

Analytic in SPS|PM that automatically summarizes the performance of a given standard process based on actual execution

Library of standard work sequences in SPS|PM for a given project created by those directly responsible for the work

Task which is dependent on a constraint task. Work cannot begin on a successor task until the constraint task has been completed.

Role type assigned to a user directly responsible for non-core production processes (e.g., support processes / roles)

Item of work with a specified duration, for which a single person / user is responsible.

Within the context of a production step, the smallest basic step or unit of activity that takes place within the system in the production of goods and services.

Report in SPS|PM that records changes to a Milestone / Task throughout its lifecycle, from creation to completion

Unique identifier for a Milestone / Task in SPS|PM

Analytic in SPS|PM that measures the age of Milestones / Tasks in SPS|PM using number of days as the unit of measurement

Group formed within SPS|PM with the purpose of planning, controlling and optimizing project production

Analytic in SPS|PM that enables access to a quick and simple summary of key performance indicators for all active teams, only for the Current and last Production Plans committed

SPS|PM user that has been assigned to one or more teams

Access right assigned to a user in SPS|PM to enable access to team management functions. Team-Level Access enables specified team members (typically team leaders, recorders and System Administrators) and also selected SPS|PM users that are not team members (such as implementation team members), to access and perform special functions on behalf of a team.

Measured as the average output of a production process (machine, station, line, plant) per unit time. Throughput is related to Cycle Time (CT) and Work-in-Process (WIP) by Little's Law.

Task on a Production Plan whose status has not been updated before a Production Plan is closed out

Report in SPS|PM that provides a summary of how many tasks have been allocated to every user as well as historical login data per user

Individual or entity granted access to SPS|PM

Unique identifier for an SPS|PM user

A measure of the fraction of time that a station in a production system is not idle. Utilization is the rate at which the station accepts inputs divided by the capacity of the station.

Non-uniformity of attributes or parameters in a product or process, e.g. variability in weights of samples of a product coming from a production system or variation in completion times of a task with in a production system.

Beneficial variability is a change that results in greater value (rather than maintaining the status quo). Detrimental variability is a change that results in reduced value e.g. rework due to quality issues.

Physical and / or non-physical tasks

Hierarchical organization of work for effective visualization, analysis and optimization

The total inventory between the start and end points of a process. Also refers to the inventory between intermediate steps. WIP is related to Cycle Time (CT) and Throughput (TH) by Little’s Law.

A set of dependency relationships between the individual tasks that make up a workflow, standard or unique

Access right in SPS|PM that enables a user to create a new Milestone / Task under his / her responsibility or for someone else’s responsibility. However, it does not allow the user to edit a Milestone / Task that is not under his / her responsibility. Write Access overwrites Read-Only Access settings. Only a user with Team-Level Access can set Write Access for another team member.