G
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GO TO g/G, Ga, Gb, Gc, Gd, Ge, Gh, Gi, Gk, Gl, Gm, Go, Gp, Gr, Gs, Gt, Gu last entry
3G: Third generation mobile phone services, enabling very fast access of mobile phones to the Internet, and the retrieval therefrom of, say, pictures and video.
g: the acceleration of a body due to gravity, being 32 feet per second per second ( = 9 metres per s per s).
GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It should be noted that the GAAP accepted by the UK conform to the IFRS set of accounting standards. These are not the same as the GAAP pertaining to the US. It is consequently necessary for UK companies seeking to raise capital or file accounts in the US to prepare a second set of accounts complying with the US GAAP.
Gage R&R: see Gauge R&R.
Gantt Chart: a horizontally oriented bar chart. When the horizontal axis denotes time, as usually it does, the Gantt chart is particularly useful for illustrating work schedules. See also planning board.
Gateway Work Centre: The first work centre that a job proceeds to, immediately after its release to the shop floor. The measured control of the release of work to gateway work centres is the vital function of I/O Control, qv.
GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. A treaty originally devised and launched by the US in 1947 to promote free world trade, and since extended many times.
Gauge R&R: Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibilty. In taking any measurement in business, whether in SPC on the factory floor or in a customer survey in the office, it is desirable that the means by which measurements are recorded should have the required degree of accuracy and should be (1) repeatable - ie if one person measures the same thing a second time in the same circumstances, he will record the same measurement - and (2) reproducible - ie if two persons each separately record the same thing, they will obtain the same measurement. Statistical calculations can be applied to estimate bias due to failings in Gauge R&R.
Gaussian Curve or Gaussian Distribution: see Distribution (Normal).
Gaylord: a large corrugated container matching the dimensions of a pallet or smaller (wooden) container. Gaylord is a tradename that has become accepted as generic.
Gazette: In the UK, a daily publication of the Department of Trade & Industry, in which are made official public announcements, including winding up orders (hence to be gazetted ... to be made the subject of a winding up order).
GDP (Gross Domestic Product): See Glossary entry below.
Gearing: company indebtedness, defined by the relationship between the funds provided by the company's ordinary shareholders, and funds carrying a fixed interest charge or against which a dividend must be paid.
GEC: General Electric Company. There are, or were, two companies of that name. First, there remains the rock-solid trillion dollar US company. Alas, the multi-million £ British company changed its name to Marconi, and proceeded to make a number of disastrous decisions, including selling off its "boring" defence and capital goods businesses, and buying telecommunications companies at a high price just before a collapse of the market for these goods. Shareholders in the British company have paid a high price in terms of destruction of value.
Gemba: Gemba is Japanese for the "actual place" or workplace. In the context of manufacturing, this is taken to mean the factory floor - the real place where activity takes place and where product itself is made. Gemba keiei (pronounced gemba "K" - "A") means managing the workplace as a physical entity and business (rather than simply managing the people who work there). Gemba kaizen means continuous improvement of the workplace.
GEN2: Gen 2 is a protocol (ie a set of standards and rules) issued by the EPCglobal committee for formulating data to be used in an RFID radio environment. The GEN2 protocol governs the air interface standard (ie the frequency at which data are transmitted), the data structure of the EPC number, and the RFID network rules. GEN2 has a "WORM" capability (write once, read many). It keeps data in sequential order and manages data more easily than the RFID protocols which it supersedes (Generation 1, Class 0 and Generation 1, Class 1). As with Generation 1, there are also five classes of the GEN2 protocol. GEN2 enables RFID readers to read multiple tags more quickly, to sort multiple codes, to deal with a temporary loss of reader power and to deal easier with such problems as "ghost tags" (partial data from tags which ought not to be read). The standard mode of operation defines three states (1) single reader, (2) multi reader and (3) dense reader. GEN2 is an open standard - ie it is universally available throughout industry to all tag manufacturers.See also ALE, GTAG and Group Select.
General Stores: the stores, or stock room, itself. Often the term excludes stocks of tools (which are in the tools store) and stocks of finished goods (which may be in the finished goods store, or warehouse).
Genchi genbutsu! Japanese for Go and see for yourself - go to the "gemba" (the actual workplace - see above) and see what is really happening!.
GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit.
Ghz: Gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second.
Giessen-Justus: a type of schwundgeld dating from March 2004, originating in Giessen, central Germany.
Gilts (Gilt Edged Stock): In the UK, gilts are "stock", or certificates, issued and sold by the UK Government. There are an extremely large number of such stocks issued by the Government to raise funds, with different maturity dates, different rates of interest (some rates being linked to indexes such as the RPI (retail price index)) , different redemption prices etc.. Gilts are widely traded on the London Stock Exchange. They are called what they are because they are presumed to be free of risk. (Unless their redemption value is indeed linked to the RPI, their value is not, of course, free from the risk of erosion by inflation.)
Gimbal Tag: a perforated cardboard tag about 2 inches square attached to retail objects, especially clothing, and used by stores and distributors to gather statistics on sales. Now defunct.
GIS: Geographic Information System, or Graphical Information System
GKN: Guest, Keen and Nettlefold, a UK engineering company.
Global Warming: The first question to ask vis-a-vis this topic, is whether 'global warming' is actually occurring. It is not, according to Richard Lindzen, professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology*. Lindzen points out that the rise in the average global surface temperature in the past 100 years (0.65C) is well within the recorded variation in average temperature, and there has been no statistically significant change to average temperature at all in the last 10 years. To counter the deliberately deceptive TV pictures of melting glaciers at the Arctic, it is observed that although the Arctic ice margins may be shrinking, ice is building up inland due to higher snowfalls; in the Arctic as a whole, temperatures are more-or-less the same as they were in the 1930s. And as for the the Antarctic, the ice sheet there is actually growing. The worldwide alarm of alleged so-called global warming, Professor Lindzen states, is due to the publication of notoriously inadequate climate computer models, which are, of course, entirely dependent on the software and weighting of factors that programmers incorporate within them and the selective data they employ. (One such theory is, or was, the Hockey Stick Theory, devised by one Michael Mann, that predicted temperatures would suddenly 'flick' upwards to high levels. To achieve this effect theoretically, Mann constructed a computer model and processed the data available to him in a certain way employing mathematics that were bound to produce a 'hockey stick' effect regardless of the data employed.) The reason such models are 'over reacting' is the excessive weight incorporated in them to CO2 and CH4, especially in relation to the effect of water vapour and clouds. [Note however that 90% of all CO2 in the atmosphere is the result of nature (volcanic eruptions, the decay of organic matter, forest fires etc) - man's contribution to 'greenhouse gases' accounts for less than 0.5% of the total.]. Clouds are major sources of uncertainty in climate change models, and it is to clouds that we must turn to find another reason for any possible temperature change. This is, surprising, the reduction in the influx of cosmic rays from space into the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic rays occur naturally in space from exploding stars and, in Earth's atmosphere, encourage cloud formation (especially low altitude clouds). Clouds have a cooling effect on our climate. The reason that there has been a reduction in the influx of such cosmic rays is due to the significant proven strengthening, during the 20th century, of the Sun's magnetic field (for unknown reasons). The Sun's magnetic field helps shield the Earth from cosmic rays. That is, the stronger magnetic field means that fewer cosmic rays enter our atmosphere and that consequently there is a lower likelihood of such rays promoting cloud formation. The facile CO2 explanation for global warming, referred to above, does not account for the periodic major swings in average global temperature throughout history. Throughout history, we know, Earth has been subject to 'warm periods' and 'cold periods'. It is estimated that in the past 700,000 years there have been eight 'ice ages' - what we may be experiencing now is the onset of another warm period. That is, it is well established that the Earth's climate has been subject to constant change. For instance, Earth emerged from the last great Ice Age 20,000 years ago; subsequent to that, the hottest period occurred 8,000 years ago, and this was followed by a long period of cooling. (During each of the past ice ages, the British Isles was joined to continental Europe.) After the end of the last Ice Age, came the 'Roman Warming' (coinciding with the period of dominance of the Roman Empire. During this time, England was known to be a significant wine producer.) The 300 years of cooling in the Dark Ages which followed the collapse of Rome gave way to the 'Medieval Warming', when the Earth was hotter than it is today. Around AD1300 however, the so-called Little Ice Age began, (ice fairs were held on the Thames each year). The Little Ice Age ended about AD1800, beginning what is often referred to as the 'Modern Warming'. More recently, significant cooling occurred between 1940 and 1975, and in 1975 warming began again. (The hottest decade in the very recent past has been the 1930s, wth the hottest year being 1934.) During the Medieval Warm Period, there was virtually no ice in the Arctic - in 1421 a Chinese naval squadron sailed right round the Arctic and reported no ice, and it is well recorded that Greenland was settled and farmed. (The Antarctic, which holds 90% of the world's ice, has cooled and gained mass in the past 30 years.). For a serious scientific discourse on the cosmic ray theory, see Reference 1 and and Reference 2, and papers by Henrik Svensmark of the Danish Space Centre. Do not consult hysterical UK government papers or anything by such bien pensents as David Cameron or Al Gore. The 'fact' of global warming and the CO2 theory have now, of course, become politically correct and are used to promote new ways of raising tax. In response to the hysterical and unprofessional report in 2006 by Sir Nicholas Stern, ex-chancellor Lord Lawson likened it to scaremongering, arrogance and intolerance ... similar to Islamic fundamentalism. [* Lindzen has likened the 'belief' in global warming to a belief in religion.] For a detailed argument on this subject, visit the article by Christopher Monckton at http://www.telegraph.co.uk. For a rebuttal of Al Gore's video on global warming, again visit a closely argued site by Chistopher Monckton or watch the DVD by Martin Durkin The Great Global Warming Swindle (£7.98 from Amazon). Glossary readers might also care to look up four books on the subject: Meltdown, by Patrick J Michaels, The Chilling Sun, by Svensmark and Calder, Scared to Death, by Christopher Booker and Richard North (Continuum Books, 2007) and Cool It: the sceptical enviromentalist's Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Lomborg. Final quote: It is strange what weather we have had all this winter; no cold at all, but the ways are dusty, and the flyes fly up and down, and the rosebushes are full of leaves, such a time of year as was never known in this world before. Diary by Samuel Pepys. January 21st, 1661.
Globology Revolution: a term coined by one Peter Oppenheimer of Goldman Sachs to mean the beneficial impact of technological change, globalisation and the emergence of the "BRIC powers", in combination, on the world's economy.
GMROI: Gross Margin Return On Investment.
Goal, The: The Goal is a novel centred round a manager who optimises his bottlenecked production output so as maximise his profits. The book failed to win the Nobel prize for literature but nevertheless outsold most novels that did, and was written to promote the OPT planning system (qv). The Goal's existence is known to all management consultants, some of whom, with a knowing wink, may well suggest to clients that they have read it. The book is by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox and was published in 1984 by North River Press (see also The Race, 1986.)
Gompertz Curve: see S-Curve.
Goldstar: the innovative Korean manufacturing company, set up in 1958 and now LG Electronics, part of the LG Group.
Golden Zone: Stores and warehouse jargon for the most easily picked storage locations, typically those close to a central location and between waist and shoulder height. Stores experts also talk of silver and bronze zones.
Good Count / Bad Count: in relation to stock records accuracy, qv.
Goodwill: A financial value, being the difference between the company's value as "a going concern" and the fair value of its individual assets as recorded on the balance sheet.
GOQ: Genuine Occupational Qualification.
Government: "A ponderous body uniquely lacking in visionary business perspective and almost incapable of initiating reasonable legislation capable of benefiting consumer and business alike." (Roy L. Harmon, ReInventing The Warehouse, The Free Press, 1993, p37.) There are other definitions of Government, such as "the body of persons charged with the duty of governing" (OED), but Roy Harmons's will do.
GPRS: General Packet Radio System, a means of increasing the speed of data communications on a mobile phone network.
GPS: Global Positioning System.
Grading (of a Job): see Classification of Jobs.
Grain & Feed Association: The City of London exchange dealing in agricultural produce.
Grand Average (Xbarbar): The mean or average of a number of sample means. Suppose the values in Sample 1 were 3, 4 and 5, and the values in Sample 2 were 6, 7, 8. The mean value of Sample 1 is 4.0 and the mean value of Sample 2 is 7.0. The grand average is thus 5.5.
Great Circle Formula: A trigonometric relationship used in navigation, especially in relation to aircraft, to compensate for the unsymmetrical curvature of the Earth. The formula may be necessary in distribution planning in very large geographic networks.
Green Belt: (1) A team member of Six Sigma quality improvement project, the team being led by a Black Belt; (2) in the UK, a rural area protected from industrial and housing development.
GRN: Goods Received Note, a document raised by a receiving company verifying that goods have indeed been received. Note that the receiving company has no legal obligation with respect to the goods beyond the reasonable safe keeping of the delivery - see Receipt (of goods).
Gross: one meaning is entire and whole, as opposed to net. Gross also means a dozen dozen (eg a gross of eggs = 144 eggs). There are numerous other meaning given in the OED.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The GDP of a country is the total value of the goods it produces and the services it provides in one year. For the UK, the GDP is $1.25 trillion (2000).
Gross National Product (GNP): The GNP of a country is its Gross Domestic Product (qv), plus the total of net income from abroad.
Gross
Requirements: The total quantity of a component needed in a particular
time period to support the planned manufacture of products at the next level
higher in the bill of materials that will require to use that component. Thus
if, at Level 0 of the bill of materials, there are plans to make 15 electric
toothbrushes at time T and plans to make 12 electric pepper grinders at Time
T, with one component motor needed per toothbrush and one component motor
needed per pepper grinder, the gross requirements for motors (ie at Level
1 ... the next level down) at Time T is 27 (15 + 12). The individual 15 for
the toothbrushes and the individual 12 for the pepper grinders are, separately,
known as partial requirements (qv).
Note that if 9 motors are already in stock, the net requirements are
18 (qv). The formulae are: (1) the sum of the
partial requirements = gross requirements; and (2) gross requirements less
stock = net requirements.
Group Forecast: The aggregate
forecast demand for a group of products. The group is almost always a well-defined
product marketing group (for example, "dairy products", "office
consumables"). In order to aggregate the individual forecasts, they are
usually expressed in monetary terms. Group forecasts are encountered in Sales
& Operations Planning.
Group Oriented Manufacture: The physical arrangement of plant on the factory floor so as to create many small flow lines, each flow line being dedicated exclusively to one or a few manufacturing groups of products. In contrast, see Functionally Oriented Manufacture and Product Oriented Manufacture.
Group Select: A feature of an RFID tag reader employing GEN2 technology whereby an RFID reader or interrogator is provided with the capability to seek and read groups of tags based on their specified data structure and ignore others.
Group Technology: When a factory floor and the products made there are being converted from functionally oriented manufacture (qv) to group oriented manufacture (qv), it may be thought necessary (*) to employ a methodology to find which products should be assigned to which group flow lines. Group technology is just such a methodology, and employs formal methods for describing similarities in manufacturing requirements and simulating the capacity loads on potential group flow lines. (* Richard Schonberger has criticised the use of complex and elaborate methods for determining the arrangement of plant and products, and advocates the simple use of routings data to make rapid progress, followed by straightforward, pragmatic action to iron out any difficulties encountered.)
Groupage: In distribution, for purposes of economy and efficiency, groupage is the practice of hauliers grouping together the loads of several customers for transport to a particular place. While the practice may be economical and efficient for the haulier, it may not be thought so by a particular customer, who sees his goods delayed until the haulier can make up a full load - companies wanting reliable, quick delivery must therefore verify a haulier's policy on these matters.
GT: see Group Technology.
GTAG: Global Tag, an international coding standard used in conjunction with electronic product codes in Radio Frequency Identification. See particularly GEN2.
GTT: GEC - Plessey Telecommunications.
GUI: Graphical User Interface.
Gulaosi: Chinese for death by working too hard. The next time someone talks about outsoucing to China, they should think about those 24 hour shifts (*) in the Guangzhou factories of the Guangdong manufacturing region. (* Yes, really ... 24hours. Gulaosi is a not uncommon phenomenon in China.)
GUS: Great Universal Stores - a large and long established UK mail order organisation, also moving into DIY via its acquisition of the Homebase retail chain.
GUS Classification: An unusual means of product classification intended to assist in inventory control (compare the use of ABC analysis to assist in cycle counting). G class products are general products widely used throughout the company; U class products are unique to one specific group of products or cost centre; S class products are specific to individual customer orders.
