ICC
see Interstate Commerce Commission

Identical Bid
A bid which is essentially the same as another with regard to products bid.

Igloos
Pallets and containers used in air transportation, the igloo shape is designed to fit the internal wall contours of a narrowbody airplane.

Image Processing
allows a company to take electronic photographs of documents. The electronic photograph then can be stored in a computer and retrieved from computer storage to replicate the document on a printer. The thousands of bytes of data composing a single document are encoded in an optical disk. Many carriers now use image processing to provide proof-ofdelivery documents to a shipper. The consignee signs an electronic pad that automatically digitizes a consignee’s signature for downloading into a computer. A copy of that signature then can be produced to demonstrate that a delivery took place.

IMC
see Intermodal Marketing Company

IMCO
International Maritime Control Organisation. See IMO.

IMCO Classification
International Maritime Control Organisation classification for hazardous cargo.

IMO
International Maritime Organisation. Formally IMCO.

Import
Movement of products from one country into another. The import of automobiles from Germany to the U.S. is an example.

Import/Export License
Official authorization issued by a government allowing the shipping or delivery of a product across national boundaries.

Importation Point
The location where goods are cleared for importation into a country.

Imports
Goods and services which one country’s residents purchase and transport from another country into their own country.

Impressions
With regard to online advertising, it is the number of times an ad banner is downloaded and presumably seen by users. Guaranteed impressions refer to the minimum number of times an ad banner will be seen by users.

In Bond
A Customs program for inland ports that provides for cargo arriving at a seaport to be shipped under a Customs bond to a more conveniently located inland port where the entry documents have been filed. Customs clears the shipment there and the cargo is trucked to its destination, which normally is close to the inland port.

Inbound
Import Shipment.

Inbound Logistics
The movement of materials from suppliers and vendors into production processes or storage facilities.

Incentive rate
A rate designed to induce the shipper to ship heavier volumes per shipment.

include software program code or digital documents

Income statement
A financial statement showing the net income for a business over a given period of time. See also balance sheet, funds flow statement.

INCOTERMS
International terms of sale developed by the International Chamber of Commerce to define sellers’ and buyers’ responsibilities.

Independent Action
A separate action taken by an individual member of a conference agreement to change rates or terms of carriage as laid out in the conference agreements. A carrier can take an independent action in a conference, resulting in a unique rate for that carrier within a conference, ability to file a rate independently of other carriers’ actions.

Independent Carrier
Carrier that is not a member of a shipping conference.

Independent Demand Item Management Models
Models for the management of items whose demand is not strongly influenced by other items managed by the same company. These models can be characterized as follows: (1) stochastic or deterministic, depending on the variability of demand and other factors, (2) fixed quantity, fixed cycle, or hybrid - (optional replenishment). Also see: Fixed Reorder Cycle Inventory Model, Fixed Reorder Quantity Inventory Model, Optional Replenishment Model

Independent Trading Exchange
Often used synonymously with B2B, e-marketplace or Virtual Commerce Network . ITE is a more precise term, connoting many-to-many transactions, whereas the others do not specify the transactions.

Indirect Cost
A resource or activity cost that cannot be directly traced to a final cost object since no direct or repeatable causeand- effect relationship exists. An indirect cost uses an assignment or allocation to transfer cost. Also see: Direct Cost, Support Costs

Indirect Retail Locations
A retail location that ultimately sells your product to consumers, but who purchases your products from an intermediary, like a distributor or wholesaler.

Indirect/Distributor Channel
Your company sells and ships to the distributor. The distributor sells and ships to the end user. This may occur in multiple stages. Ultimately your products may pass through the Indirect/Distributor Channel and arrive at a retail outlet. Order information in this channel may be transmitted by electronic means. These means may include EDI, brokered systems, or linked electronic systems.

Ineligible Bidder
A non-responsible bidder or a supplier who has demonstrated a poor record of performance or proven to be financially unstable. Otherwise a bidder who has been removed from the prospective vendors list for non-compliance.

Infinite Loading
Calculation of the capacity required at work centers in the time periods required regardless of the capacity available to perform this work.

Informal Bid
A telephone quotation or an unsealed pricing offer. A bid for a purchasing intention that is less than the dollar amount required for formal sealed bids.

Information System Agreement (ISA0
Leading organisation of ocean carriers that develops, promotes and implements electronic commerce solutions for the maritime industry.

Information systems
Managing the flow of data in an organization in a systematic, structured way to assist in planning, implementing, and controlling.

Information Technology
‘The branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information. It is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms, including those not yet conceived). It’s a convenient term for including both telephony and computer technology in the same word. It is the technology that is driving what has often been called ”the information revolution.”’

Inherent advantage
The cost and service benefits of one mode compared with other modes.

Inland Carrier
Transportation company which hauls imports or exports between ports and inland points.

Inland Point Intermodal
Cargo moving via land from/to an inland point. See Micro Bridge.

Insourcing
The opposite of outsourcing, that is, a serve performed in-house.

Inspection Report
To inform a procurement entity that an examination or testing of commodities on contract has taken place. Such a report would further inform the authority of the quality or condition of such goods.

Installation
Providing a service by professional management teams to knock-down, move, set-up and reconfiguration services.

Insurance Certificate
Document which assures the consignee that insurance is provided to cover loss or damage to the cargo while in transit. A certificate issued by an insurer to a shipper (or other party) as evidence that a shipment of merchandise is covered under a marine policy.

Integrated Carriers
Carriers that have both air and ground fleets or other combinations, such as sea, rail and truck. They usually handle thousands of small parcels an hour.

Integrated Logistics
A comprehensive, system-wide view of the entire supply chain as a single process, from raw materials supply through finished goods distribution. All functions that make up the supply chain are managed as a single entity, rather than managing individual functions separately.

Integrated Services Digital Network
A computer term describing the networks and equipment for integrated broadband transmissions of data, voice, and image, from rates of 144 Kbps to 2 Mbps. ISDN allows integration of data, voice, and video over the same digital links.

Integrated tow barge
A series of barges that are connected together to operate as one unit.

Intellectual Property
Property of an enterprise or individual which is typically maintained in a digital form. This may

Interchange
(1) In Logistics, the exchange relating to interchanging trailers or rail cars between carriers, usually agreed in writing with an Interchange Agreement. Liability between the carriers exists for the actual equipment (trailer or rail car) while in possession of the other carrier. (2)In EDI, the exchange of electronic information between companies.

Intercoastal carriers
Water carriers that transport freight between East and West Coast ports, usually by way of the Panama Canal.

Intercorporate hauling
A private carrier hauling the goods of a subsidiary and charging the subsidiary a fee: this is legal if the subsidiary is wholly owned (100%) or if the private carrier has common carrier authority.

Interleaved 2 of 5
This is strictly a numeric barcode. Each encoded character is made up of five elements, two are wide and three are narrow. The number of characters to be printed must be an even number. If the number of characters to be printed is odd, a zero will be appended to the beginning of the code.

Interleaving
The practice of assigning an employee multiple tasks which are performed concurrently.

Interline
The movement of a single shipment via two or more carriers. Carriers may interchange equipment but usually they handle the shipment without transferring the equipment.

Interlocking Load Pattern
A method of arranging every other course in a unitized load to stabilize the load. Every other course is turned 90 degrees when uni-block patterns are used. Every other course is reversed using multi-block, pinwheel or irregular patterns.

Intermediately Positioned Warehouse
A warehouse located between customers and manufacturing plants to provide increased customer service and reduced distribution cost.

Intermittent-flow, fixed-path equipment
Materials handling devices that include cranes, monorails, and stacker cranes.

Intermodal
Coordinated transport of freight, especially in connection with relatively long-haul movements, using any combination of freight forwarders, piggy-back, containerisation, air freight, assemblers, rail and road.

Intermodal Marketing Company
An intermediary that sells intermodal services to shippers.

Intermodal Transport Unit
Container, swap body or semi-trailer/goods road motor vehicle suitable for intermodal transport.

Intermodal Transportation
Transporting freight by using two or more transportation modes such as by truck and rail or truck and oceangoing vessel.

Internal customer
The recipient (person or department) of another person’s or department’s output (good, service, or information) within an organization. Also see: Customer

Internal Labor and Overhead
‘The portion of COGS that is typically reported as labor and overhead, less any costs already classified as ”outsourced.”’

Internal water carriers
Water carriers that operate over internal, navigable rivers such as the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri.

International Air Transport Association
An international air carrier rate bureau for passenger and freight movements.

International Civil Aeronautics Organization
An international agency that is responsible for air safety and for standardizing air traffic control, airport design, and safety features worldwide.

International Freight Forwarders
Freight torwarders that handle booking, paperwork and consolidation of exports.

International Procurement Organization
A combined procurement, materials engineering, and logistics team that is located in the supplier’s country of export and hired by the importer .

International Standards Organization
An organization within the United Nations to which all national and other standard setting bodies defer. Develops and monitors international standards, including OSI, EDIFACT, and X.400

International Transport Implementation Guidelines
ITIGG is an international group of experts engaged in the development and implementation of UN/EDIFACT-standard messages for electronic trading in the transport industry.ITIGG is a subgroup of D4, the UN/EDIFACT Message Development Group for Transport. ITIGG develops recommendations which provide software developers with a series of simple, straightforward tools to assist in designing applications which can be used for trading electronically throughout the world, and to clarify the intentions of the designers of key UN/EDIFACT messages.

Internet
A computer term which refers to an interconnected group of computer networks from all parts of the world, i.e. a network of networks. Accessed via a modem and an on-line service provider, it contains many information resources and acts as a giant electronic message routing system.

Interstate commerce
The transportation of persons or property between states, in the course of the movement, the shipment cresses a state boundary line.

Interstate Commerce Commission
An independent regulatory agency that implements federal economic regulations controlling railroads, motor carriers, pipelines, domestic water carriers, domestic surface freight forwarders, and brokers.

Interstate System
The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, 42,000 miles of four-lane, limited-access roads connecting major population centers.

Intra-Manufacturing Re-plan Cycle
Average elapsed time, in calendar days, between the time a regenerated forecast is accepted by the end-product manufacturing/assembly location, and the time that the revised plan is reflected in the Master Production Schedule of all the affected internal sub-assembly/component producing plant(s). (An element of Total Supply Chain Response Time)

Intranet
A private network based on internet protocols such as TCP/IP but designed for information management within a company or organization. Its uses include such services as document distribution, software distribution, access to databases, and training. An intranet is so called becasue it looks like a World Wide Web site and is based on the same technologies, yet is strictly internal to the organization and is not connected to the Internet proper. Some intranets also offer access to the Internet, but such connections are directed through a firewall that protects the internal network from the external Web.

In-transit Inventory
Material moving between two or more locations, usually separated geographically, for example, finished goods being shipped from a plant to a distribution center. In-transit inventory is an easily overlooked component of total supply chain availability.

Intrastate commerce
The transportation of persons or property between points within a state. A shipment between two points within a state may be interstate if the shipment had a prior or subsequent move outside of the state and the intent of the shipper was an interstate shipment at the time of shipment.

Intrinsic Forecast Method
In forecasting, a forecast based on internal factors, such as an average of past sales.

Inventory
(1) Raw materials, work in process, finished goods, and supplies required for creation of a company’s goods and services. The number of units and/or value of the stock of goods held by a company. (2) A detailed list of your goods, describing each item and its condition at loading. The inventory is prepared for you as your goods are professionally packed, and is used as a Customs document for clearance of your shipment. Upon delivery, you also can use the inventory to check for any possible loss or damage. (3) The aggregate of all commodities in stock at a given time. (4) The quantity of a given commodity on hand at a point in time. (5) Also used to describe the function when the storeroom stock is counted and reconciled.

Inventory Accuracy
When the on-hand quantity is equivalent to the perpetual balance (plus or minus the designated count tolerances).

Inventory Balance Location Accuracy
When the on-hand quantity in the specified locations is equivalent to the perpetual balance (plus or minus the designated count tolerances).

Inventory Carrying Cost
One of the elements comprising a company’s total supply-chain management costs. These costs consist of the following: 1. Opportunity Cost: The opportunity cost of holding inventory. This should be based on your company’s own cost of capital standards using the following formula. Calculation: Cost of Capital x Average Net Value of Inventory 2. Shrinkage: The costs associated with breakage, pilferage, and deterioration of inventories. Usually pertains to the loss of material through handling damage, theft, or neglect. 3. Insurance and Taxes: The cost of insuring inventories and taxes associated with the holding of inventory. 4. Total Obsolescence for Raw Material, WIP, and Finished Goods Inventory: Inventory reserves taken due to obsolescence and scrap and includes products exceeding the shelf life, i.e. spoils and is no good for use in its original purpose (do not include reserves taken for Field Service Parts). 5. Channel Obsolescence: Aging allowances paid to channel partners, provisions for buy-back agreements, etc. Includes all material that goes obsolete while in a distribution channel. Usually, a distributor will demand a refund on material that goes bad (shelf life) or is no longer needed because of changing needs. 6. Field Service Parts Obsolescence: Reserves taken due to obsolescence and scrap. Field Service Parts are those inventory kept at locations outside the four walls of the manufacturing plant i.e., distribution center or warehouse.

Inventory Carrying Costs
Generally, carrying costs or holding costs are financial measurements that calculate all the costs associated with holding goods in storage. It includes inventory-in-storage, warehousing, obsolescence, deterioration, spoilage and labour costs, as well as insurance and taxes.

Inventory Control
Control of current stock (shelf, warehouse, on-order, etc.) so merchandise received conforms to sales demands, therefore out-of-stock or over-stocks are avoided.

Inventory Cost
The cost of keeping goods, includes the cost of capital, warehousing, taxes, insurance, depreciation, and obsolescence.

Inventory Days of Supply
Total gross value of inventory for the category (raw materials, work in process, partially finished goods, or fully-finished goods) at standard cost before reserves for excess and obsolescence. It includes only inventory that is on the books and currently owned by the business entity. Future liabilities such as consignments from suppliers are not included. Calculation: [5 Point Annual Average Gross Inventory] / [Calendar Year Value of Transfers / 365]

Inventory deployment
The process of strategically locating inventory at company and customer locations for the purpose of improving product availability and decreasing replenishment times.

Inventory Error
(1) Net Error (net book to physical difference): expressed as dollars or percent of inventory using the sum of all inventory loss and all inventory gains. (2) Absolute error: the sum of all errors without regard to sign. May be expressed as a percentage of inventory or in dollars as appropriate.

Inventory In Transit
Inventory in a carrier’s possession that is in the process of being transported to the buyer.

Inventory Management
The process of ensuring the availability of products through inventory administration.

Inventory Planning Systems
The systems that help in strategically balancing the inventory policy and customer service levels throughout the supply chain. These systems calculate time-phased order quantities and safety stock, using selected inventory strategies. Some inventory planning systems conduct what-if analysis and that compares the current inventory policy with simulated inventory scenarios and improves the inventory ROI.

Inventory Turnover
The cost of goods sold, divided by the average level of inventory on hand. The ratio measures how many times a company’s inventory has been sold during the year.

Inventory Turnover (AKA Turnover, Turnover Rate, S
The mathematical determination of the number of times there has been a complete replacement of inventory stock in a year?s time. Usually determined on a dollar value basis.

Inventory Turns
The cost of goods sold divided by the average level of inventory on hand. This ratio measures how many times a company’s inventory has been sold during a period of time. Operationally, inventory turns are measured as total throughput divided by average level of inventory for a given period, How many times a year the average inventory for a firm changes over, or is sold.

Inventory Velocity
The speed with which inventory moves through a defined cycle (i.e., from receiving to shipping).

Inventory, Days of
The number of days that goods are on-hand in inventory at any given time.

Invoice
A detailed report showing goods sold or shipped and amounts for each item. The invoice is prepared by the seller and acts as the document that the buyer will use to process payment.

Invoice (Bill)
A list of charges or costs presented by a vendor to a purchaser, usually enumerating the items furnished, their unit and total costs, and a statement of the terms of the sale.

IP
see Intellectual Property

IPI
see Inland Point Intermodal

IPO
see International Procurement Organization

Irregular Route Carrier
(1) A carrier that does not have fixed lanes, patterns or routes. (2) Motor carriers that may provide service utilizing any route.

IS
see Information systems

ISDN
see Integrated Services Digital Network

ISO
see International Standards Organization

ISO 14000 Series Standards
A series of generic environmental management standards under development by the International Organization of Standardization, which provide structure and systems for managing environmental compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements and affect every aspect of a company’s environmental operations.

ISO 9000
A series of quality assurance standards compiled by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Standards Organization. In the United States, the American National Standards Institute based in Washington, DC represents ISO. UniGroup Worldwide companies are certified ISO.

Issue
Deliver to user.

Issuing Carrier
The carrier whose name is printed on the bill of lading.

IT
(1) Immediate Transportation Entry: refers to an IT entry (U.S. Customs). Allows the cargo to move beyond the vessel entry point in bond for customs clearance at the destination named in the I.T. movement from one customs district to another, e.g. cargo entering the U.S. at Los Angeles destined for Chicago can move to Chicago before having a customs inspection. 2. See Information Technology.

ITE
see Independent Trading Exchange

Item
Any unique manufactured or purchased part, material, intermediate, subassembly, or product.

ITIGG
see International Transport Implementation Guidelines Group

ITL
International Trade Logistics

ITU
see Intermodal Transport Unit

Integration
Improving information flows and linakges to create integrated information flows and operations.