HKIE Professional Assessment - Manufacturing, Industrial & Systems Discipline key terms

A composite productivity metric calculated as availability multiplied by performance rate multiplied by quality rate; it expresses the fraction of scheduled time that produces fully conforming output and is used to target improvement in manufacturing lines.

The six categories of equipment loss used with OEE: breakdowns, setup and adjustment, idling and minor stops, reduced speed, process defects, and startup rejects. Grouping losses this way directs improvement effort to the dominant cause rather than to averages.

A structured method for reducing changeover time by separating internal setup tasks, which require the machine stopped, from external tasks that can be done while it runs, then converting internal work to external and simplifying what remains.

The available production time divided by customer demand over the same period. It sets the pace a process must achieve to meet demand without building inventory, and it is used to balance work content across stations.

The resource whose capacity is lowest relative to the demand placed on it, and which therefore limits the output of the whole system. Improving non-bottleneck resources does not raise throughput unless the constraint is relieved.

A management approach holding that every system has at least one limiting constraint, and that improvement should identify the constraint, exploit it fully, subordinate other activities to it, elevate its capacity, then repeat the cycle.

A scheduling technique for constrained systems in which the constraint sets the production pace (drum), a time buffer protects it from upstream disruption, and material release is tied to the constraint's consumption rate (rope).

A signalling mechanism, often a card or electronic message, that authorises replenishment or production of a standard quantity. It pulls material through the process only as downstream consumption occurs, limiting work in progress.

A relationship stating that average work in process equals throughput multiplied by average flow time, for a stable system. It allows any one of the three quantities to be estimated when the other two are known.

A mathematical representation of waiting lines, described by arrival and service patterns and the number of servers, used to predict waiting time, utilisation and queue length in production, service and logistics systems.

The assignment of tasks to workstations so that station times are as even as possible and output meets the required cycle time, subject to precedence constraints among tasks and limits on station count.

An optimisation method for maximising or minimising a linear objective subject to linear constraints, solved by algorithms such as the simplex method. It is widely used for blending, allocation, transport and production-mix decisions.

A special linear programme in which quantities are shipped from several sources to several destinations at minimum total cost, given fixed supplies and demands. It models distribution planning and can be solved by specialised algorithms.

A numerical technique that repeatedly samples random values from specified probability distributions and aggregates the results, used to estimate the range of outcomes for schedules, cost estimates, inventories or reliability performance.

A systems development framework in which each design decomposition stage on the left is matched by a corresponding verification or validation stage on the right, making test planning traceable to requirements from the outset.

The documented linking of each requirement to its source, its design elements, its verification method and its test results, so that coverage can be demonstrated and the impact of any change can be assessed.

The disciplined identification, definition, control and verification of the physical, functional and organisational boundaries between subsystems, contractors or disciplines, preventing gaps and mismatches where separately developed elements meet.

The process of identifying configuration items, controlling changes to them, recording and reporting their status, and auditing conformance, so that the delivered system matches its approved baseline documentation.

A structured team technique that lists potential failure modes of a product or process, rates their severity, occurrence and detectability, and prioritises corrective action using a risk priority number or criticality measure.

A deductive reliability technique that starts from an undesired top event and works downward through AND and OR logic gates to identify combinations of component failures or human errors that could cause it.

The average operating time between successive failures of a repairable item. For a constant failure rate it equals the reciprocal of the failure rate, and it is often misread as a guaranteed failure-free life.

Fitting failure-time data to the Weibull distribution, whose shape parameter indicates whether failures are decreasing, constant or increasing with age, guiding burn-in, preventive replacement or design change decisions.

Measuring parameters such as vibration, temperature, oil debris or current signature during operation to detect developing faults early, so maintenance can be scheduled before functional failure occurs.

A plant-wide approach in which operators take first-line responsibility for equipment care, supported by planned maintenance and improvement activities, aiming to eliminate losses and raise overall equipment effectiveness.

A document specifying, for each process step, the product and process characteristics to be controlled, the measurement method, sample size and frequency, control limits, and the reaction when limits are exceeded.

The use of control charts and capability indices to distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause variation in a process, so that action is taken only when the process signals that it has changed.

A ratio comparing the tolerance width to the natural spread of a stable process, such as Cp or Cpk. Cpk also accounts for centring, so it falls when the process mean drifts toward a specification limit.

A set of studies, commonly gauge repeatability and reproducibility, that quantifies how much observed variation comes from the measurement system rather than the product, before capability or inspection data are trusted.

An unbroken chain of documented comparisons linking an instrument's readings to a national or international measurement standard, with each link stating its uncertainty, so that measurements are comparable across sites and time.

A quantified interval, derived from instrument resolution, calibration, environment and repeatability, within which the true value is expected to lie at a stated confidence level. It must be considered when judging conformance to limits.

A discrete target level of risk reduction for an electrical, electronic or programmable safety function, assigned from the required risk reduction and verified through hardware fault tolerance and systematic capability requirements.

A hardwired or safety-rated circuit that removes power or brings machinery to a safe state when actuated, designed to be fail-safe, manually reset, and independent of normal programmable control where required.

A procedure in which energy sources are isolated, locked and tagged by the person working on the equipment, and stored energy is released, so that machinery cannot be re-energised during maintenance or repair.

A grid that combines likelihood and severity ratings to rank hazards into risk levels, guiding which controls are required and whether residual risk is tolerable, using a hierarchy from elimination to personal protective equipment.

The principle that risk should be reduced as low as reasonably practicable, balancing the cost and difficulty of further control measures against the risk reduction achieved, with stronger justification demanded as risk rises.

Inventory held to absorb variability in demand, lead time or supply, sized from service-level targets and the combined standard deviation of those uncertainties, trading holding cost against stockout risk.

The inventory level at which a replenishment order is triggered, calculated from expected demand during the lead time plus safety stock to cover variability over that period.

The order size minimising the sum of ordering and holding costs, derived from annual demand, ordering cost per order and holding cost per unit per year, assuming constant demand and deterministic lead time.

The sum of a project's future cash flows discounted to present value at a chosen rate, minus the initial investment. A positive value indicates the project returns more than the required rate.

The discount rate at which a project's net present value equals zero. It is compared with a hurdle rate to accept or reject, but can give misleading rankings for mutually exclusive or non-conventional cash flows.

The time required for cumulative cash inflows to recover the initial investment. It is simple and shows liquidity exposure but ignores cash flows after the cut-off and the time value of money.

A project control method comparing budgeted value of work performed against actual cost and planned schedule, producing cost and schedule variance indices that forecast the final cost at completion.

A scheduling technique that models activity durations and dependencies in a network, identifies the longest path that sets project duration, and shows where float exists and where delay directly extends completion.

A design approach that reduces part count, simplifies handling and orientation, and standardises fasteners and features so that products are easier and cheaper to make and assemble without compromising function.

Analysis of how individual component tolerances accumulate in an assembly, by worst-case or statistical methods, to predict the resulting variation in a critical dimension and confirm that function is preserved.

Production by building parts layer upon layer from a digital model, using processes such as powder bed fusion or material extrusion, enabling internal features and low-volume parts that conventional machining cannot economically produce.

A live virtual model of a physical asset or process, kept synchronised with sensor data, used to simulate behaviour, predict degradation and test control changes before applying them to the real system.

An industrial controller that executes a stored ladder-logic or structured-text program, reading inputs and driving outputs in a deterministic scan cycle, built for electrically noisy and harsh plant environments.

A supervisory system that acquires data from remote controllers and sensors, presents it to operators, and issues setpoints and commands, forming the monitoring layer above local control in plants and utilities.

Failure to exercise the reasonable skill and care expected of a competent practitioner in the same field, resulting in loss. It is judged against accepted practice at the time, not against perfection or hindsight.

A situation where a professional's personal, financial or other interest could improperly influence, or appear to influence, engineering judgement. It must be disclosed and managed, or the affected decision avoided.

The published set of ethical and behavioural obligations binding members of a professional institution, covering competence, honesty, public safety, confidentiality and fair treatment, breach of which can lead to disciplinary action.

The statutory duty under Hong Kong's construction safety legislation for contractors to appoint competent supervisors and safety officers, and for duty holders to provide safe systems of work, training and protective equipment.

A policy making producers financially or physically responsible for the end-of-life take-back and recycling of their products, shifting waste costs upstream and incentivising designs that are easier to disassemble and recover.