Check out our Healthcare terms glossary
Packaging
Materials used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods.
Packaging (or packing)
Material used to contain and protect certain goods, from raw materials to finished products in order to enable them to be handled and delivered from the producer to the consumer, including disposable items used for the same purpose.
Packing list
A list that indicates the contents of a container.
Paternoster
Vertical storage system or carousel with rotating shelves for storage and intensive filing with shelving that slides vertical along an internal guide.
Peripheral Warehouse
Storage units located within the distribution network between the central warehouses and points of sale. They are characterized by the presence of safety supply of stock which can be used to meet the demand of end customers in their geographic area.
Perpetual inventory system
An inventory control system where a running record registers the available quantity of each item.
Phygital Supply Chain
“Phygital” is a neologism which derives from merging the terms “Physical” and “Digital”. In logistics, it describes the perfect integration of the physical flow of materials and the digital flow of information along the entire purchasing and supply chain. The transformation of the Supply Chain in a “Phygital” key favours collaboration and communication between all the players in complex logistics chains.
Picking
Physical preparation of an order.
Picking
The process of taking items from stocks of finished products to be shipped to the customer, or taking components to manufacture products.
Picking List
List of packages of goods that are required to prepare an order.
Platform
Area where goods pass through to be organized for delivery. Here it’s possible to change the carrier, the size of the exchange unit or add tangible or in tangible services. There is no stock on the platform, the role of this area is to allow for groupage and degroupage operations.
PPE
Personal Protective Equipment
Primary packaging
Packaging designed to be a sales unit for the end customer or consumer. Possible examples are boxes, cases, bags, blisters, cans, bottles, flasks, jars, tins and kegs.
Procurement
The process of obtaining goods, services or functions from a supplier in the correct quantity and quality.
Productivity
A number of operations of a certain kind, for example the picking of individual packages, carried out by employees over a specific unit of time, usually an hour. The unit of measurement in this case would be [packages / hour * employee].
Pull Strategy
Management logic of the supply chain in which the product is pulled along the distribution channel by emerging demand. Production is governed by the final demand seen in the distribution process, so the entry of raw materials is not anticipated with respect to the orders.
Pull system
System in which the customer requests the supply of goods according to their stock level and the demand they are experiencing.
Push Strategy
Management logic of the supply chain in which the product is pushed along the production-distribution channel according to requirements. The progress of the production is regulated according to the forecast of requirements in the distribution system and the synchronization of growing activities.
