Sourcing and Procurement
Glossary
Your trusted guide to exploring sourcing and procurement terms & definitions,
from the world’s leading procurement experts and companies
Total-Production Cycle Time
Total activity time required to produce one unit of product.
Source:
Trade body
An organisation that represents and works for a particular group of individuals or companies, with a specific industry focus, is usually funded by them
Source:
Tragedy of the Commons
An economic theory by Garrett Hardin, which states that individuals acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource.
Source:
Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)
Transaction cost economics adopts a contractual approach to the study of economic organizations. TCE is best thought of as accounting for all the costs of a deal or contract, both the obvious and hidden costs. Oliver Williamson is a pioneer is the study of TCE and won a Nobel Prize in 2009 for his research and thought leadership of TCE.
Source:
Transaction-Based Economic Model
An economic model that links a supplier's payment to a specific activity or level of effort.
Source:
Trade Bloc
A trade bloc is a type of intergovernmental agreement, often part of a regional intergovernmental organization, where regional barriers to trade, (tariffs and non-tariff barriers) are reduced or eliminated among the participating states.
Source:
Transaction
A unit of business exchange typically associated with performing an activity. For example, answering a call, working an hour, producing a widget.
Source:
Transaction Costs
Transaction costs are the costs that occur when participating in a market. The level of transaction costs depends upon three important factors: the frequency of the transaction, the level of transaction specific investment, and the external and internal uncertainty. To use a very simple example, when buying a book, there is not only the purchase price of the book but also the costs you incur in purchasing the book, these could include your energy and effort in selecting the book, the costs of traveling to the store or using the internet, the time waiting, the effort and costs of making the payment. The costs that go beyond the books price are the transaction costs. Transaction costs include actual monetary costs, expertise, flexibility, risk, asset specificity, the cost of managing the relationship, and supplier set up and switching costs to name only a few that must be considered.
Source:
Transactional Metric
A measure associated with performing a transaction. Typically measures the activity. Example: Preventive Maintenance Actions Performed on Time.
Source: