ACRONYMS
DESIGN & MANUFACTURING ACRONYMS
I AM ACRONYM PHOBIC
I MEDITATE DAILY UNTIL THEY FIND A CURE.
I KNOW I AM NOT ALONE.
At some point in our lives, we all experience it. Acronyms! You walk into a meeting, and it’s as if the presenters are speaking in tongues.
Too often, companies use those three-letter acronyms (TLA), with the misconception that the rest of us know them. It gets worse. Not only do companies and individuals have the perception that you have these acronyms memorized, they are also unaware that many acronyms overlap. When someone says the creative team should be using more AI, does that mean Adobe Illustrator or Artificial Intelligence? AI has stood for Adobe Illustrator long before the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into their vocabulary.
The list of business and design acronym acumen below is an ever-growing list of acronyms. If you are in marketing or a creative, this list is for you! Seriously Bookmark this baby!
It includes the abbreviations you may already know, but I have complemented it with business and manufacturing terms that may not be as familiar. If the acronym refers to an organization, I have included the hyperlink too –– because it is all about making our lives easier.
Next time you are in that big meeting, and someone leans over and asks, “what the heck does that mean?” You will have the answer and impress your colleagues.
Please click on any letter to jump directly to that particular section.
Acronym |
Full Wording |
|---|---|
| AAHID | American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers |
| AATCC | American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists |
| AC | Actual Currency |
| ACL | Applied Ceramic Labelling |
| ACQ | Automatic Color Quality |
| ACUP | Association of College and University Printers |
| ADF | Automatic Document Factory |
| AEC | Architecture Engineering and Construction |
| AFFOA | Advanced Functional Fabrics of America |
| AFP | Advanced Function Presentation (IBM data stream) |
| AGM | Account General Manager |
| AI | Adobe Illustrator |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence |
| AICC | The Independent Packaging Association |
| AIGA | The Association for Profession Design |
| ALA | American Lighting Specialist |
| AML | Approved Manufacturer Lists |
| AMP | Annual Merchandising Plan |
| AP | Advanced Productivity |
| API | Applications Program Interface |
| APPE | Adobe PDF Print Engine |
| APPL | Apple Computer Stock Ticker |
| APTech | Association for Print Technologies |
| AR | Augmented Reality |
| ASE | Adobe Swatch Exchange |
| ASID | American Society of Interior Designers |
| ASP | Achieved Sale Price |
| ASR | Automated Supplies Replenishment |
| ASTM | American Society for Testing and Materials |
| ATF | American Type Founders |
| AxF | Appearance Exchange Format |
| B2B | Business to Business |
| B2C | Business to Consumer |
| BDE | Business Development Executive |
| BDM | Business Development Manager |
| BFS | Blow-fill-seal process |
| BHTA | British Healthcare Trades Association |
| BIM | Building Information Modeling |
| Bing | But it’s not Google |
| BISG | Book Industry Study Group |
| BMI | Book Manufacturers’ Institute |
| BMP | Bitmap |
| BoM | Bill of Materials |
| BoM | Build of Material |
| BOOE | Bane of Our Existence |
| BPA | Business Process Automation |
| BPO | Business Process Operations |
| BPO | Business Process Outsourcing |
| BPS | Business Process Services |
| BSCI | Business Social Compliance Initiative |
| CAD | Computer Aided Design |
| CAGR | Compound Annual Growth Rate |
| CAM | Computer Aided Manufacturing |
| CASS | Coding Accuracy Support System |
| CC | Constant Currency |
| CCM | Computer Color Matching |
| CCM | Customer Communication Management |
| CCR | Critical Customer Requirements |
| CEC | Customer Engagement Criteria |
| CED | Customer Expectations Document |
| CFDA | Council of Fashion Designers of America |
| CICD | Continuous Integration and Continuous Development |
| CICD | Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery |
| CIDA | Council for Interior Design Accreditation |
| CIM | Computer Integrated Manufacturing |
| CM | Contract Manufacturing |
| CMCS | Cross Media Communication Services |
| CMF | Color material and finishing |
| CMG | Color Management Group |
| CMO | Chief Operating Officer |
| CMO | Critical Major Ordinary |
| CMOCA | Color Management Object Content Architecture |
| CMS | Communication & Marketing Services |
| CMS | Content Management Systems |
| CMYK | Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black |
| CMYK+ OGV | Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black plus Orange, Green, Violet |
| CMYK+ RGO | Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black plus Red, Green, Orange |
| CNC | Computerized Numeric Control – referred to as Automated cutting |
| COR | Change Order Request |
| COS | Cost of Sales |
| COY | Color of the Year |
| CPQM | Color & Print Quality Management |
| CPR | What you likely need after absorbing this list |
| CPS | Centralized Print Service |
| CPSI | Configurable PostScript Interpreter |
| CR | Change Request= Change Widget in machine |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| CSA | Color Source Array |
| CSD | Carbonated Soda Drinks |
| CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility |
| CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility |
| CSS | Cascading Style Sheets |
| CTP | Computer to Plate |
| CxF | Color Exchange Format |
| CXM | Customer Experience Management |
| D2C | Direct to Consumer |
| D2D | Day to Day |
| D2F | Direct to Fabric |
| D2G | Direct to Garment |
| DA | Decision Authority |
| DAM | Digital Assets Management |
| DBG | Death By Google |
| DDS | Dynamic Digital Signage |
| DFA | Decorative Furnishings Association |
| DfA | Design for Assembly |
| DFE | Digital Front End |
| DfLSS | Design for Lean Six Sigma |
| DfMA | Design for Manufacturing |
| DfMA | Design for Manufacturing and Assembly |
| DLN | Design Leadership Network |
| DMAIC | Define, Measure Analyze, Improve, Control |
| DMEDI | Define, Measure, Explore, Develop, Implement |
| DOCS | Document Outsource and Communications Services |
| DOE | Design of Experiments |
| DPI | Dots Per Inch |
| DPMO | Defects Per Million Opportunities |
| DRM | Digital Rights Management |
| DSA | Designer Society of America |
| DSCM | Document Supply Chain Management |
| DSCMS | Document Supply Chain Managed Services |
| DTF | Direct to Fabric |
| DTG | Direct to Garment |
| DVT | Design Verification Testing |
| eBook | Electronic Book |
| ECE | Executive Communications Exchange |
| ECE | External Customer Experience |
| ECG | Expanded Color Gamut |
| ECN | Export Control Number |
| ECN | Engineering Change Notice |
| ECO | Engineering Change Request |
| ECR | Engineering Change Order |
| EFI | Electronic For Imaging |
| EFIW | Enterprise Financial Information Warehouse |
| EIP | Enhanced Image Permanence |
| EIP | Extensible Interface Platform |
| EMRDF | Electronic Mail Run Data Files |
| EMS | Enterprise Marketing Services |
| EPS | Encapsulated PostScript |
| EPS | Enterprise Print Services |
| EPUB | Electronic Publishing |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| ESR | Equipment Sale Revenue |
| EULA | End User License Agreement |
| EVA | Ethyl-Vinyl Acetate |
| EWS | Early Warning Systems |
| F2F | Face to Face |
| FACI | Furniture Accessory Control Interface |
| FAT | Factory Acceptance Test |
| FC | Final Candidate |
| FDA | Food and Drug Administration |
| FGA | Fabric Graphics Association |
| FIRST | Flexographic Image Reproduction Specification & Tolerance |
| FLAG | Flexo Label Advantage Group |
| FM | Facility Maintenance |
| FMEA | Failure Modes and Effects Analysis |
| FOB | Freight on Board |
| FOF | Fixation on the Fly |
| FoMA | Fear of Missing Out |
| FPA | Flex-Pack |
| FSC | The Forest Stewardship Council |
| FTA | Flexographic Technical Association |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
| FUD | Fear, Uncertainty & Death |
| G2M | Go to Market |
| GDC | Global Delivery Centre |
| GDO | Global Document Outsourcing |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format |
| GM | General Manager |
| GM | Golden Master |
| GM | Gross Margin |
| GMS | Gross Merchandise Sales |
| GOTS | Global Organic Textile Standard |
| GPDG | Global Product Delivery Group |
| GRACoL | General Requirements for Applications in Commercial offset Lithography |
| GWS | Garment Worksheet |
| HP | Hewlett Packard |
| HP | High Production |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
| IAA | International Achievement Awards |
| IATF | International Automotive Task Force |
| IBG | International Business Group |
| ICC | International Color Consortium |
| IDCEC | Interior Design Continuing Education Council |
| IDR | Identical Replacement |
| IDS | Interior Design Society |
| IDSA | Industrial Designers Society of America |
| IEEE | Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers |
| IES | Initial Experience Survey |
| IES | Illuminating Engineering Society |
| IFAI | Industrial Fabrics Association International |
| IFF | Industrial Fabrics Foundation |
| IFI | International Federation of Interior Architects / Designers |
| IFM | Interface Module |
| IG | Instructor Guide |
| IGS | The International Geosynthetics Society |
| IIDA | The International Interior Design Association |
| ILO | International Labour Organisation |
| IMB | Intelligent Mail Bar Code |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| IML | In-Mold Labels |
| IoT | Internet of Things |
| IP | Intellectual Property |
| IPDS | Intelligent Printer Data Stream |
| ISA | International Sign Association |
| ISBN | International Standard Book Number |
| ISC | Integrated Supply Chain |
| ISCC | Inter-Society Color Council |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| ISSN | International Standard Serial Number |
| ISV | Independent software vendor |
| ITC | International Type Face Company |
| IWBI | International WELL Building Institute |
| JDF | Job Definition Format |
| JLYT | Job Layout, Yours Truly (HP Indigo Proprietary VI) |
| JMF | Job Messaging Format |
| JPG | Joint Photographic Experts Group |
| KD | Key Differentials |
| LCCN | Library of Congress Control Number |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display |
| LDAP | Local Directory Access Protocol |
| LDP | Lean Document Production |
| LED | Light Emitting Diode |
| LEED | Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design |
| LOB | Line of Business |
| LRV | Light Reflective Value |
| LSS | Lean Six Sigma |
| M&A | Mergers and Acquisitions |
| MAPS | Material Acquisition Plan |
| MBF | Management by Fact |
| MCV | Manufacturing Cost Variance |
| MHRA | Medicines & Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency |
| MIS | Management Information System |
| MML | Monthly Management Letter |
| MOBI | Mobipocket |
| MOEE | Maximize Overall Equipment Effectiveness |
| MOM | Market Operations Manager |
| MOM | Minimum Order Multiple |
| MOP | Museum of Printing |
| MOQ | Minimum Order Quantity |
| MOUSE | Move Objects You See Easily |
| MPO | Machine Purchase Option |
| MPR | Market Portfolio Reviews |
| MPS | Managed Print Services |
| MRP | Material and Manufacturing Planning |
| MRT | Manufacturing Resource Team |
| MRT | Materials Resource Team |
| MTBF | Mean time between failures |
| MTM | Made to Measure |
| MTTR | Mean time to repair |
| NAPCO | North American Publishing Company |
| NCOS | National Change of Address |
| NFG | No F@cking Good |
| NIOSH | National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health |
| NPOA | National Print Owners Association |
| NPRC | National Printing Research Council |
| NPV | Net Present Value |
| NRE | Non Recovered Engineering Costs |
| NTE | Not To Exceed |
| NWE | New Work Effort |
| OAP | Open Automated Platform |
| OCR | Optical Character Recognition |
| ODM | On Demand Manufacturing |
| OECD | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| OEE | Overall Equipment Effectiveness |
| OEM | Original Equipment Manufacturers |
| OGC | Office of General Counsel (Legal) |
| OGV | Orange-Green-Violet |
| ORD | Type of file format for Gerber PLM, which carries the information to process orders. |
| ORM | Operational Risk Management |
| OSHA | Occupational Safety and Health Administration |
| OTD | On Time Delivery |
| PAC | Packaging Consortium |
| PAM | Potential Available Market |
| PAS | Program Acquisition Spend |
| PCE | Product Cost Estimation |
| PCEP | Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform |
| PCIAW | Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide |
| PCR | Post Consumer Regrind |
| Portable Document Format | |
| PDF/A | PDF for Archiving |
| PDF/E | PDF for Engineering Workflows |
| PDF/UA | PDF for Writing and Processing Software |
| PDF/VT | PDF for Variable and Transactional Printing |
| PDF/X | PDF for Graphic Exchange |
| PDM | Product data management |
| PDM | Product Data management |
| PDQ | Pallet Display Quantity |
| PDQ | Presentation Display Quantity |
| PDQ | Pretty Darn Quick |
| PDS | Product design specifications |
| PETG | Polyethylene terephthalate |
| PFP | Prepared for Print |
| PHP | Hypertext Preprocessor |
| PIA | Printing Industries of America |
| PIS | Printing Industries of the South |
| PIUF (poof) | Product Information Update Form |
| PLC | Product Life Cycle |
| PLM | Product Lifecycle Management |
| PMS | Pantone Matching System |
| PNG | Portable Network Graphics |
| POC | Proof of Concept |
| POD | Princess of Darkness |
| POD | Print on Demand |
| POPO | Power On Power Off |
| PPC | Pay Per Click |
| PPE | Personal Protective Equipment |
| PPI | Pixels per inch |
| PPI | Printing Industries of the Pacific Northwest |
| PPID | Piece Part Identification |
| PQM | Print Quality Manager |
| PQP | Print Quality Program |
| PRC | Palm Resource Code |
| PSA | Product Specific Agreement |
| PSIP | Print Station Interface Platform |
| PTE-G | Polyethylene terephthalate |
| PVP | Production Value Prop |
| PWB | Participant Work Book |
| PWS | Portable Work Station |
| QCD | Quality Cost Delivery |
| QFD | Quality Function Deployment |
| QR Code | Quick Response Code |
| QTX | Quality Textile Format |
| QTX | QuickTime Format |
| R2R | Roll to Roll |
| R2R | Roll to Roll |
| RAL | Real Authentic Likeliness |
| RAP | Robotic Automated Processes |
| RDF | Resource Description Framework |
| REACh | Registration, Evaluation, Authorization & Restriction of Chemical |
| REM | Repeat Equipment Manufacturing |
| RF | Release Final |
| RFA | Retail, Fashion & Apparel |
| RGB | Red Green Blue – A form of additive color used for digital applications. |
| RIP | Raster Image Processer |
| RO | Reservation Order |
| ROI | Return on investment |
| ROS | Return on Sales/ Raster Output Scanner |
| RPN | Risk Priority Number |
| RRP | Retail Ready Packaging |
| RSS | Really Simple Syndication |
| RTB | Reason to Believe |
| S/D | Supply Demand |
| SaaS | Software as a Service |
| SAG | Sales, Administrative and General Expenses |
| SAM | Serviceable Available Market |
| SAT | Site Acceptance Test |
| SATRA | Shoe and Allied Trade Research Association (SATRA Technology Centre) |
| SCIR | Surrogate customer importance rating |
| SDK | Software Development kit |
| SEAM | The Association & Voice of the U.S. Sewn Products Industry |
| SEM | Search Engine Marketing |
| SEO | Search engine Optimization |
| SFC | Shop Floor Control |
| SGIA | Specialty Graphic Imaging Association |
| SGP | Sustainable Green Partnership |
| SIPOC | Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers |
| SITRA | South India Textile Research Association |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement |
| SLT | Senior Leadership Team |
| SMB | Small and Medium Sized Businesses |
| SME | Subject Matter Expert |
| SMM | Senior Management Meeting |
| SMR | Service Marketing Representative |
| SMS | Spunbond – Melt blown – Spunbond |
| SMS | Salesman Samples |
| SMU | Special Make Up |
| SNAP | Specifications for Non Heatset Advertising Printing |
| SOD | System Operating Description |
| SOF | Softener on the Fly |
| SOM | Serviceable and Obtainable Market |
| SOT | Stop Order Taking |
| SPAR | System Problem Action Report |
| SPC | Statistical Process Control |
| SPESA | Sewn Products Equipment Supplier Association |
| SQAT | System Quality Assessment Test |
| SQL | Sigma Quality Level |
| SQL | Structured Query Language |
| SRA | Signal Rich Artwork |
| SRP | Shelf Ready Packaging |
| SSE | Services & Solutions Executive |
| SVG | Scalable Vector Graphic |
| SWAG | Scientific Wilde Arse Guess |
| SWOP | Specifications Web Offset Publications |
| TAGA | Technical Association of the Graphic Arts |
| TAM | Total Addressable Market |
| TAP | Technical Advisory Panel |
| TAT | Turnaround Times |
| TCBL | Textile & Clothing Business Labs |
| TCX | Pantone Textile, Cotton Edition, Extended Range |
| TIF | Tagged Image File |
| TISP | Tightly Integrated Serial Printing |
| TLA | Three Letter Acronyms |
| TLMI | Tags and Label |
| TLW | Thought Leadership Workshop |
| TNC | Terms and Conditions |
| TP | Pantone Textile Paper |
| TPA | Texprocess Americas |
| TPM | Technical Program Manager |
| TPX | Pantone Textile Paper Edition, Extended Range |
| TRM | Textile Raw Materials |
| TTM | Time to Market |
| TTV | Time to Volume |
| Ui | User Interface |
| UM | Unscheduled Maintenance |
| UMC | Unit Manufacturing Cost |
| UMR | Unscheduled Maintenance Rate |
| UNGPs | United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
| UX | User Expereince |
| VGM | Variable Gloss Management |
| VoC | Voice of Customer |
| VoD | Value of Design |
| VoD | Vector of Differential |
| VoI | Voice of Industry |
| VR | Virtual Reality |
| VUCA | Uncertainty Complexity and Ambiguous |
| VUCA | Volatility, Uncertainty Complexity and Ambiguous |
| WBLT | Web Based Licensing Tool |
| WHQL | Windows Hardware Quality Laboratories |
| WISIWIG | What You See is What You Get |
| WTT | WhatTheyThink |
| XFA | eXtensible Forms Architecture |
| XFDF | eXtensible Forms Data Format |
| XML | eXtensible Markup Language |
| XTML | eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language |
