Glossary
The vocabulary of the digital shop floor.
24 terms you will meet in a connected-worker project, each with the Dropslab page where it matters.
- ALCOA+
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Data-integrity principles used in regulated manufacturing: attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, accurate, plus complete, consistent, enduring and available. Evidence captured at the moment of work satisfies them by construction.
Where it applies - Assisted reality (aR)
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Information shown in the worker’s field of view without being anchored to the real world, typically on a monocular head-mounted display such as RealWear. Lighter than full AR, hands-free, and the form used in the ZF Friedrichshafen study.
Where it applies - Augmented reality (AR)
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Digital overlays anchored to real objects: a marker on the exact bolt, valve or sensor. Dropslab Sense uses AR markers on tablet, phone and smart glasses to show where to look and what to do.
Where it applies - CMMS
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Computerised maintenance management system (e.g. Maximo, MaintainX, Limble, Fiix, SAP PM). Dropslab writes completions, photos and parts back to it instead of replacing it.
Where it applies - Cost of quality (CoQ)
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The total cost of preventing, finding and fixing defects: prevention, appraisal, internal and external failure. Moving the catch point upstream lowers the failure share.
Where it applies - Digital work instruction
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A step-by-step procedure delivered on a device rather than on paper, with media per step, version control and execution evidence. The core object in Dropslab Core.
Where it applies - Edge deployment
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Running the platform and its AI models on hardware inside the plant, so production data never leaves the shop floor. One of Dropslab’s three deployment models alongside cloud and on-premise.
Where it applies - ERP
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Enterprise resource planning (SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, Infor). Source of orders, parts and labour; Dropslab Sync maps its fields to the task model and posts results back.
Where it applies - HACCP
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Hazard analysis and critical control points, the food-safety system that defines which checks must be done and evidenced on a line. Digital checklists capture the critical control points with photo and signature.
Where it applies - IATF 16949
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The automotive quality-management standard. Audit packets built from per-step evidence (timestamp, operator, SOP revision, AI decision) are a filter on the record, not a reconstruction.
Where it applies - Line clearance
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Verifying that a line is free of materials, documents and products from the previous run before starting the next. A guided, photo-evidenced checklist replaces the clipboard.
Where it applies - MES
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Manufacturing execution system (e.g. Hydra, ProLeiT). Tracks orders and production in real time; connected to Dropslab through pre-built connectors.
Where it applies - MQTT
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A lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol widely used for IoT telemetry. One of the protocols Dropslab Sync ingests from sensors and gateways.
Where it applies - MTBF / MTTR
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Mean time between failures and mean time to repair, the two reliability figures a maintenance team is measured on. Both are live dashboards in Reporting and Analytics.
Where it applies - OEE
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Overall equipment effectiveness: availability × performance × quality. Calculated from events captured as work happens, not from end-of-shift spreadsheets.
Where it applies - OPC UA
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The open, platform-independent protocol for industrial machine communication. Dropslab Sync connects to OPC UA servers on machine tools and lines to trigger work and read signals.
Where it applies - Poka-yoke
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Mistake-proofing: designing a step so that the error cannot happen or is caught immediately. AI verification of a critical step before the next one starts is poka-yoke in software.
Where it applies - Preventive maintenance (PM)
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Maintenance scheduled by time, usage or condition to prevent failure, as opposed to corrective maintenance after a breakdown.
Where it applies - Remote expert
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A senior technician or engineer joining the frontline worker’s view over live video with AR annotation, instead of travelling to site. In Dropslab Sense it is an optional add-on, off by default.
Where it applies - Skills matrix
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A live record of who is qualified for which task on which machine, with expiry dates. Used to route safety-critical work only to certified workers.
Where it applies - Smart glasses
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Head-worn displays with a camera, for hands-free guidance and documentation. Dropslab Sense supports five models alongside tablets and phones.
Where it applies - SOP
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Standard operating procedure: the approved way a task is done. In Dropslab an SOP is versioned, multilingual and executed with evidence rather than read from a binder.
Where it applies - SSCC
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Serial shipping container code, the GS1 identifier on a logistics unit. Verified at dispatch together with recipient, weight and route.
Where it applies - Tenant isolation
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Keeping each customer’s data logically (cloud) or physically (on-premise) separated. Dropslab trains AI models per customer and never reuses them.
Where it applies