| ICS | See Inventory Control System |
| Indicia | An imprinted designation (such as a postal permit) on a piece of mail that indicates postage payment. It can be used in place of a stamp or meter mark. |
| Integration | Process of making disparate software, hardware systems, and devices communicate and share data with each other. |
| Interface | The connection between multiple computer systemss or a computer and a user. |
| Intermodal (inter-modal) | Transportation term describing the use of multiple modes of transportation for a shipment. Ocean containers that are picked up by a truck, delivered to port, transported by ship, and then picked up by another truck are a common example of intermodal transportation. In the trucking industry, intermodal usually refers to the combination of trucking and rail transportation. |
| Internet | The world-wide network of computer networks through which people can exchange data and communications. The Internet is a network created by inter-connecting all the private Intranets in the world. |
| Interoperability | The ability of a network to interact with other networks or the ability of software and hardware on different machines from different vendors to share data. |
| Intranet | A localized network of computers that is used to communicate electronically within that specific area. An Intranet defines the network of computers inside an organization's firewall. |
| Inventory | Any quantifiable item or asset that you can handle, buy, sell, store, consume, produce, or track can be considered inventory. This covers everything from office and maintenance supplies, to raw material used for manufacturing, to semi-finished and finished goods, to fuel used to power equipment used in the business. |
| Inventory Accuracy | The degree to which inventory quantities in the warehouse management system (WMS) database agree with the actual physical inventory in the warehouse or supply chain. |
| Inventory Control System | An integrated package of software and hardware used in warehouse operations, and elsewhere, to monitor the quantity, location, and status of inventory. Additionally, shipping, receiving, picking, and putaway processes are also managed by inventory control systems. Modern inventory control systems rely upon barcodes, and potentially RFID tags, to provide automatic identification of inventory objects. To record an inventory transaction, the system uses a barcode scanner or RFID reader to automatically identify the inventory object, and then collects additional information from operators via fixed terminals or mobile computers. An inventory control system may be used to automate a sales order fulfillment process. Such a system contains a list of order to be filled, and then prompts workers to pick the necessary items, and provides them with packaging and shipping information. Real-time inventory control systems use wireless, mobile terminals to record inventory transactions at the moment they occur utilizing a wireless LAN to transmit transaction information to a central administration point. Also typically includes physical inventory counting and cycle-counting features. |
| Inventory Management | The direction and control of activities with the purpose of getting the right inventory in the right place at the right time in the right quantity in the right form and at the right cost. |
| IP | Internet Protocol - IP is the basic language of the Internet; it is a data packet-based (datagram) protocol for delivering data across networks. The IP datagram consists of an IP header followed by a message. Most networks combine IP with a higher- level protocol called Transport Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source. The current and most popular network layer protocol in use today is IPv4; this version of the protocol is assigned version 4. IPv4 was adopted by the United States Department of Defense as MIL-STD-1778. IPv6 is the proposed successor to IPv4 whose most prominent change is the addressing. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses (~4 billion addresses) while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses (~3.4×1038 addresses). Versions 0 through 3 were either reserved or unused; version 5 was used for an experimental stream protocol. Other version numbers have been assigned, usually for experimental protocols, but have not been widely used. |
