Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

centre de charge

English translation:

work centre / cost centre

Added to glossary by Anna Quail
Mar 11, 2008 22:56
16 yrs ago
3 viewers *
French term

centre de charge

French to English Tech/Engineering Engineering: Industrial
Centres de ressources, centres de productivité et centres de charge...

I have found a definition of "centre de charge" in French, but I don't know what it is called in English.
" Un centre de charge est une unité opérationnelle de base que l’entreprise a décidé de gérer pour un choix d’organisation et qui résulte de la combinaison de plusieurs postes de travail associés pour réaliser une action de production. Ainsi, selon le cas, le poste de charge peut-être une machine ou un groupe de machines, un ou plusieurs opérateurs, voir une association des deux. Précisons qu’il ne faut pas confondre avec un poste de travail qui est une unité physique qui entrera dans un centre de charge."

Other example: "Un centre de charge composé de 2 machines fonctionne 8 heures par jour et 5 jours par
semaine. L’utilisation est de 80% et l'efficience de
90%..."

Thank you in advance!
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 work centre
4 +2 cost centre
4 definition, NFG

Discussion

Anna Quail (asker) Mar 12, 2008:
Thank you everyone. I'm a little confused here! We seem to have two different concepts here and I'm not sure which one fits my context. I'm afraid I may have led you up the garden path with the definition I found. I didn't want to give too much context, to preserve client confidentiality, but I’m beginning to wonder if this may be a ‘cost centre’, as mediamatrix suggests. For one thing, hands-on information is often more reliable than dictionaries and also my context is a list of the responsibilities of an AS/RS Project Manager. In this instance, it is to do with monitoring the annual budget and “contrôler le respect des engagements budgétaires (coûts des centres de ressource, productivité, charge)”.

Proposed translations

+1
47 mins
Selected

work centre

From Routledge French Technical Dictionary, where it is stated to be a term in the subject area of "production."
Peer comment(s):

agree Bourth (X) : For once Routledge can be believed. More below
3 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you for your help. I hesitated a lot about this and I think both answers are correct, depending on the context, but I can only give the points to one of you. "
+2
3 hrs

cost centre

Where I used to work in Geneva, they decided to set up 'cost centres / centres de charge' (conveniently abbreviated to 'CC' in both languages), primarily, as I recall, to justify management claims that we were overpaid.
Each CC related to a (moderately) clearly defined sector of activity in the organization (different technical study areas, publications, HR, etc.) where separate budget forecasts and accounting could be applied.
Note from asker:
Mediamatrix, thank you for your inside knowledge. As you can see, I chose the other answer, but I have glossed both suggestions, as there seem to be two different concepts, which are both correct. Sorry I couldn't share the points.
Peer comment(s):

agree chris collister : We too, had "cost centres", a deliberate -and successful - attempt to avoid managers having to do joined up thinking and to prevent cross-fertilisation of ideas.
5 hrs
agree Charles Hawtrey (X) : We had 'cost centres' and 'profit centres' (covered in Wikipedia), not to be confused with 'cost centre' which was simply as defined by Bourth (below - "section homogène") but in FR it was "centre de coûts / centre de bénéfices" as I recall.
14 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

definition, NFG

Work center - centre de charge
Unité de fabrication, constituée d'une ou plusieurs personnes et/ou machines, et qu'on peut considérer comme une entité du point de vue de la planification des besoins en capacité et de l'ordonnancement. Voir cost center

cost center - section homogène
Plus petite unité d'une organisation (généralement un service) pour laquelle on saisit les données de coût. Pour définir une section homogène, il faut que les coûts soient significatifs et les responsabilités clairement établies. Une section homogènre peut être différente d'un centre de charge e, d'ailleurs, en regroupera souvent plusieurs.
[Dict. A-F/F-A des termes de gestion industrielle, which is nothing other than a translation of the dict. of the American Production and Inventory Control Society which someone here might have)

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Note added at 4 hrs (2008-03-12 03:00:11 GMT)
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If not:

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John H. Blackstone Jr., Ph.D., CFPIM and James F. Cox III, Ph.D., CFPIM, CIRM
148 pp, 2008, Stock # 01102
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The APICS Dictionary is the standard for defining terms used in the operations management field. Use this powerful tool to expand your professional vocabulary and ensure that everyone on your team is speaking the same language. The 12th edition contains more than 4,000 important industry terms

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Note from asker:
Bourth, thank you for your time and your research. Much appreciated.
Something went wrong...
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