cross-docking
n.— «Cost savings are huge in Wal-Mart’s distribution and logistic functions as it employs a method called cross-docking. Products are received on one side of the warehouse and leave out of the other side, virtually eliminating the storage of goods. A form of just-in-time distribution, merchandise flows through the distribution center to the customer in the shortest time possible.» —“Can Your Company Compete Against Wal-Mart?” by Adrienne Selko Industry Week May 2, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Utah listener recalls a story about her German-speaking mother-in-law referring to a childhood illness as the German disease. In English, the term most commonly referred to syphilis, a disease that different cultures blamed on their neighbors with...
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a power differential? And: a community choir director wants a term for “the act of gathering to sing...