Terminology - R

Radius Allowance

Allowance paid to site construction staff to cover local transportation, etc. (ACE)
or
A sliding scale of payments to workers who have to travel sixteen miles or less from home to a contract site but does not normally apply when an outdoor worker receives a lodging allowance. (ACE)

Random Number Generator

A special software procedure or routine designed to produce pseudo-numbers in a specified range which are uniformly distributed, statistically independent, reproducible, and non repeating for any desired length. (FLUOR)

Randomising Scheme

A scrambling function derived by selecting most uniformly distributed (character) positions within a set of identification codes in order to generate a minimum number of synonyms. (FLUOR)

Ranking

The determination of order of preference of a series of investments by some measure of profitability. Investments must not be mutually exclusive and are "ranked" to determine which are to be undertaken. (ACE)

Rate of Return

See RATE OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT. (ACE)
or
Abbreviation for rate of return on investment. (ACE)

Rate Of Return On Investment

The efficiency ratio relating profit or cash flow incomes to investments. Several different measures of this ratio are in common use. See RETURN ON AVERAGE INVESTMENT, RETURN ON ORIGINAL INVESTMENT, PROFITABILITY INDEX. (FLUOR)
or
Efficiency ratio relating profit or cash flow incomes to capital employed. (ACE)
or
The efficiency ratio relating profit or cash flow incomes to capital employed. See also RETURN ON ORIGINAL INVESTMENT, PAY-OUT TIME, INTEREST RATE OF RETURN, PRESENT WORTH, etc. (ACE)

Raw Material Variance

The difference between standard and actual quantities of unprocessed goods or commodities. (ACE)

Raw Materials

Commodities, goods or merchandise for conversion to finished products. (ACE)

Re-Measure

Any re-measurement of unit rate construction or fabrication work from drawings. (ACE)

Re-Use Price

Value assessed to material for re-use. (ACE)
or
The value which is assessed to a material it is used a second time. (ACE)

Recorded Cost

Cost as recorded in the books. (ACE)

Recorded Income

Income as recorded in the books. (ACE)

Rectification Cost

Cost of restoring faulty design, materials or workmanship to required condition. (ACE)
or
The expense of restoring faulty materials or products to a usable condition. (ICWA)

Reimbursable Contract

General term used to describe any contract in which payment is made on a cost reimbursement basis, either against rates, or at cost plus a mark-up, or at straight cost. (ACE)

Reimbursable Cost

Any cost reimbursable under contract. (ACE)

Reimbursable Costs

Are defined as management costs, other than salaries, which will be paid by the client at cost. These include items such as company motor cars, travelling, housing allowance, printing, etc. (EMS)

Reimbursable Man-hours

Man-hours for which the costs thereof are reimbursable under contract. (ACE)

Reimbursable Rate

Any cost rate at which reimbursement is made. (ACE)

Reinvestment

A problem facing those using profitability methods involving compound interest related to the disposal of those funds potentially earned, in turn, by the funds generated by the capital project being considered. (ACE)

Remedial Action

See CORRECTIVE ACTION. (ACE)

Rental Equipment

Mechanical equipment rented during the construction period of a project. (ACE)
or
Mechanical plant rented during the construction period to supplement labour in the erection and installation of the plant e.g. cranes, welders, earth-moving machinery, etc. (ACE)

Replacement

A facility proposed to take the place of an existing facility without increasing its capacity. A new plant, which adds to capacity, is called an expansion. Replacements are normally caused either by obsolescence or physical deterioration. (ACE)
or
A facility proposed to take the place of an existing facility, without increasing its capacity, caused either by obsolescence or physical deterioration. (FLUOR)

Replacement Price

The value at which, at the date of consumption of an asset, there could be purchased an asset identical to that whose consumption is being priced. (ICWA)

Reporting Cycle

Cyclic sequence of activities, necessary to regular cost and schedule reporting during execution of a project. (ACE)

Reporting Period

Period of time, commonly one week or one month, to which published project reports relate. (ACE)

Requisition

Formal request to purchase. (ACE)

Research

An item of overhead expense incurred in experimental development of new and improved products and processes. (ACE)

Research Cost

The expense of experimental development of new or improved products or new or improved methods. (ACE)

Research Expense

Those continuing expenses required to provide and maintain the facilities to develop new products and improve present products. (FLUOR)

Reserve

See CONTINGENT RESERVE. (ACE)

Resource Aggregation

The accumulation of resource requirements at the time periods indicated by the network time analysis without regard to resource availability. (FLUOR)

Resource Allocation

The distribution or scheduling of resource requirements, constrained by resource availability, to single or multiple projects to realise a specific scheduling objective, such minimum project cost or minimum project duration. (FLUOR)

Resource Constraints

Constraints imposed on a plan because of limited resources. (FLUOR)

Resource Levelling

The action of allocating a resource to an activity or project such that the demand for that resource never exceeds its availability at any moment in time. (FLUOR)

Resource Limited Schedule

The scheduling of activities such at predetermined resource levels are never exceeded and the project duration is minimised. (FLUOR)

Resource Profiling

The summation of the requirements of each resource by time periods in single multiple projects according to a common decision rule. (FLUOR)

Resource Smoothing

The scheduling of activities such that fluctuations in individual resource requirements are minimised. (FLUOR)

Restraint

Is a connection (tie) between the nodes in a network. It has no value other than to assist in expressing the logic or sequential dependencies of the network. (FLUOR)

Retention

Sum of money retained under contract for specified period of time in respect of possible defective service, supply or work. (ACE)

Return On Average Investment

The ratio of annual profits to the average book value of fixed capital, with or without working capital. This method has some advantages over the RETURN ON ORIGINAL INVESTMENT method. Depreciation is always considered; terminal recoveries are accounted for. However, the method does not account for the timing of cash flow and yields answers that are considerably higher than those obtained by the return-on original investment and profitability index methods. Results may be deceiving when compared say, against the company's cost of capital. (FLUOR)
or
The ratio of annual profits to the mean book value of fixed capital, with or without working capital. This method has some advantages over the return-on-original investment method. Depreciation is always considered; terminal recoveries are accounted for. However, the method does not account for the timing of cash flows and yields answers that are considerably higher than those obtained by the return-on-original investment and profitability index methods. Results may be deceiving when compared, say, against the company's cost of capital. (ACE

Return on Investment

Abbreviation for RATE OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT, and may indicate the percentage relationship between earnings and capital employed or this relationship can be determined by relating turnover and earnings as percentage of sales. (ACE)

Return On Original Investment

The ratio of expected average annual after tax profit (during the earning life) to total investment (working capital generally included). Similar in usefulness and limitations to payout. (FLUOR)
or
The ratio of expected average annual income after tax profit (during the earning life) to total capital employed (working capital generally included). Similar in usefulness and limitations to PAY-OUT. (ACE)

Return on Sale

The ratio of annual profits to total trading turnover. Not generally considered a relevant criterion of profitability. (ACE)

Revamp

Repair or upgrade, usually in respect of mechanical plant. (ACE)

Revenue

Another name for income. (ACE)

Revision Variance

The amount by which a budget is amended, which, as a matter of policy, is not incorporated in the standard cost rate. (ICWA)

RFP

Request for Proposal. (ACE)

Rise and Fall Clause

See C.P.A. FORMULA (ACE)

Risk

Assessed chance of exposure to adverse cost or schedule problems. (ACE)
or
The element largely intangible, representing the likelihood that a project will not achieve the estimates made for it. A quantitative measure of the upper and lower limits which are considered reasonable for the factor being estimated. (ACE)
or
The degree of dispersion or variability around the expected or "best" value which is estimated to exist for the economic variable in questions : e.g. a quantitative measure of the upper and lower limits which are considered reasonable for the factor being estimated. (FLUOR)

Risk Analysis

Process of systematic evaluation of risk possibilities in respect of uncertain project outcome. (ACE)

Roll-up

Process of accumulating cost or schedule data at detailed levels and summarising systematically to a higher level. (ACE.)

Rolled-Up Costs

The accumulated basic expenditure elements from the individual expense sheets for the intermediate operations of a process plant. (ACE)

Rolling Margin

An allowance made between NET calculated weight and actual scale weight (normally applicable to the steel rolling mill industry'). (ACE)

Royalty

Payment for use of copyrights and patents, such as for proprietary chemical processes. (ACE)
or
Payments for use of copyrights and patents. (ACE)

Run (Computer Usage)

A single, continuous performance of a simulation routine or procedure. See JOB.(FLUOR)