The term Bill of Material (BOM) can be misleading because in many manufacturing systems, the BOM can contain not only Materials, but also Routing Operations like a recipe. When Material is combined with Operations, the Bill of Material is often referred to as a Bill of Manufacturing.

When evaluating opportunities for Improvement, there is a surprisingly simple mathematical principle that might help make some selections easier.

Improvement Projects and Manufacturing Control rely on good data to track progress. A straightforward way to get data from a Manufacturing System is with a data export. For example, the actual run times for an operation can be exported to excel in a few minutes. Once exported you can quickly run some basic statistical tests in Excel or Minitab to confirm the data is normally distributed around the mean, which includes detecting data outliers that could adversely impact decisions made from those results.

If you’re using MISys – you may want some clarification on exactly what these three assembly control accounts are for and when are they used in transactions.

If you’re using MISys – you may want some clarification on exactly what these control accounts are for and when are they used in transactions – “Scrap Adjustment” will also be included.

If you’re using MISys and on AVG or STD Costings (or even FIFO) – you may want some clarification on exactly what these variance accounts are for and when are they used in transactions.

Manufacturing organizations rely on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to establish performance baselines and track trends, which include the impact of improvement projects. KPIs can include a range of categories, including cost, throughput speed and quality. It goes without saying that a KPI found to have come from questionable data could erode confidence in decisions made based on it.

If you haven’t upgraded to MISys 6.4.4 yet, here are a few new features that might convince you to get that upgrade done sooner than later.

There is a lot of effort going into continuous improvement in manufacturing these days. Few people would argue that a culture dedicated to continuously improving business operations is not a good thing. Although continuous improvement projects start with the best intentions in mind, they don’t always result in meaningful positive change to the way things are done.

Here’s a quick reminder about reconciling your MISys Liabilities and Inventory to your accounting package balance sheet.

Do you find yourself in a situation where you want some items, or jobs transacting through a different set of accounts than the defaults you have set up in the MISys Company Option – Control Account Settings?

Keeping purchase orders and manufacturing orders current is a mutually beneficial relationship. Keeping these functions current will positively impact the overall reporting, cash flow, inventory accuracy and inventory replenishment habits of the organization.