Production Management

New production and information technologies are introduced continuously. Any one of these technologies might give you the ability to leapfrog your competition, or it might give your competitors the ability to squeeze you out of the market. It is important to track orders, shipments, and all steps in the production process.

The bill of materials is an important concept in manufacturing. It records the components that were used to manufacture a finished product. Data on it is used to trigger deductions in inventory of parts and signal the addition of the final product to finished inventory. These actions impact the accounting ledgers, so recording the proper amounts and time is important. Similarly, quality control measures are taken at several steps in the process—particularly with the receipt of supplies and the shipment of finished products. Detailed quality measures during the production process are used to identify processes, machines, and employees that need improvement.

Collecting data in a manufacturing environment can be a difficult process. Most workers are busy trying to build products and are not interested in taking time to enter data into a computer. You need to define the processes and jobs to ensure that accurate data is also being recorded. You also need to automate as much of the data collection as possible. Some machines can transfer data directly

into the information system, but often you need to assign the task to someone. This step is particularly important when things go wrong. You also might have to add bar-codes or RFID tags to products so they can be counted and recordedautomatically.

Once you have accurate data, you can usually purchase tools or hire experts to analyze the production processes and find improvements. The field of production

operations management has many tools and models to organize and optimize production and scheduling.