Monthly production output vs target (units)
Scrap units by work center
Downtime reasons — % of lost hours
Supplier on-time delivery %
Scrap by reject reason code
Consultant's Analysis
OEE of 74% sits 11 points below the 85% benchmark. The downtime breakdown reveals the root cause: 41% of lost production time is attributable to extended setup between shifts — not machine failure. This is a scheduling and handoff problem solvable without capital investment.
The scrap rate of 4.8% is more than double the target. Two work centers account for 67% of all scrap — a classic 80/20 pattern. The reject codes point to dimensional and deformation failures, suggesting tooling wear rather than systemic process issues.
Recommended actions: (1) Standardize shift changeover at the highest-downtime work centers — estimated 6–8 OEE point recovery within 60 days. (2) Audit tooling intervals before any broader quality initiative. (3) Close work orders aged 30+ days — open WOs delay variance recognition and distort cost reporting.
A $100M manufacturer operating across two sites had never used MRP to manage production planning or inventory. The operation relied entirely on manual processes — shared spreadsheets, daily emails, and tribal knowledge. A specific trigger was a recurring problem with a packaging container supplier: over a six-month period, penalty charges totaled approximately $23,000 — not because of negligence, but because there was no systematic way to plan container demand within the ERP. The data was there. The system had the capability. Nobody had connected the two.
The project was structured as a formal implementation with a project charter, defined scope, and a cross-functional team of 15+ stakeholders assembled from every department that touched the process — including the General Manager as project champion, the CFO/VP, the Master Scheduler, managers from Supply Chain, Production, Engineering, Quality, Shipping, Customer Service, Purchasing, and Costing.
The work was sequenced carefully: BOM verification and correction, planning data setup, process design mapping current to future state, team training with each department individually, and performance metrics defined upfront. A formal Gantt chart tracked each task by responsible owner and completion date.
The most significant challenge was organizational, not technical. The ERP system was capable from day one. What was missing was alignment — 15 people from different functions changing established habits simultaneously while production kept running. Real issues surfaced in the first weeks: night and weekend shifts not entering data on time, work orders released without following the checklist, allocation logic for cross-site transfers not behaving as expected. Each issue was documented, assigned, and resolved through weekly review meetings.
MRP planning was successfully brought into the ERP system, eliminating the manual tracking processes that caused the penalty charge problem. Container demand became visible within the same system managing production orders, forecasts, and customer shipments. The packaging penalty charges were eliminated. The project established the foundation and cross-functional muscle for the broader MRP rollout that followed.
A recurring, unexplained balance had been accumulating in a general ledger account that the finance team had quietly categorized as rounding error. The account — a material rate variance account — was growing over time in a way that didn't match any known production event. Nobody in finance or operations could explain why it existed, where it was coming from, or how to stop it.
The investigation started with transaction detail — pulling every ERP transaction that had posted to that specific GL account and working backward. The system tracks cost variances at the work order level with specific types: material rate variance, method variance, usage variance. The account in question was specifically a material rate variance — meaning cost booked at WIP at time of issue was different from standard cost at time of close.
The transaction inquiry revealed the pattern: when the standard cost of a raw material was updated after a work order had been released and partially issued, any subsequent issues of that component at the new standard cost would create a variance. The work order bill captures costs at release, not at issue. That difference posts to the material rate variance account automatically.
Root cause: Standard costs were being updated mid-cycle with no review of open work orders already in production. Every cost update generated unplanned rate variances on any open WO that subsequently issued that material.
The GL account was fully explained — every dollar traced to a specific transaction, work order, and cost event. Finance stopped categorizing it as rounding error and started managing it as a known, controllable variance type. A new process rule was implemented: standard cost updates reviewed against open work order status before release. Unplanned rate variances were reduced significantly going forward.
The production floor of a $100M manufacturing operation was running completely blind. Leadership received daily KPI emails — output, scrap, downtime — but the numbers were based on manually compiled data that never changed between updates. When a manager asked "how are we doing right now?" there was no honest answer. The ERP was collecting shop floor transactions but none of that data was surfaced in a way usable for real-time management.
Started with a KPI design session — working with production managers, the general manager, and the cost team to identify what metrics actually mattered. List kept deliberately short: production output vs target, scrap by work center, downtime by reason code, and work order status. Each metric mapped to a specific ERP transaction so the data source was unambiguous.
Custom programs were built directly in the ERP using the system's native development language. By building inside the ERP rather than pulling data into a separate system, there was no synchronization problem and no discrepancy between the shop floor report and the official system of record. The shop floor entry screen was also redesigned — simplified to show only required fields with defaults applied to everything else, reducing data entry errors at the source.
For the first time, leadership had access to real-time production data tied directly to the ERP system of record. The daily KPI email was replaced by a live dashboard that updated continuously throughout the shift. Scrap patterns by work center became visible within the shift they occurred. The system became the foundation for subsequent analytics work including variance analysis tools and outside service tracking.
A $100M manufacturer operating across the US-Mexico border had been running on the same ERP system for over two decades. The system was stable but increasingly difficult to extend — the development environment was aging and the vendor's long-term roadmap created uncertainty. Leadership recognized a platform decision needed to be made but the organization had no structured methodology for evaluating enterprise software.
Discovery sessions conducted across 12 departments to document current-state pain points, non-negotiable requirements, and future-state needs. Four platforms brought into formal evaluation: Plex Systems, Epicor, Infor CloudSuite Industrial, and SYSPRO. Each evaluated against documented requirements using a structured scoring framework. Vendor demonstrations scripted around real business scenarios — not generic product tours — so the evaluation team could see how each system handled their specific processes.
The evaluation surfaced requirements the organization hadn't fully articulated before — particularly around the Mexico facility's needs. Cross-border inventory visibility, dual-currency cost structures, and Spanish-language user interfaces emerged as non-negotiables that significantly narrowed the field. Several departments had conflicting requirements, requiring facilitated priority discussions before scoring could be completed honestly.
The evaluation produced a documented, defensible recommendation with scoring rationale. Leadership had a structured basis for their platform decision, with every department's requirements accounted for and trade-offs between platforms clearly articulated. The discovery methodology and requirements framework became a reusable asset for future technology evaluations.
Simplified Shop Floor Reporting Screen
Rebuilt the ERP entry screen to show only required fields and default all others — reducing data entry errors at the source.
Operation-Level Reject Cost Calculator
Calculated true reject cost at the operation level using BOM and routing data — a calculation the ERP was incapable of producing natively.
Bulk Work Order Scheduling Tool
Enabled planners to download, modify, and upload all open work orders at once — enabling visual capacity planning for the first time.
Standard Cost Calculator & Comparator
Compared calculated cost against system cost and released WO cost — enabling proactive identification of method variance before it hit the GL.
Outside Service Inventory Tracker
Real-time visibility into parts at external suppliers — replacing a manual Excel system with no audit trail.
Forecast Bulk Upload Tool
Reduced forecast update process from days to minutes — users modify and upload in bulk instead of individual ERP entries.
Machine Downtime Reporting System
Captured downtime by reason, shift, supervisor, and work center — providing the first historical downtime data the operation ever had.
Work Order Age Monitor
Flagged aging work orders daily — enabling timely variance analysis and preventing months-old variances from distorting financial statements.
Blanket vs Released PO Price Variance
Identified cost drift between released purchase orders and blanket agreements before invoices arrived.
Shop Floor Financial Transactions
Complete presentation mapping every ERP shop floor transaction to its GL impact — WO release, labor reporting, receipt, variance posting, and accounting close. Built to train finance and operations together on how the system actually behaves.
T-Account Chart — Work Order Process
Complete T-account mapping showing debits and credits at every step of the work order lifecycle. Built when activating shop floor reporting modules to predict and verify GL behavior before going live.
Outside Service Process — Step by Step
Detailed guide for the subcontracting process — blanket PO setup, WO creation, shipping to supplier, PO receipt, and transfer back. Designed for cross-functional teams across purchasing, shipping, and materials.
MRP Implementation Process & Rules
Documentation from a live MRP implementation — scheduling rules, WO status definitions, team responsibilities, safety stock methodology, and meeting notes. A complete reference for a cross-functional team.