Manufacturing Project

Using project management for manufacturing is an operation designed to produce high-end, specialized products. These typically involve a base product to which the customer can add variations. Project-based products are unique to each customer from the ground up and have grown significantly now that the technology is able to support them.

Project-based products are largely targeted at the B2B customer. The types of industries that are project-based include those that manufacture equipment for wind turbines, aerospace and defense, and biotech, as well as contract pharmaceutical developers. These projects tend to be long-term and complex.

Every customer order is a project

Project-based manufacturing is highly flexible, because each project is different and allows a high degree of customization. It is geared to produce unique but similar products. It takes advantage of common manufacturing requirements while allowing for customization into “unique” combinations. Unique orders may be managed like a project. The more components of that order that are common to other unique orders, the more they may be manufactured – taking advantage of manufacturing methodology. Project-based manufacturing is the melding of manufacturing and project management at a level where the most advantage may be gleaned from each to the financial advantage of the company.

Whether your business is Engineer-to-Order, Make-to-Order, Configure-to-Order or Assemble-to-Order, allows you to manage your customer relationship, requirements, contract, bill-of-material (BOM), manufacturing activities, human resources, deliverables and deliveries, quality and service level agreement, payment milestones and settlement as a project for each customer order.

Each project is a unique manufacturing operation

Each project is an operation designed to produce unique but similar products. It is efficient because it takes advantage of common manufacturing requirements while allowing for customization into “unique” combinations. Using , you can:

• Calculate the specific cost of inputs (materials and labor) and allocate overhead costs by work breakdown structure (WBS).
• Manage indented Bills of Material (BOM) that maintain cost element detail as WIP items are consumed
• Improve visibility of transfer pricing to protect margins between divisions
• Account for losses throughout the manufacturing process by factoring sub-items into the ultimate end item
• Maintain multiple BOMs simultaneously to provide cost views from different periods and based on different assumptions
• View, analyze and report results at any data level (Company, Division, Plant, Cost Center, Program, WBS, Component, Production Order or Cost Element)
• View complete cost breakdown of material, labor, overhead and statistics at any data level
• Expose and analyze operational variances at both the cost and statistical levels and between various BOMs
• Isolate costs and statistics at multiple levels within BOMs
• Rapidly develop estimates for future projects using planned, actual, projected results and current operating budgets
• Perform internal and government audits to meet regulatory and compliance requirements

Digital Manufacturing Project Management

allows you to measure and improve each of your manufacturing projects. Using , you can:

• Allocate resources efficiently (for example, purchase of materials based on the customer project requirement).
• Track all your operations and finance activities in real time with drill-down options to understand numbers down to their transactions.
• Enable your sourcing and bid management processes for more accurate and quicker processes.
• Enable your sourcing and bid management processes for more accurate and quicker processes.
• Manage inventory and supply chains more efficiently.
• Create custom reports for complex project manufacturing.
• Build long-lasting client relationships by getting a 360-degree view of each client.