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Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

We are going to spend the next few posts reviewing what an income sheet is and how the income sheet will help you determine you shop rates.From Wikipedia the definition of income statement isIncome statement, also called profit and loss statement (P) and Statement of Operations, is a company's financial statement that indicates how the revenue (money received from the sale of products and services before expenses are taken out, also known as the "top line") is transformed into the net income (the result after all revenues and expenses have been accounted for, also known as the "bottom line").

The purpose of the income statement is to show managers and investors whether the company made or lost money during the period being reported.An income statement is the primary source of information which enables you to calculate your overhead absorption rates.

All expenses that you cannot attribute directly to the manufacturing of a product or service are included in overheads.Here are some common items and definitions of those items on the income statement.These items would not be used in the overhead absorption calculationNet Sales: amount of money made from the goods or the services that you sold.

The gross margin shows you how much money you have available to pay your expenses and still make a profit.Selling and Administrative Expenses: costs involved in getting the product or service ready to sell that are not directly related to the product itself.

It includes salaries for people not directly involved with the making of the product or performance of the service, advertising, office expenses, etc.

This reveals the amount your company has left over after paying it’s own costs to function as a business entity.Dividend and Interest Income: additional money that you receive from ownership and investments externally.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-08

But it is definitely a wise investment that will help to improve the inventory turnover ratio.

But also about the rate in which your inventory enters and leaves the workshop.

You can make well-informed decisions based on the real-time and accurate data you can have using an inventory tracker software.

Efficient workshops mean you will be having lower inventory levels, but maintaining high sales.

In this way, you can save a huge amount that you may need to spend otherwise to maintain floor space and warehouse.

You need to accurately place monetary values on your raw materials, staff, and production processes.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-22

In order to begin a detailed look into quoting and estimating I'm going to start by giving some definitions.Setup TimeSetup time is the time it takes to make the first accepted piece which includes bringing all the tools, jigs and fixtures, setup those jigs and fixtures for a particular batch quantity.

Operation run time or cycle time, is the time spent to complete each unit through the machine.Setup time can be simple or complex and it really depends on the process being performed.

Setup time is usually independent of the actual run time because once a machine is setup it can be continually run without setting the machine up a second time.

Setup time can actually be broken down into a few categories.Staging Time The time required to gather materials, dies or any other equipment required to get the machine running.

Staging can potentially be performed during the running of another job through the machine because it may not actually require the machine to be available.

A simple definition is time spent on a machine or process prior to a manufacturing run.Setup Time The time required to bring this production batch quantity to an actionable state.Transit Time Transit time is the time to move a particular batch quantity to another step in the process.Tear Down Time The time required to remove all the equipment that was required to be setup on the machine making it ready for the next process.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

Do you remember when it was time to quote and you sat down with your specifications, pencil and paper and started to write down how long each processes would take to manufacture the given specifications.

You would add up all the setup time, then go through and add up all the cycle time per process by hand, and if not by hand, an expensive calculator.

Once you finished adding up the estimated time you then did one last calculation like thisLabor Dollars = ((Setup Time)/(Pieces Being Quoted)) + Cycle Time)*(Shop Rate)Shop labor rates a fews years ago usually consisted of a single shop rate for every machine and operation in your shop including machine shops, sheet metal shops to wood working and plastic job shops.

To calculate a quote the shop rate was much simpler when there was only a single rate.

Now with the advent of computers you can have shop rates that are specific to each machine because the  actual calculation is done by a computer now.

A single shop rate had some advantages at that time but those advantages are not applicable in todays advanced manufacturing facilities.Plant-wide versus departmental versus individual machine burden ratesIf overhead does not vary between departments you can use a plant-wide shop rate.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-20

One of the most difficult aspects of estimating is figuring out what the cycle time may be for a process.

There are many factors which affect the cycle time which are not fixed including skill level of the person running the machine, reliability of the machine, maintenance of the machine, inspection of the parts being run, the quality of the material and others.

In future discussions we will go over these different aspects of estimating but right now we are discussing at the high level, what is cycle time?Cycle time is defined as the handling time + run time.Handling time is the time spent as the operator loads and unloads the part being manufactured from the machine.Run time is the time the operator spends at the machine running the part or the time the machine is running by itself, i.e.

Some operations require the operator to be present during the running of the part and others do not.The basic formula for estimating an operations cost isCycle Time Per Piece(Handling Time + Run Time)Total Estimating Operation TimeSetup Time + Cycle Timeor(Staging Time + Setup Time + Transit Time + Tear Down Time) + (Handling Time * Run Time) * Quantity To Be ProducedEstimating your cycle times is a critical area for any manufacturer to be profitable.

Cost estimating MIE Solutions provides software to help you do this calculations as efficiently as possible through their MRP/ERP systems quoting package.Source: https://www.mie-solutions.com/founders-blog/estimating/manufacturing-estimating-cycle-time

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Jennie Miller 2021-06-18

Enterprise resource planning or ERP is a collection of integrated software applications.

Modern ERP Software consists of back-office functions like accounting, marketing, and human resources.

Manufacturers from around the world are looking to implement enterprise resource planning systems for their companies.ERP system solution provides a number of benefits to organizations and companies.Major Benefits of ERP Software• Improved Production• Increased Performance• Cost Reduction• Streamline Business ProcessesImproved ProductionPerfect ERP Implementation Strategy can cut down the production time it takes to perform tasks and finish projects.

It enables employees to focus on other essential activities and tasks in order to finish their work easily.

The improved production can reduce administrative and operational costs.Increased PerformanceAn efficient ERP system virtually handles entire operations including ongoing activities and repetitive processes.

The system perfectly facilitates the collection and monitoring of information to make processes more simple and efficient.Cost ReductionA dedicated ERP solution can decrease both administrative and operation costs.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-13

MIE Solutions is proud to announce their new partnership with Elmo Solutions and the addition of Agni Link as an add-on to MIE Trak Pro for CAD transcription.GARDEN GROVE, April 14, 2021 – MIE Solutions and Elmo Solutions have partnered to bring manufacturers—and, more specifically, MIE Trak Pro users—increased functionality in CAD integration.

This is important for businesses that spend a lot of time creating, entering, and updating Bill of Materials for their parts and products—especially ETO (Engineer-to-Order) manufacturers.“It is exciting that we are partnering with Elmo Solutions to help our customers have more efficient and accurate BoM transfer into MIE Trak Pro,” says Andre Walentowski, Manufacturing Engineer at MIE Solutions.

“Agni Link will be a great tool for many of our ETO and MTO manufacturing customers.”Agni Link integrates Bill of Materials, Quotes/Estimates, Work Orders, Job Management, Change Management, MRO, Asset Management, and more between CAD s MIE Solutions is proud to announce their new partnership with Elmo Solutions and the addition of Agni Link as an add-on to MIE Trak Pro for CAD transcription.GARDEN GROVE, April 14, 2021 – MIE Solutions and Elmo Solutions have partnered to bring manufacturers—and, more specifically, MIE Trak Pro users—increased functionality in CAD integration.

“Agni Link will be a great tool for many of our ETO and MTO manufacturing customers.”Agni Link integrates Bill of Materials, Quotes/Estimates, Work Orders, Job Management, Change Management, MRO, Asset Management, and more between CAD software and MIE Trak Pro.

Users can manage the rules that make up the integration(s) without complex programming.

This gives the user full control of how the data is exchanged between their CAD software and MIE Trak Pro.About MIE SolutionsMIE Solutions is a worldwide leading supplier of advanced technology for the manufacturing community with installations in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Mexico, and South Africa.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-09

There are a lot of challenges that need to be addressed, mastered, and managed.

Your machinery breakdowns, production bottlenecks, deadstock, urgent orders slip in, shipment delays, supply chain issues, and data inaccuracy.

You will start losing business.You must streamline and automate your production processes and this could be best done by linking your sales orders directly to the real-time inventory data using an ERP system.

Else, you will be wasting a lot of your time and resources – every day and by everyone from managers to shop floor supervisors and labor.

This is the best way possible to maintain your business processes and shop floor procedures that will produce reliable data that will help you focus on what’s most important and valuable in profitable manufacturing.

For the reason that it does not provide you a clear picture of your business operations, KPIs and what requires your time and attention, but also helps you understand your customers better.Many companies, today, have turned to the cloud ERP to leverage the power of data that could not be otherwise possible with precision.Benefits of cloud-based data in ERP:  Accurate business insights  Supply chain optimization  Forecasting sales & profits  Standardized HR practices    Improved scheduling process  Comprehensive customer profiling  Understanding customer preferences  Let’s take a look how a manufacturing ERP database coupled with powerful analytics can further benefit your business.Enterprise resource planning software is a self-driving data management tool that helps businesses to manage and monitor their corporate data in a better, secure way.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-25

Sheet metal, CNC shops, machine shops and many other job shops provide a valuable service to their customers.

For a job shop to be a profitable business, the service rate should cover the cost of doing business plus have a certain amount of margin or profit built into the price customers pay.

If this is too low, you will be gaining new work but this will only last as long as you have money in the bank.

Hourly rate calculations are not that complicated but should be looked at carefully in order to be a profitable company.EquipmentCalculate the cost per hour of operation and include a markup for maintenance hours in your calculation to determine a fully burdened cost per machine hour.

These include costs for administrative staff salary, equipment, furniture, building lease, maintenance and office supplies.

This will be your overhead cost per hour.MarkupHere's where the shop earns its keep.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-29

MIE Solutions ERP system provides a comprehensive job shop scheduling software to deal with the many problems scheduling a job shop encounters.

Scheduling has become a critical factor in many job shops in order to determine their capacity for more work and be able to schedule their work more efficiently.

Job shop scheduling becomes more and more difficult when you deal with assemblies and/or multiple components that need to be made in an efficient manner.Job Shop Scheduling is an optimization problem in which ideal jobs are assigned to resources at particular times.The most basic version is as follows:We are given n jobs J1, J2, … Jn of varying sizes, which need to be scheduled on m identical machines, while trying to minimize the total length of the schedule (that is, when all the jobs have finished processing).Scheduling job shops is much more complex than the basic version above because there are many more constraints involved.

In the above method, the machines are identical which is not going to happen in an actual job shop.Online problem vs offline problemIn an online scheduling system, the scheduling application looks at a single piece of information at a time and does not know what’s coming down the pipeline.

In this situation, the entire input is not known from the start.

Because it does not know the whole input, an online algorithm is forced to schedule the job without knowledge of the entire input available at the start.

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Jennie Miller 2021-06-18

Shop floor planning and management is one of the key factors to maintain a successful production line.

Shop floor planning and control is a complete process involving different methods and tools to manage, track, plan, schedule and report the status of WIP (work-in-progress) on the production line.

Once implemented into your manufacturing business, your managers and operators on the shop floor and the assembly line will get a seamless channel for quick communication.Here’s what aspects you should consider to improve your shop floor planning and control and what benefits you can reap from it.

Effective implementation of shop floor activity is vital for;Master production schedulingControlling manufacturing prioritiesMinimizing WIP on job floorManaging finished goods inventoryWorkflow of shop floor planning and control:   Shop floor control involves the precise management and monitoring of your manufacturing operations, equipment, inventory and job floor workers.

Let’s take a look.Shop floor management not only provides you insights into how your automated manufacturing processes are going, but also gives you more visibility and control over job floor, operators and production lines.Data accuracy:Using the best ERP software with a shop floor management component will give you real-time and accurate information about the shop floor operations and performance.

You can also easily identify production bottlenecks and take appropriate measures to overcome them.Reduced overhead:Lean manufacturing practices coupled with shop floor control help you identify the production areas that are prone to bottlenecks and require improvements.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-22

Welcome to the MIE Solutions blog about Job Shop Quoting and EstimatingThis is the beginning of a blog for all job shop estimators to provide information and feedback about how to estimate job shop jobs in the made to order job shop environments.A little background of myself…As a child in Junior High School I found a passion for the early computer systems, which would drive much of his future work.

I created and sold his first computer program, Arrow Data Systems, which was an early CAD/CAM system for the Apple 2e Computer.

In the late 1980's after seeing my father (a sheet metal manufacturer) come home many nights estimating, I saw an opportunity to optimize his effort through computer technology.

Shortly thereafter the FabriTRAK Production Control package was developed.The Quote It!

estimating package was developed out of the FabriTRAK system to become one of the leading sheet metal estimating packages in the world.I have been to and consulted 1000's of companies in the best way to use computer software technology to streamline and make the process of quoting more accurate.

I'm looking for feedback as we discuss the estimation process in order for all readers to improve their estimating, which in turn, improves your win rate and profitability.When an RFQ or RFP is received you begin the process of estimating.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

In job shop estimating where does efficiency play a role?

When you are estimating generally ask yourself how many "Man Hours" are required to producing the part or performing a specific operation.Lets define some terms firstMan HoursMan hours is the total time to accomplish a given task.

This does not mean that if a task if 40 man hours it will take five 8 hour days.

You could potentially accomplish the task using more then 1 resource and therefore you can finish the task with 5 people working 8 hours in 1 day.Direct HoursAmount of time that an employee is performing a task specific to a work order.Indirect HoursAmount of time that an employee is performing a task that is not being applied to a specific work order.

This includes sweeping, cleaning, accounting, etc.Estimated HoursAmount of time an estimator puts towards a specific task or job that is an educated guess.Actual Work HoursThe actual hours an employee spends performing a specific taskEfficiency Efficiency is the ability to accomplish a given task with the minimum expenditure of time or effort.Worker Productivity or EffectivenessWorker productivity is the time spent on a task versus the time they are actually getting paid for.Worker productivity will never be 100% because of the time interferences a worker keeps from doing their assigned assignments.

These include things like using the restroom, meetings, e-mails, chatting, break time, etc.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-30

More than that, they will not be able to achieve the best from the system since they don’t have the proper information to handle the software.In this piece of writing, we are going to present comprehensive information about ERP training of employees in organizations.

Later on, you can ask the workers about their queries and issues.

Cost-Efficient MethodWhile having a discussion upon compelling benefits of ERP training, we can’t forget to mention how cost-efficient this method is to accomplish the objectives.

Optimized ERP FunctionalityIt is without any objection that adequate employee ERP training leads to many beneficial outcomes.

Certainly, a well-trained workforce will tend to make the best out of ERP and utilize all the functions and features suitably.More than that, if they are in need of additional tools, then they can put forth the demand.

Enhanced Employee RetentionThrough ERP training, you give employees the right nudge to move ahead positively.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-24

Labor time is very difficult to measure accurately when determining manufacturing time for a custom item.

Another factor which ways heavily on the estimate is the experience of the person doing the estimate.

Some think an opinion of a skilled technician is preferred over complex methods but if there are detailed standards available these metrics should produce more accurate results.

Estimating labor hours for a job is a chore and can be very tedious.

The nature of job shop work is complex and estimators can't say with certainty how long a job might take.

In addition, the person assigned to the job may or may not be a top technician.

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Jennie Miller 2021-03-30

If a bill of material list is available as shown below you can merge items togetherPart Number                         Name                                       QuantityWidget A                                 16 GAGE CRS  48x120       10Widget B                                  16 GAGE CRS 48X120         3Widget C                                  14 GAGE CRS 48X36            5When you are estimating you generally would price each of these components separately and then roll the costs up for a grand total.

By creating an exploded bill of material which merges these items together you can actually get a more accurate cost because buying 13 if an item may be less expensive then purchasing 10 and 3.

The other advantage is if you are using raw materials like sheet stock, tubing, wood, etc.

you may have the opportunity to nest the bill of material together to arrive at a quantity required which was 13 and would now be 9 through nesting.

Setup and minimums can also be reduced by aggregating the bills of material together.You can see how beneficial an exploded bom is for quoting and estimating.

Job costing starts at the estimating and quoting area and extends throughout the ERP package.

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Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

We are going to spend the next few posts reviewing what an income sheet is and how the income sheet will help you determine you shop rates.From Wikipedia the definition of income statement isIncome statement, also called profit and loss statement (P) and Statement of Operations, is a company's financial statement that indicates how the revenue (money received from the sale of products and services before expenses are taken out, also known as the "top line") is transformed into the net income (the result after all revenues and expenses have been accounted for, also known as the "bottom line").

The purpose of the income statement is to show managers and investors whether the company made or lost money during the period being reported.An income statement is the primary source of information which enables you to calculate your overhead absorption rates.

All expenses that you cannot attribute directly to the manufacturing of a product or service are included in overheads.Here are some common items and definitions of those items on the income statement.These items would not be used in the overhead absorption calculationNet Sales: amount of money made from the goods or the services that you sold.

The gross margin shows you how much money you have available to pay your expenses and still make a profit.Selling and Administrative Expenses: costs involved in getting the product or service ready to sell that are not directly related to the product itself.

It includes salaries for people not directly involved with the making of the product or performance of the service, advertising, office expenses, etc.

This reveals the amount your company has left over after paying it’s own costs to function as a business entity.Dividend and Interest Income: additional money that you receive from ownership and investments externally.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-22

In order to begin a detailed look into quoting and estimating I'm going to start by giving some definitions.Setup TimeSetup time is the time it takes to make the first accepted piece which includes bringing all the tools, jigs and fixtures, setup those jigs and fixtures for a particular batch quantity.

Operation run time or cycle time, is the time spent to complete each unit through the machine.Setup time can be simple or complex and it really depends on the process being performed.

Setup time is usually independent of the actual run time because once a machine is setup it can be continually run without setting the machine up a second time.

Setup time can actually be broken down into a few categories.Staging Time The time required to gather materials, dies or any other equipment required to get the machine running.

Staging can potentially be performed during the running of another job through the machine because it may not actually require the machine to be available.

A simple definition is time spent on a machine or process prior to a manufacturing run.Setup Time The time required to bring this production batch quantity to an actionable state.Transit Time Transit time is the time to move a particular batch quantity to another step in the process.Tear Down Time The time required to remove all the equipment that was required to be setup on the machine making it ready for the next process.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-20

One of the most difficult aspects of estimating is figuring out what the cycle time may be for a process.

There are many factors which affect the cycle time which are not fixed including skill level of the person running the machine, reliability of the machine, maintenance of the machine, inspection of the parts being run, the quality of the material and others.

In future discussions we will go over these different aspects of estimating but right now we are discussing at the high level, what is cycle time?Cycle time is defined as the handling time + run time.Handling time is the time spent as the operator loads and unloads the part being manufactured from the machine.Run time is the time the operator spends at the machine running the part or the time the machine is running by itself, i.e.

Some operations require the operator to be present during the running of the part and others do not.The basic formula for estimating an operations cost isCycle Time Per Piece(Handling Time + Run Time)Total Estimating Operation TimeSetup Time + Cycle Timeor(Staging Time + Setup Time + Transit Time + Tear Down Time) + (Handling Time * Run Time) * Quantity To Be ProducedEstimating your cycle times is a critical area for any manufacturer to be profitable.

Cost estimating MIE Solutions provides software to help you do this calculations as efficiently as possible through their MRP/ERP systems quoting package.Source: https://www.mie-solutions.com/founders-blog/estimating/manufacturing-estimating-cycle-time

Jennie Miller 2021-04-13

MIE Solutions is proud to announce their new partnership with Elmo Solutions and the addition of Agni Link as an add-on to MIE Trak Pro for CAD transcription.GARDEN GROVE, April 14, 2021 – MIE Solutions and Elmo Solutions have partnered to bring manufacturers—and, more specifically, MIE Trak Pro users—increased functionality in CAD integration.

This is important for businesses that spend a lot of time creating, entering, and updating Bill of Materials for their parts and products—especially ETO (Engineer-to-Order) manufacturers.“It is exciting that we are partnering with Elmo Solutions to help our customers have more efficient and accurate BoM transfer into MIE Trak Pro,” says Andre Walentowski, Manufacturing Engineer at MIE Solutions.

“Agni Link will be a great tool for many of our ETO and MTO manufacturing customers.”Agni Link integrates Bill of Materials, Quotes/Estimates, Work Orders, Job Management, Change Management, MRO, Asset Management, and more between CAD s MIE Solutions is proud to announce their new partnership with Elmo Solutions and the addition of Agni Link as an add-on to MIE Trak Pro for CAD transcription.GARDEN GROVE, April 14, 2021 – MIE Solutions and Elmo Solutions have partnered to bring manufacturers—and, more specifically, MIE Trak Pro users—increased functionality in CAD integration.

“Agni Link will be a great tool for many of our ETO and MTO manufacturing customers.”Agni Link integrates Bill of Materials, Quotes/Estimates, Work Orders, Job Management, Change Management, MRO, Asset Management, and more between CAD software and MIE Trak Pro.

Users can manage the rules that make up the integration(s) without complex programming.

This gives the user full control of how the data is exchanged between their CAD software and MIE Trak Pro.About MIE SolutionsMIE Solutions is a worldwide leading supplier of advanced technology for the manufacturing community with installations in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Mexico, and South Africa.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-25

Sheet metal, CNC shops, machine shops and many other job shops provide a valuable service to their customers.

For a job shop to be a profitable business, the service rate should cover the cost of doing business plus have a certain amount of margin or profit built into the price customers pay.

If this is too low, you will be gaining new work but this will only last as long as you have money in the bank.

Hourly rate calculations are not that complicated but should be looked at carefully in order to be a profitable company.EquipmentCalculate the cost per hour of operation and include a markup for maintenance hours in your calculation to determine a fully burdened cost per machine hour.

These include costs for administrative staff salary, equipment, furniture, building lease, maintenance and office supplies.

This will be your overhead cost per hour.MarkupHere's where the shop earns its keep.

Jennie Miller 2021-06-18

Shop floor planning and management is one of the key factors to maintain a successful production line.

Shop floor planning and control is a complete process involving different methods and tools to manage, track, plan, schedule and report the status of WIP (work-in-progress) on the production line.

Once implemented into your manufacturing business, your managers and operators on the shop floor and the assembly line will get a seamless channel for quick communication.Here’s what aspects you should consider to improve your shop floor planning and control and what benefits you can reap from it.

Effective implementation of shop floor activity is vital for;Master production schedulingControlling manufacturing prioritiesMinimizing WIP on job floorManaging finished goods inventoryWorkflow of shop floor planning and control:   Shop floor control involves the precise management and monitoring of your manufacturing operations, equipment, inventory and job floor workers.

Let’s take a look.Shop floor management not only provides you insights into how your automated manufacturing processes are going, but also gives you more visibility and control over job floor, operators and production lines.Data accuracy:Using the best ERP software with a shop floor management component will give you real-time and accurate information about the shop floor operations and performance.

You can also easily identify production bottlenecks and take appropriate measures to overcome them.Reduced overhead:Lean manufacturing practices coupled with shop floor control help you identify the production areas that are prone to bottlenecks and require improvements.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

In job shop estimating where does efficiency play a role?

When you are estimating generally ask yourself how many "Man Hours" are required to producing the part or performing a specific operation.Lets define some terms firstMan HoursMan hours is the total time to accomplish a given task.

This does not mean that if a task if 40 man hours it will take five 8 hour days.

You could potentially accomplish the task using more then 1 resource and therefore you can finish the task with 5 people working 8 hours in 1 day.Direct HoursAmount of time that an employee is performing a task specific to a work order.Indirect HoursAmount of time that an employee is performing a task that is not being applied to a specific work order.

This includes sweeping, cleaning, accounting, etc.Estimated HoursAmount of time an estimator puts towards a specific task or job that is an educated guess.Actual Work HoursThe actual hours an employee spends performing a specific taskEfficiency Efficiency is the ability to accomplish a given task with the minimum expenditure of time or effort.Worker Productivity or EffectivenessWorker productivity is the time spent on a task versus the time they are actually getting paid for.Worker productivity will never be 100% because of the time interferences a worker keeps from doing their assigned assignments.

These include things like using the restroom, meetings, e-mails, chatting, break time, etc.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-24

Labor time is very difficult to measure accurately when determining manufacturing time for a custom item.

Another factor which ways heavily on the estimate is the experience of the person doing the estimate.

Some think an opinion of a skilled technician is preferred over complex methods but if there are detailed standards available these metrics should produce more accurate results.

Estimating labor hours for a job is a chore and can be very tedious.

The nature of job shop work is complex and estimators can't say with certainty how long a job might take.

In addition, the person assigned to the job may or may not be a top technician.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-08

But it is definitely a wise investment that will help to improve the inventory turnover ratio.

But also about the rate in which your inventory enters and leaves the workshop.

You can make well-informed decisions based on the real-time and accurate data you can have using an inventory tracker software.

Efficient workshops mean you will be having lower inventory levels, but maintaining high sales.

In this way, you can save a huge amount that you may need to spend otherwise to maintain floor space and warehouse.

You need to accurately place monetary values on your raw materials, staff, and production processes.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-09

Do you remember when it was time to quote and you sat down with your specifications, pencil and paper and started to write down how long each processes would take to manufacture the given specifications.

You would add up all the setup time, then go through and add up all the cycle time per process by hand, and if not by hand, an expensive calculator.

Once you finished adding up the estimated time you then did one last calculation like thisLabor Dollars = ((Setup Time)/(Pieces Being Quoted)) + Cycle Time)*(Shop Rate)Shop labor rates a fews years ago usually consisted of a single shop rate for every machine and operation in your shop including machine shops, sheet metal shops to wood working and plastic job shops.

To calculate a quote the shop rate was much simpler when there was only a single rate.

Now with the advent of computers you can have shop rates that are specific to each machine because the  actual calculation is done by a computer now.

A single shop rate had some advantages at that time but those advantages are not applicable in todays advanced manufacturing facilities.Plant-wide versus departmental versus individual machine burden ratesIf overhead does not vary between departments you can use a plant-wide shop rate.

Jennie Miller 2021-06-18

Enterprise resource planning or ERP is a collection of integrated software applications.

Modern ERP Software consists of back-office functions like accounting, marketing, and human resources.

Manufacturers from around the world are looking to implement enterprise resource planning systems for their companies.ERP system solution provides a number of benefits to organizations and companies.Major Benefits of ERP Software• Improved Production• Increased Performance• Cost Reduction• Streamline Business ProcessesImproved ProductionPerfect ERP Implementation Strategy can cut down the production time it takes to perform tasks and finish projects.

It enables employees to focus on other essential activities and tasks in order to finish their work easily.

The improved production can reduce administrative and operational costs.Increased PerformanceAn efficient ERP system virtually handles entire operations including ongoing activities and repetitive processes.

The system perfectly facilitates the collection and monitoring of information to make processes more simple and efficient.Cost ReductionA dedicated ERP solution can decrease both administrative and operation costs.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-09

There are a lot of challenges that need to be addressed, mastered, and managed.

Your machinery breakdowns, production bottlenecks, deadstock, urgent orders slip in, shipment delays, supply chain issues, and data inaccuracy.

You will start losing business.You must streamline and automate your production processes and this could be best done by linking your sales orders directly to the real-time inventory data using an ERP system.

Else, you will be wasting a lot of your time and resources – every day and by everyone from managers to shop floor supervisors and labor.

This is the best way possible to maintain your business processes and shop floor procedures that will produce reliable data that will help you focus on what’s most important and valuable in profitable manufacturing.

For the reason that it does not provide you a clear picture of your business operations, KPIs and what requires your time and attention, but also helps you understand your customers better.Many companies, today, have turned to the cloud ERP to leverage the power of data that could not be otherwise possible with precision.Benefits of cloud-based data in ERP:  Accurate business insights  Supply chain optimization  Forecasting sales & profits  Standardized HR practices    Improved scheduling process  Comprehensive customer profiling  Understanding customer preferences  Let’s take a look how a manufacturing ERP database coupled with powerful analytics can further benefit your business.Enterprise resource planning software is a self-driving data management tool that helps businesses to manage and monitor their corporate data in a better, secure way.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-29

MIE Solutions ERP system provides a comprehensive job shop scheduling software to deal with the many problems scheduling a job shop encounters.

Scheduling has become a critical factor in many job shops in order to determine their capacity for more work and be able to schedule their work more efficiently.

Job shop scheduling becomes more and more difficult when you deal with assemblies and/or multiple components that need to be made in an efficient manner.Job Shop Scheduling is an optimization problem in which ideal jobs are assigned to resources at particular times.The most basic version is as follows:We are given n jobs J1, J2, … Jn of varying sizes, which need to be scheduled on m identical machines, while trying to minimize the total length of the schedule (that is, when all the jobs have finished processing).Scheduling job shops is much more complex than the basic version above because there are many more constraints involved.

In the above method, the machines are identical which is not going to happen in an actual job shop.Online problem vs offline problemIn an online scheduling system, the scheduling application looks at a single piece of information at a time and does not know what’s coming down the pipeline.

In this situation, the entire input is not known from the start.

Because it does not know the whole input, an online algorithm is forced to schedule the job without knowledge of the entire input available at the start.

Jennie Miller 2021-04-22

Welcome to the MIE Solutions blog about Job Shop Quoting and EstimatingThis is the beginning of a blog for all job shop estimators to provide information and feedback about how to estimate job shop jobs in the made to order job shop environments.A little background of myself…As a child in Junior High School I found a passion for the early computer systems, which would drive much of his future work.

I created and sold his first computer program, Arrow Data Systems, which was an early CAD/CAM system for the Apple 2e Computer.

In the late 1980's after seeing my father (a sheet metal manufacturer) come home many nights estimating, I saw an opportunity to optimize his effort through computer technology.

Shortly thereafter the FabriTRAK Production Control package was developed.The Quote It!

estimating package was developed out of the FabriTRAK system to become one of the leading sheet metal estimating packages in the world.I have been to and consulted 1000's of companies in the best way to use computer software technology to streamline and make the process of quoting more accurate.

I'm looking for feedback as we discuss the estimation process in order for all readers to improve their estimating, which in turn, improves your win rate and profitability.When an RFQ or RFP is received you begin the process of estimating.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-30

More than that, they will not be able to achieve the best from the system since they don’t have the proper information to handle the software.In this piece of writing, we are going to present comprehensive information about ERP training of employees in organizations.

Later on, you can ask the workers about their queries and issues.

Cost-Efficient MethodWhile having a discussion upon compelling benefits of ERP training, we can’t forget to mention how cost-efficient this method is to accomplish the objectives.

Optimized ERP FunctionalityIt is without any objection that adequate employee ERP training leads to many beneficial outcomes.

Certainly, a well-trained workforce will tend to make the best out of ERP and utilize all the functions and features suitably.More than that, if they are in need of additional tools, then they can put forth the demand.

Enhanced Employee RetentionThrough ERP training, you give employees the right nudge to move ahead positively.

Jennie Miller 2021-03-30

If a bill of material list is available as shown below you can merge items togetherPart Number                         Name                                       QuantityWidget A                                 16 GAGE CRS  48x120       10Widget B                                  16 GAGE CRS 48X120         3Widget C                                  14 GAGE CRS 48X36            5When you are estimating you generally would price each of these components separately and then roll the costs up for a grand total.

By creating an exploded bill of material which merges these items together you can actually get a more accurate cost because buying 13 if an item may be less expensive then purchasing 10 and 3.

The other advantage is if you are using raw materials like sheet stock, tubing, wood, etc.

you may have the opportunity to nest the bill of material together to arrive at a quantity required which was 13 and would now be 9 through nesting.

Setup and minimums can also be reduced by aggregating the bills of material together.You can see how beneficial an exploded bom is for quoting and estimating.

Job costing starts at the estimating and quoting area and extends throughout the ERP package.

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