ARTICLE DESCRIPTION: Many companies are involved in manufacturing products to meet the demands of individual customer contracts. The products that they build in this manner may be unique, one-off engineering projects; they may be low/medium volume (and occasionally high volume) build of otherwise standard products; and most frequently they lie between these two. The fact that they are made against a specific contract or project, however, tends to add a level of complexity beyond that of normal manufacturing. This article looks at some of the issues that are encountered within such contract or project manufacturing.

MORE INFO: Project Manufacturing Many companies are involved in manufacturing products to meet the demands of individual customer contracts. The products that they build in this manner may be unique, one-off engineering projects; they may be low/medium volume (and occasionally high volume) build of otherwise standard products; and most frequently they lie between these two. The fact that they are made against a specific contract or project, however, tends to add a level of complexity beyond that of normal manufacturing. This article looks at some of the issues that are encountered within such contract or project manufacturing. The Project Manufacturing Environment Normal manufacturing is characterised by commonality of information. Stocks are held in common: an item in inventory is available for shipment against any sales order and may be used as a component in any manufacturing job. Costs are held in common: whatever method you may use for tracking the costs of your products, components and raw materials you will always tend to have the same cost for the same item at any given time. Planning is performed at an aggregate level: all requirements for the same item on the same date will be added together to give a single total, which can then be sourced according to your business rules.

PUBLISHER: Institute of Operations Management

Page number: 10 Word count: 1615

Vol 28 - No 02 - March 2002

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