Time for end-of-year inventory counting...

For many companies, New Year's Day is not a day off. Instead, it is a day to do the physical inventory count while the phone isn't ringing. Though it isn't always "fun", there is often a shared sense of mission and purpose to get it done.

Here are a couple of articles on conducting inventory counts that I thought were helpful, if not just interesting.

- http://www.accountingtools.com/procedure-inventory-count
- http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/inproducthelp/Core/QB2K6/wholesale_n/mwd_n/mwd_year_end_inventory_count.html

You don't have to shut down the company to conduct your physical inventory when you are doing your physical inventory. Here are some helpful hints when using MISys Manufacturing to do your inventory count:

MISys Manufacturing uses a Net Change Physical Inventory.
This means that MISys Manufacturing will adjust the quantity of your Items based on the difference between the Counted Quantities and the Recorded Quantities for each entry in the Physical Inventory Batch. The difference of those two values is applied to the Current quantities when you Check (which you should always do before posting!) or Post the batch.

When you are ready to take your Inventory, you would Print the Physical Inventory Worksheet which captures your current Stock Levels as Recorded Quantity. Since we have these values you are free to continue processing in MISys Manufacturing as the Counts are being performed.

Once you have completed the actual counting of you inventory, you would then Feed the Worksheet into the Physical Inventory Batch and then enter the counted values. Once you've entered all of your Item counts in the Batch, you can then Check the Batch and MISys Manufacturing will use the method described above to calculate the resulting quantities. If the results are at odds with the actual quantities, you can adjust the Batch as needed. Once the quantities are correct, you would then proceed to Post the Batch.

If you have any questions regarding this process, feel free to contact us at MISys Manufacturing Technical Support.

Visit us online at http://www.misysinc.com/

Serial/Lot Tracking Could Save Your Manufacturing Business

CNN reported today that Ford is recalling thousands of trucks due to a faulty module that could potentially start a fire.

Ford discovered the fault on the assembly line and decided to investigate. It was traced to a single part called a body control module; a part manufactured by Lear Corp. As Lear investigated, they were able to find out that this specific part failed because "a new hire failed to clean a soldering machine over a 6 day period in October".

Wow! Now that's an impressive level of detail. This recall could have been much wider... maybe millions of vehicles. But instead, its limited to 6 days! How did they know? It's because they use software similar to MISys Manufacturing that provides visibility and detail into their manufacturing processes.

Because Lear was able to isolate and track down that specific part to a specific source location - which led to a specific place and time in the manufacturing process - they were able to quickly tie it back to the vehicles that received these parts and limit the damage and cost.

Mistakes happen. And when they do, make sure you have the right tools in place to fix it!

Visit http://www.misysinc.com and take the 6-Step tour.

New Chapter Now Available: How To Choose A Right-sized Manufacturing System - The Basics of Planning

It is easy to say “We should do better planning” but actually accomplishing this goal is often very difficult – virtually impossible without strict procedures coupled with a computerized system.
Effective planning is often illusive for manufacturing firms whether they are small or large, but for different reasons.

Small manufacturing firms usually lack the manpower required to “get organized” and implement sufficiently strict policies and procedures where planning is possible. Without strict procedures, small firms generally will revert to “seat-of-the-pants” operations where all efforts of focused on getting through to the end of the day... read more

As you continue to hunt for the right manufacturing solution, take a look at this free resource: "How To Choose a Right-sized Manufacturing System"

It's an unbiased, five chapter series written by David Brown, the CEO of MISys Manufacturing. After working with manufacturers for 25 years, Dave really knows his stuff... it's like getting a top-dollar consultant for free. Click, read, enjoy.

We had a fantastic showing for part 1 of the 4-part webinar series for Peachtree users.  "Peachtree Quantum Manufacturing Edition (QME) Overview".  The video has been archived here - http://www.misysinc.com/webinar/ 

Enjoy!

“So, exactly how old are you?”

Sometimes this is an easy question to answer. Sometimes it isn’t. For MISys Manufacturing, we first started selling our manufacturing software in 1977 when we were based in Massachusetts. Then in 1983 we moved to God’s country and registered our company name in the Green Mountain state of Vermont. We tend to consider that as the beginning of our company, though we were already in the business for 6 years by that time.

So, we are 33 years old by one way of thinking, and 27 by another. We like to think of it as being in business for “over 25 years” and leave it at that. Maybe it makes us all feel a little younger that way.

The two biggest lies when the Auditor makes a surprise visit:

Manufacturer: “Good to see you.”
Auditor: “I’m only here to help.”

Medical device manufacturers are accustomed to seeing auditors. There are the “independent” auditors hired by the manufacturer to visit twice a year just to test the systems and make sure that everything is in place. Then there are the insurance accreditation auditors, plus the OEM’s internal and external auditors for subcontract work, the ISO 13485:2003 certification auditors, and the big daddy of them all – the FDA. For even the well prepared, the heart still skips a beat and the chest tightens a bit when the auditor walks through the door.

MISys Manufacturing can help. The Serial Lot Tracking module of MISys was designed to trace raw materials, sub-assemblies and finished goods in inventory. MISys silently logs every transaction involving a serialized or lot tracked items through physical inventory, purchasing and production. Manufacturers using Serial Lot Tracking can easily generate detailed audit reports to satisfy virtually any regulatory agency, giving them confidence to say:

“We’re in great shape. I look forward to your report.”