KnarrTek Job Cost Estimating and Tracking Solutions

KnarrTek's Job Cost Estimating and Tracking solutions for make-to-order manufacturers are based upon the use of the JMTS real-time Job and Materials tracking software.

JMTS can store the estimated materials and labor needed to make a unit quantity of a product and can then use these to estimate the cost of making a specific quantity of the product.

These estimates of needed resources can be specified for each manufacturing operation so that these can be compared with the actual labor and materials recorded by JMTS for each operation on the job. This enables these estimates to be adjusted over time to reflect the actual quantities required for prior jobs.

As well as tracking the time and materials resources used, JMTS is able to compute the actual cost for job. This enables production managers to determine whether they made or lost money on each job.

With a custom WIPTracker solution, these estimates and recorded job costs can include one-time setup and tear down time for machines as well as equipment run-time. They can also include situations where multiple jobs are run together as a group on a machine.

Resources used and job costs are computed incrementally in real-time by the KnarrTek software. This enables production managers to see whether the estimated costs are being exceeded and to take appropriate remedial action, while the job is being run.

The KnarrTek software incrementally aggregates its cost data so as to be able to accurately compute the actual cost of intermediate, WIP, and finished goods part by part. This enables accurate accounting for the actual value of inventory and eliminates the "black hole" accounting problem whereby inventory is expensed, when it is used, but is not credited until the finished goods are made, sometimes weeks later.

For large jobs consisting of many parts to be purchased or made, assembled, and shipped, in a sequence of work orders, through sub-assemblies into the final product or system, the project tracking capabilities of the KnarrTek software can be used to estimate and track the cost of the overall job/project as well as the cost of each sub-assembly made and parts purchased.

The cost estimating algorithms used by JMTS cover many common situations. Where these are not adequate, then KnarrTek can provide custom algorithms for special situations based on the use of a WIPTracker custom tracking system..

Where needed, KnarrTek can also provide alerts by Email or Text Message to operations managers when situations such as an operation taking longer than estimated are predicted to occur using the MilramX automated information exchange software package.

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