Notes from the factory floor.
Practical writing on bills of materials, production planning, material availability, factory execution and inventory.
Inventory that moves with production
Stock accuracy is rarely a counting problem. It is a timing problem between when material physically moves and when the system hears about it.
Knowing where production actually stands
Job cards and batches only help if they reflect the floor in something close to real time. Otherwise they are a record of what was supposed to happen.
See the shortage before the job card opens
Most stoppages are not surprises. They are shortages that were visible in the data days earlier and had nowhere to surface.
Plan production from the sales order, not the spreadsheet
When planning starts in a spreadsheet, it starts from a copy. Every hour after that is spent reconciling the copy with reality instead of making decisions.
A bill of materials is a plan, not a parts list
A BOM that only lists components is a document. A BOM that carries quantities, processes and substitutes is the thing production actually runs on.