The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
A “Systems Thinker” Approach Could Be the Key to Process Optimization
April 22, 2019
“When a broad systems approach to problem solving isn’t applied, bad things can happen…and they often do.”
A “systems thinker” is someone who takes the broader “system” into consideration before getting on with the fix to any particular problem. For manufacturers, it’s understanding their specific processes involved in producing their products before they make changes they believe will improve efficiency. Acting before understanding will delay finding the root cause of the issue, and will likely cause more problems in the long run. The systems thinker approach involves understanding what the problem is, thinking about potential solutions and making sure the data supports the outcome. By gaining visibility into their processes, manufacturers can pin-point where the inefficiencies are and make the necessary changes quickly and effectively.
Read More at The Process Industry Informer >
First Steps in SAP S/4HANA Finance – Material Ledger
April 19, 2019
” There are two types of Material Ledger
– When most people talk about the Material Ledger, they mean Actual Costing. The Material Ledger is used to track goods movements, invoices, and order settlements and then calculate a weighted average cost (the periodic unit price) using one or more costing runs at period close. This option continues to be supported in SAP S/4HANA for industries that regularly use Actual Costing, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food, and countries that require Actual Costing, such as Brazil, but the use of Actual Costing is not compulsory in SAP S/4HANA.
– The other option is to use the Material Ledger as an inventory subledger that captures inventory values in multiple currencies. This inventory subledger is also needed to store group valuations and transfer prices based on standard costs. This option is compulsory in SAP S/4HANA and is activated during migration, writing the inventory values in multiple currencies to the universal journal.”
Read more in Espresso Tutorial’s book, First Steps in SAP S/4HANA Finance >
Improving Plant Process Efficiency with Technology
April 18, 2019
” Improved regulatory control performance contributes to less production waste and energy consumption, fewer quality defects, more throughput, and higher yield. Uncovering – let alone realizing – those benefits is challenging for most process manufacturers given the complexity of their automation environment and the growing responsibilities faced by engineering and maintenance teams. The reports, alerts and metrics included with most controller performance monitoring packages enable those teams to stay one step ahead of issues and downtime.”
The “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality does not bode well for manufacturers who are still relying on their legacy systems instead of adopting a dynamic tool that provides advanced business insights. Many plant controllers are focused on process control analysis and optimization, and they will only get the visibility they need by leveraging a tool that shows how efficient their processes really are and where they can be improved.
Read More at The Process Industry Informer >
How Manufacturers Can Leverage Their Data For Actionable Insights
April 17, 2019
“Manufacturers have a huge opportunity to benefit from data-based insights. Those that are able to analyze and leverage data will be able to make better decisions that propel their organizations to success in a highly competitive climate.”
According to a recent manufacturing technology survey, the use of analytics and data is expected to grow over the next five years. As the capabilities of advanced technologies continues to advance, manufacturers will be able to connect and integrate all pieces of their business: from materials planning and logistics to shop floor output and training. With this comes excessive amounts of data, and simply hoarding all of it is not only ineffective, it is extremely expensive. Manufacturers need to understand what value they can derive from their data that will provide actionable insights for better decisions.
Read More at Manufacturing.net >
