by Mark Porter
In any business knowing your costs is important. After all isn't Profit = Sales - Costs. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits. Sure at the end of the year you can say I made money or I lost money but if you control your costs and use your cost data to make better business decisions you may not lose money and you may be able to say I made MORE money.
There are many benefits to a Job Costing System.
1. Capturing all costs incurred by a job for billing purposes
2. Analysis of Jobs to identify process or employee problems
3. Compare Estimate to Actual Values to ensure they are in sync
4. Production & Employee Analysis to ensure standards are met
5. Work In Process
6. Analyze time spent by all Employees and Machines
7. Payroll Benefits
Last and certainly not least ACCOUNTABILITY
I don't think it matters if you are the person sweeping the plant floors or the president of the company - if you have to account for every minute of your day and every material you use you will become more productive and less wasteful.
This can add up to tremendous savings. Lets say we get even a modest 5% increase in productivity and 5% decrease in waste. Extend that to the money that flows through your plant each year. On $2,000,000 dollars that is a $100,000 savings.
There are several methods to record time and materials in the plant and each method has different levels of accountability.
1. Employees simply writing their time on the back of the Job Bag provides little value either in costing the job or in accountability. The employee can simply place the time and materials he thinks you want to see. You have no way of knowng if the time he wrote down reflects the true time spent.
2. Employees manually writing out time sheets is a step closer because at least the employee has to account for his time within the structure of his day. But again if he knows he took way too long on a process he can factor it in over the course of a day.
3. Real Time Tracking is the most accurate and therefore profitable method. The employee simply enters that he is starting or finishing a process. the system keeps track of start and stop times in real time. The employee knows he can be held accountable for every minute of the day.
Real time tracking means that you can see the location of a job, the activity of a machine or the process an employee is doing at any time from any pc. Not only is the employee accountable for his time - it can be viewed at any time.
And accurate time collection leads to other benefits such as accurate analysis of employee and machine time. Job Costing provides many benefits, which we will look at in future articles, but accountability is a huge benefit that leads to greater profits which good for you and the employees.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
PURCHASING - ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PROFIT PUZZLE
By Mark Porter
All companies have to purchase both materials and services in their day to day activities. The levels of those purchases can vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Certainly the industries of Print Finishing, Trade Binding and Diemaking are more labor based then material based but purchases must still be made.
These days anytime money leaves your company it is vital that you have accountability for that money and confirmation that you received the value you expected for the funds.
Purchase Orders should be generated for all purchases. This includes items for specific jobs, materials for inventory, any outside labor services and general office purchases such as supplies.
Issuing purchase orders whether written or verbal is the same as writing a check from your company to the vendor . Whether your company makes many purchases or only a few each one represents money leaving your company that should be controled.
A Purchasing System should record every purchase order issued. This provides accountability of who is issuing purchase orders and where they are being sent to. By making people accountable for the purchase orders they issue you will ensure they are more careful with the purchases they make.
When goods or services are received they should be matched up to the original purchase order to ensure that you have received the full order, more than was ordered or if items are still to be received.
When the Vendor Invoice is received it should be matched up to the original purchase order to check that the prices on the invoice match the prices that were approved on the purchase order.
The Vendor Invoice should also be matched up to the receipt of goods to ensure that the vendor is not billing you for more goods than you actually received.
Our industries are so job based it is often a good idea to take a step back and view purchases by vendor and employees issuing POs.
By ensuring your company follows these procedures you can tighten your financial control of another aspect of your business to ensure you are maximizing the success of your company.
All companies have to purchase both materials and services in their day to day activities. The levels of those purchases can vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Certainly the industries of Print Finishing, Trade Binding and Diemaking are more labor based then material based but purchases must still be made.
These days anytime money leaves your company it is vital that you have accountability for that money and confirmation that you received the value you expected for the funds.
Purchase Orders should be generated for all purchases. This includes items for specific jobs, materials for inventory, any outside labor services and general office purchases such as supplies.
Issuing purchase orders whether written or verbal is the same as writing a check from your company to the vendor . Whether your company makes many purchases or only a few each one represents money leaving your company that should be controled.
A Purchasing System should record every purchase order issued. This provides accountability of who is issuing purchase orders and where they are being sent to. By making people accountable for the purchase orders they issue you will ensure they are more careful with the purchases they make.
When goods or services are received they should be matched up to the original purchase order to ensure that you have received the full order, more than was ordered or if items are still to be received.
When the Vendor Invoice is received it should be matched up to the original purchase order to check that the prices on the invoice match the prices that were approved on the purchase order.
The Vendor Invoice should also be matched up to the receipt of goods to ensure that the vendor is not billing you for more goods than you actually received.
Our industries are so job based it is often a good idea to take a step back and view purchases by vendor and employees issuing POs.
By ensuring your company follows these procedures you can tighten your financial control of another aspect of your business to ensure you are maximizing the success of your company.
Monday, January 24, 2011
DASHBOARDS - CONSTANTLY SCANNING YOUR BUSINESS
By Mark Porter
Your business generates a great deal of information but often there are key pieces of information that you use to monitor the pulse of the company.
The Dashboard of a car is a great analogy. There are many things going on in the operation of the car but the main pieces of information Gas, Speed, Oil Pressure and Temperature can be monitored and adjusted to ensure you get to your planned destination.
Different members of your staff will have different information needs. The President may be concerned with one set of data while the Plant Manager may need to focus on different data to ensure that he can perform his tasks to maximum efficiency.
Information Technology Dashboards save you tremendous time by automatically compiling and displaying key information from different modules on one screen and refreshing that information in a timely manner.
You eliminate the need to consult with multiple people to get data or to have to access and combine information fromseveral reports.
Information is always upto date and your access to it is never dependant on the availability of other people.
Data can be accessed from anywhere via gotomypc or your smartphone.
Now at any momement you may see a breakdown of estimates that have been done by Job Type. This can predict how busy you will be in the near future. If all the estimates you have done are for work we typically don't get then we must generate more business.
Listing of Jobs Opened. If we have opened 10 jobs but they are all Perfect Bound jobs we may be in to a overload situation that must be dealt with.
Hours booked against key pieces of equipment like the Perfect Binder or Bobst press.
Jobs Invoiced and their profitability.
Each Manager is different in their information needs but the information they need to make the best business decisions should be at their finger tips.
Your business generates a great deal of information but often there are key pieces of information that you use to monitor the pulse of the company.
The Dashboard of a car is a great analogy. There are many things going on in the operation of the car but the main pieces of information Gas, Speed, Oil Pressure and Temperature can be monitored and adjusted to ensure you get to your planned destination.
Different members of your staff will have different information needs. The President may be concerned with one set of data while the Plant Manager may need to focus on different data to ensure that he can perform his tasks to maximum efficiency.
Information Technology Dashboards save you tremendous time by automatically compiling and displaying key information from different modules on one screen and refreshing that information in a timely manner.
You eliminate the need to consult with multiple people to get data or to have to access and combine information fromseveral reports.
Information is always upto date and your access to it is never dependant on the availability of other people.
Data can be accessed from anywhere via gotomypc or your smartphone.
Now at any momement you may see a breakdown of estimates that have been done by Job Type. This can predict how busy you will be in the near future. If all the estimates you have done are for work we typically don't get then we must generate more business.
Listing of Jobs Opened. If we have opened 10 jobs but they are all Perfect Bound jobs we may be in to a overload situation that must be dealt with.
Hours booked against key pieces of equipment like the Perfect Binder or Bobst press.
Jobs Invoiced and their profitability.
Each Manager is different in their information needs but the information they need to make the best business decisions should be at their finger tips.
Monday, December 20, 2010
TURNING PROBLEMS TO POSITIVES
By Mark Porter
As the old saying goes "When life gives you lemons make lemonade". This can be applied to the daily problems you encounter in your business.
Documenting and recording problems provides several benefits to your company and you can actually turn problems around to strengthen relationships with customers, vendors, employees and improve operating procedures.
Providing employees easy entry of information such as Job Number, Customer, Vendor, Employee, Department, Problem Type (Paper, MR, etc), Quantity effected, Problem Description, Problem Solution etc allows you to sort and analyze problems which can provide many benefits such as:
Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice
Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees
Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage
1. Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice
Another old saying goes "Your not stupid for making a mistake just for making the same mistake twice."
By recording problems against jobs you can be immediately notified when re quoting or rerunning that job of the issues incurred last time. At the estimate stage it allows you to re quote the job based on the previous information or at Order Entry you have the option to not proceed with the job if the customer is not willing to incur the extra costs this time around.
2. Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Recording problems and solutions builds a knowledge base that can be accessed by employees in the future. By entering the problems with data such as department, problem type employee etc allows us to shorten the solution time to similar problems in the future.
Combine this with the ability to add video and images of the problems/solutions to the database and you can learn from your previous mistakes.
3. Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees
Generate a list of problems you have with good customers each quarter and then discuss those issues and offer solutions with the customer. Continually refining the working relationship between your company and customers allows you to produce higher quality, better priced and better serviced products for them. This strengthens the bond with that customer ensuring it takes a bigger mistake or price difference for them to take their business elsewhere.
The same logic applies to vendors and employees. By discussing issues with people you strengthen the working relationships to the betterment of your company.
Trends can be seen with employees and certain operations. Say an employee is always having problems with MR a certain product. Additional training can be provided. Trends with Vendor materials continually causing problems can be identified and rectified.
4. Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage
If nothing else documenting problems can save money and relationships in the event of disputes. The more documentation you have the more you reinforce your position to the other party in a constructive and articulate way. This can reduce or eliminate your liability and open the possibility to future business.
So next time you make mistake make your company stronger for the experience
As the old saying goes "When life gives you lemons make lemonade". This can be applied to the daily problems you encounter in your business.
Documenting and recording problems provides several benefits to your company and you can actually turn problems around to strengthen relationships with customers, vendors, employees and improve operating procedures.
Providing employees easy entry of information such as Job Number, Customer, Vendor, Employee, Department, Problem Type (Paper, MR, etc), Quantity effected, Problem Description, Problem Solution etc allows you to sort and analyze problems which can provide many benefits such as:
Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice
Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees
Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage
1. Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice
Another old saying goes "Your not stupid for making a mistake just for making the same mistake twice."
By recording problems against jobs you can be immediately notified when re quoting or rerunning that job of the issues incurred last time. At the estimate stage it allows you to re quote the job based on the previous information or at Order Entry you have the option to not proceed with the job if the customer is not willing to incur the extra costs this time around.
2. Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Recording problems and solutions builds a knowledge base that can be accessed by employees in the future. By entering the problems with data such as department, problem type employee etc allows us to shorten the solution time to similar problems in the future.
Combine this with the ability to add video and images of the problems/solutions to the database and you can learn from your previous mistakes.
3. Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees
Generate a list of problems you have with good customers each quarter and then discuss those issues and offer solutions with the customer. Continually refining the working relationship between your company and customers allows you to produce higher quality, better priced and better serviced products for them. This strengthens the bond with that customer ensuring it takes a bigger mistake or price difference for them to take their business elsewhere.
The same logic applies to vendors and employees. By discussing issues with people you strengthen the working relationships to the betterment of your company.
Trends can be seen with employees and certain operations. Say an employee is always having problems with MR a certain product. Additional training can be provided. Trends with Vendor materials continually causing problems can be identified and rectified.
4. Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage
If nothing else documenting problems can save money and relationships in the event of disputes. The more documentation you have the more you reinforce your position to the other party in a constructive and articulate way. This can reduce or eliminate your liability and open the possibility to future business.
So next time you make mistake make your company stronger for the experience
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
CASH IS KING
By Mark Porter
Controlling your cash is vital in today's economy but you are probably also under staffed and over worked - a perfect combination that can lead to missing items that can greatly effect your cash flow.
Therefore it is vital that you have the check and balances built into your operations that will help avoid bad customers, missed charges, paying too much to vendors and maintaining cash flow.
We are not going to look at this topic from the accounting side. We will assume that everyone has an accounting system such as Quickbooks or Peachtree etc and is watching their aging process (the accounts not themselves). We will deal with the management side in this Blog.
Avoid Bad Customers: Debt from one Bad Customer can wipe out profit from a lot of Good Jobs so it is vital that you stay on top of COD and delinquent customers. These days this information can be continually changing and it is important that everyone is aware of a customer's status. There is nothing worse then shipping a job to a customer on COD before getting the money or calling a customer to tell them you are holding their job back only to find out they sent you a check earlier.
Allowing Management to make credit decisions on customers and to convey that decision immediately to other staff is very important. Management can simply flag a customer as COD or On Hold and immediately order entry people cannot open orders without a security password and shipping people cannot create packing slips without a security password.
Chargeable Changes: Profit margins on jobs are so thin these days that any extra work can turn a job from money maker to money loser. It is vital that you track your chargeable changes and collect them from your customer. Implement a system that will document all changes made to the order from the time you agree to do the job until you ship that job to the customer. The changes should be Date / Time / Employee and Reason stamped. Change Orders should be sent and immediately email notification to the customers of the changes. These changes should be immediately reflected on the invoice but allow for changes at that time.
If you keep record of every change and document the reasons for the changes you will collect your legitimate extra fees.
Start Your Aging As Soon As Possible: We all know that customers are going to take their time paying you whether that is 30, 60, 90, 120 days so the sooner you can start the clock the better. When you generate your physical invoice automatically email a pdf copy of it to your customer at the same time. This avoids any delay in mailing invoices and allows you to collect your money days earlier.
Customers will want your invoice asap so that they can bill their customers and keep their cash flow going. You may not get your money any sooner but you will become a more desirable vendor for them.
Don't Miss Any Jobs: Reduced staffs and hurried work schedules can lead to people doing things they forget about. Maybe a job is shipped and then your plant manager pulls the Job Bag to write something on it and then forgets to but it back in the billing file. Or maybe the job bag fell behind the shippers desk. The end result is a shipped job that isn't billed at all or billed at a much later date when it is found which is uncomfortable and embarrassing.
Run reports each Friday that provide a list of jobs shipped but not invoiced. Don't let any hard earned money slip through your fingers.
Don't Over Pay Purchases: Everyone makes mistakes including suppliers but you shouldn't have to pay for their mistakes. By issuing POs, recording receipts and entering Vendor Invoices you can be instantly flagged when the invoice price varies from the PO and the Quantity billed exceeds the Quantity received. You work hard for your money don't give it away to suppliers.
Other Production Tips There many other production ways to watch your cash but we covered those in our May Blog.
Controlling your cash is vital in today's economy but you are probably also under staffed and over worked - a perfect combination that can lead to missing items that can greatly effect your cash flow.
Therefore it is vital that you have the check and balances built into your operations that will help avoid bad customers, missed charges, paying too much to vendors and maintaining cash flow.
We are not going to look at this topic from the accounting side. We will assume that everyone has an accounting system such as Quickbooks or Peachtree etc and is watching their aging process (the accounts not themselves). We will deal with the management side in this Blog.
Avoid Bad Customers: Debt from one Bad Customer can wipe out profit from a lot of Good Jobs so it is vital that you stay on top of COD and delinquent customers. These days this information can be continually changing and it is important that everyone is aware of a customer's status. There is nothing worse then shipping a job to a customer on COD before getting the money or calling a customer to tell them you are holding their job back only to find out they sent you a check earlier.
Allowing Management to make credit decisions on customers and to convey that decision immediately to other staff is very important. Management can simply flag a customer as COD or On Hold and immediately order entry people cannot open orders without a security password and shipping people cannot create packing slips without a security password.
Chargeable Changes: Profit margins on jobs are so thin these days that any extra work can turn a job from money maker to money loser. It is vital that you track your chargeable changes and collect them from your customer. Implement a system that will document all changes made to the order from the time you agree to do the job until you ship that job to the customer. The changes should be Date / Time / Employee and Reason stamped. Change Orders should be sent and immediately email notification to the customers of the changes. These changes should be immediately reflected on the invoice but allow for changes at that time.
If you keep record of every change and document the reasons for the changes you will collect your legitimate extra fees.
Start Your Aging As Soon As Possible: We all know that customers are going to take their time paying you whether that is 30, 60, 90, 120 days so the sooner you can start the clock the better. When you generate your physical invoice automatically email a pdf copy of it to your customer at the same time. This avoids any delay in mailing invoices and allows you to collect your money days earlier.
Customers will want your invoice asap so that they can bill their customers and keep their cash flow going. You may not get your money any sooner but you will become a more desirable vendor for them.
Don't Miss Any Jobs: Reduced staffs and hurried work schedules can lead to people doing things they forget about. Maybe a job is shipped and then your plant manager pulls the Job Bag to write something on it and then forgets to but it back in the billing file. Or maybe the job bag fell behind the shippers desk. The end result is a shipped job that isn't billed at all or billed at a much later date when it is found which is uncomfortable and embarrassing.
Run reports each Friday that provide a list of jobs shipped but not invoiced. Don't let any hard earned money slip through your fingers.
Don't Over Pay Purchases: Everyone makes mistakes including suppliers but you shouldn't have to pay for their mistakes. By issuing POs, recording receipts and entering Vendor Invoices you can be instantly flagged when the invoice price varies from the PO and the Quantity billed exceeds the Quantity received. You work hard for your money don't give it away to suppliers.
Other Production Tips There many other production ways to watch your cash but we covered those in our May Blog.
Monday, October 25, 2010
CUSTOMER PROFILING LEADS TO CUSTOMER PROFITS
By Mark Porter
It has always been important to treat every customer as if they are your best customer. These days it is even more important that all customers are handled with the greatest of care.
There is no room for error because there is always another company down the street willing to pounce on your mistakes.
Great customer service does many good things
1. Avoid embarrassing Mistakes that lose Customers
2. Avoid re-doing work that costs you money
3. Avoid Production Delays that cost money and miss deadlines
4. Fends off competition that is willing to do a job for slightly less than your price.
The problem is that part of great customer service is knowing all the different details on how a customer likes to operate. What we call the Customer Profile.
This is often a knowledge base accumulated in a CSR or owner's head that cannot be easily dispersed to other members of your staff.
Samples of this type of information are:
Must have PO to Start Job
Must provide 2 samples to President
No Deliveries after 5pm, must use their truck
Dies for Bobst Press must use 3pt rule, Birch Board, Red Rhino Rubber
Never more than 35lbs per carton
Always Wrap skids
By making this knowledge base accessible to all staff members it means that Good Customer Service is not dependant on the availability of one person.
When a database of this knowledge or Customer Profile is accumulated it can be accessed by:
Estimating - Ensuring they have all details at the beginning of the estimate avoids embarrassing extra charges or worse additional costs you can't get back when the job is produced.
Order Entry - Access to the Customer Profile when a job is opened ensures production has a solid foundation to produce a profitable job. Changes to jobs once production begins leads to costs, production delays and missed deadlines.
Production - Production Employee access to the Customer Profile allows staff to make educated decisions on situations that occur in non office hours or when the CSR or owner are not available.
Administration - Office Staff can work with clients in terms of samples, deliveries invoices etc exactly as the customer demands.
Sales - Your knowledge base of customers can be a sales tool to gain more customers. When you do your plant tours and show prospects the equipment and employees that will produce their jobs, show a sample of the knowledge base and help support your claims of quality and customer service.
Companies find the Customer Profiling so important that the knowledge base is employee and date stamped whenever a change is made to it. This provides complete accountability to your customer service process.
Accumulating Customer Profile Information and making it accessible throughout your company leads to accumulating Customer Profits.
It has always been important to treat every customer as if they are your best customer. These days it is even more important that all customers are handled with the greatest of care.
There is no room for error because there is always another company down the street willing to pounce on your mistakes.
Great customer service does many good things
1. Avoid embarrassing Mistakes that lose Customers
2. Avoid re-doing work that costs you money
3. Avoid Production Delays that cost money and miss deadlines
4. Fends off competition that is willing to do a job for slightly less than your price.
The problem is that part of great customer service is knowing all the different details on how a customer likes to operate. What we call the Customer Profile.
This is often a knowledge base accumulated in a CSR or owner's head that cannot be easily dispersed to other members of your staff.
Samples of this type of information are:
Must have PO to Start Job
Must provide 2 samples to President
No Deliveries after 5pm, must use their truck
Dies for Bobst Press must use 3pt rule, Birch Board, Red Rhino Rubber
Never more than 35lbs per carton
Always Wrap skids
By making this knowledge base accessible to all staff members it means that Good Customer Service is not dependant on the availability of one person.
When a database of this knowledge or Customer Profile is accumulated it can be accessed by:
Estimating - Ensuring they have all details at the beginning of the estimate avoids embarrassing extra charges or worse additional costs you can't get back when the job is produced.
Order Entry - Access to the Customer Profile when a job is opened ensures production has a solid foundation to produce a profitable job. Changes to jobs once production begins leads to costs, production delays and missed deadlines.
Production - Production Employee access to the Customer Profile allows staff to make educated decisions on situations that occur in non office hours or when the CSR or owner are not available.
Administration - Office Staff can work with clients in terms of samples, deliveries invoices etc exactly as the customer demands.
Sales - Your knowledge base of customers can be a sales tool to gain more customers. When you do your plant tours and show prospects the equipment and employees that will produce their jobs, show a sample of the knowledge base and help support your claims of quality and customer service.
Companies find the Customer Profiling so important that the knowledge base is employee and date stamped whenever a change is made to it. This provides complete accountability to your customer service process.
Accumulating Customer Profile Information and making it accessible throughout your company leads to accumulating Customer Profits.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
KNOWING WHATS NOT HAPPENING IS IMPORTANT TOO
By Mark Porter
Information is obviously very valuable because it identifies what is happening in your business.
For example how many estimates did you do last month. What did it cost you to run that job. How much revenue was generated by different job types. etc.
But Information can also provide tremendous value by telling you what is not happening in your business.
We often call these Exception Reports. They identify things that didn't or aren't happening in your company and this can be invaluable information.
Lets look at some examples.
What if every Friday afternoon you could get a list of all jobs shipped last week but not billed. This information can be determined very quickly and avoids the potential situation of losing revenue or the embarassement of billing a customer much later when the mistake is evetually discovered.
You can also avoid the even more embarrassing situation of Jobs Billed but Not Shipped.
Another example of identifying things that are not happening in your business can be in the area of No Recent Estimates or No Recent jobs.
You can identify when a customer is starting to move his business to another supplier. The sooner your company can identify this trend the greater your chance of correcting the situation and gaining back the customer's confidence and revenue.
It is great to know what jobs were shipped today but it is just as important to know which jobs were scheduled to be shipped to day and weren't.
Won/Loss Estimate Reports not only tell you the customers and job types you are doing well with but also identify customers and job types that are fading and again allowing you to identify that trend as soon as possible so that you can take corrective action.
It is always good to know what goods you received today but it is tremendous value to know as soon as possible which goods didn't show up. Goods that didn't arrive on time threaten delivery times and throw off production schedules.
Knowing which employees on the first shift clocked in can be useful but the real value is identifying how many and which employees didn't clock in so that you can adjust the production schedule accordingly or call in more help.
It is great to know which dies were used but it is also good to know which dies have not been used in the last 2 years so that they can be destroyed or sent back to the customer.
So we can see that Information can bring tremendous benefits by telling you what is happening in your business but it can also bring tremendous benefit by telling you what is not happening in your business
Information is obviously very valuable because it identifies what is happening in your business.
For example how many estimates did you do last month. What did it cost you to run that job. How much revenue was generated by different job types. etc.
But Information can also provide tremendous value by telling you what is not happening in your business.
We often call these Exception Reports. They identify things that didn't or aren't happening in your company and this can be invaluable information.
Lets look at some examples.
What if every Friday afternoon you could get a list of all jobs shipped last week but not billed. This information can be determined very quickly and avoids the potential situation of losing revenue or the embarassement of billing a customer much later when the mistake is evetually discovered.
You can also avoid the even more embarrassing situation of Jobs Billed but Not Shipped.
Another example of identifying things that are not happening in your business can be in the area of No Recent Estimates or No Recent jobs.
You can identify when a customer is starting to move his business to another supplier. The sooner your company can identify this trend the greater your chance of correcting the situation and gaining back the customer's confidence and revenue.
It is great to know what jobs were shipped today but it is just as important to know which jobs were scheduled to be shipped to day and weren't.
Won/Loss Estimate Reports not only tell you the customers and job types you are doing well with but also identify customers and job types that are fading and again allowing you to identify that trend as soon as possible so that you can take corrective action.
It is always good to know what goods you received today but it is tremendous value to know as soon as possible which goods didn't show up. Goods that didn't arrive on time threaten delivery times and throw off production schedules.
Knowing which employees on the first shift clocked in can be useful but the real value is identifying how many and which employees didn't clock in so that you can adjust the production schedule accordingly or call in more help.
It is great to know which dies were used but it is also good to know which dies have not been used in the last 2 years so that they can be destroyed or sent back to the customer.
So we can see that Information can bring tremendous benefits by telling you what is happening in your business but it can also bring tremendous benefit by telling you what is not happening in your business
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