What is the difference between the average cost method, FIFO, and LIFO methods of inventory value calculation, and why does it matter? Inventory is a crucial component of a business’s financial statements, and it is essential to know how to calculate and record inventory costs. Inventory costs are important for managerial decision-making and for tax purposes, and there are different ways to calculate them, such as the average cost method, FIFO, and LIFO.

Master production scheduling is a production planning process that creates a central document a master production schedule or MPS that tells you what make to stock or sales orders you need to manufacture, what quantity of these products your factory needs to produce, and when these products need to be completed.

From Data to Decisions: AI in Manufacturing  It is not a secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now starting to transform industries globally, and manufacturing is no exception. Mainstream everyday adoption, however, will most probably come from Agentic AI, more commonly referred to as AI Assistants or Agents.  But before we go into how AI …

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As a showcase for the growing worldwide impact of the southern United States’ automotive industry, the Southern Automotive Conference, held at the Chattanooga Convention Center, was a rousing success.

Cloud-Based Tools Driving Manufacturing Success Due to the fast-paced environment of manufacturing, small and medium businesses are extensively tested in competitive markets. They need to meet customer expectations while staying cost-effective. To overcome a vast array of obstacles, manufacturers who decide to implement cloud-based Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions …

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Smart Sequencing for Complex Assembly Line Optimization Assembly line operations have become increasingly more complex from simpler setups producing a few products on dedicated lines to a much greater variety that can be produced on multiple lines, each with multiple line segments. Competing objectives between the different line segments e.g., grouping vs spacing; invalid back-to-back …

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Navigating Tariff Chaos with Attribute-Based Planning With increasingly complex global supply chains, organizations need smarter strategies to navigate tariffs, restrictions, and sourcing challenges while staying compliant. Single-level sourcing management is not good enough. For example, Mexican organizations may need to be able to transact and plan to make sure materials purchased from China do not end up …

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Optimizing Production Planning with Traceability and Attribute-Based Accountability  Organizations must declare where their finished products were manufactured or assembled to comply with regulatory requirements and meet consumer expectations. However, many parts embedded in the product may have been manufactured in different regions, countries or by other organizations around the globe. Moreover, it is not just …

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Is your Digital Transformation stuck in first gear? Similar to shifting gears to keep accelerating a car, a digital transformation strategy is necessary to keep up with today’s business environment. Although the theoretical strategies are easy to design, explicit steps are needed to change processes, avoid pitfalls, and ultimately execute an organizational gear shift.  Before I go on, let me …

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