Production records, inventory control and costing help required
Hi
Hope everyone is well
I'm a newbie from South Africa needing help
I didn't know which section to post so I hope I'm doing the right thing by posting here.
I recently starting manufacturing marshmallows for resale. It's not a big operation but I produce about 200kg a day. What I really need help with is that I have no manufacturing background and I would like to know of ways of keeping records of production and inventory of raw materials including yield and whatever else goes with it.
Since I am a bit tight on finance as this is something new I jus started. If someone can please provide me with ways of keeping these records without any expensive software. Manually or excel would do the trick I'm sure. My process of manufacture is
1. Cooking sugar water and glucose
2. Beating in planetary mixer
3. Either piping in starch molds or rolling and cutting on a table.
4. After drying its packing
Also how would costing be done as the product is one(marshmallow) but making them differently. The one on the table is rolled in coconut. Some days both table and starch are made. How would costing be done for this.
Thank you
Really hope someone can help
I just did a quick Google search & came across this website that offers a product cost & pricing tool.
https://www.smallfoo...ing-calculator/
On one hand, it costs $49.00 (not terribly expensive). On the other, maybe if you look at the screenshots of the tool you can figure out how to make one of your own without having to spend the $49.00. It's worth a shot. Also, if you don't have any luck with that; try Google-ing production costing calculator, or something like that. Hope this helps.
I just did a quick Google search & came across this website that offers a product cost & pricing tool.
https://www.smallfoo...ing-calculator/
On one hand, it costs $49.00 (not terribly expensive). On the other, maybe if you look at the screenshots of the tool you can figure out how to make one of your own without having to spend the $49.00. It's worth a shot. Also, if you don't have any luck with that; try Google-ing production costing calculator, or something like that. Hope this helps.
Here's the search I did:
Good cost control requires proper records to be generated direct from the floor. To help achieve this, a simple one-page document can be used to follow the day's batch through the whole process from the initial mixing to end packing. At each process step, record the various quantities of ingredients, relevant batch details for traceability, and labour hours that it took to complete that process.
The document follows the product. In some processes, the document might be "on the floor" for a number of days!
Whilst it might be tempting to have the form pre-filled with the ingredient quantities, my preference is not to. This forces those responsible to write in the measured quantities, which is easier to refer to should you need to troubleshoot any quality-related issues down the track.
Once the production record has followed the product through to storage, the details can be entered into a simple spreadsheet which will allow you to determine accurate cost for not only each completed batch, but for each process relating to that batch.
To get your thought processes going, an example production record is attached. Once you use it a couple of times on the production floor, you will know what needs to be changed to suit your particular process application.
Good Luck with it all !
hi Dandy and Steve
thank you so much for your responses. i reall appreciate it
but how do i account for yield losses or rather how would yirld losses be worked out and recorded. im sure there would be alot of admin work involved here.
im really sorry for the questions i ask. its like ive never been to school. im sure they are really simple to accomplish but i guess i make it hard tinking too much..
i also manufacture peanut brittle and sherbet straws.would that batch record sheet work for both. all my products are made by hand.
i just cant seem to get myself to do these records or rather say i dwell so much into it and end up doing nothing.
my peanut brittle is a made on a table which is rolled and cut. then its packed into 200g 500g or 1kg packets.on some days all 3 sizes are packed. how would all this be recorded from beginning to when adding it into stock?
the sherbet straws are made by one staff only. 2 days for sealing empty straws 2 days for sealing full straws and has help with the packaging. the straws come in bales of 1500 and smaller ones in bales of 10000. how does one keep record of this. theres no guarantee u going to get the full 1500 ior 10000 in the bale?