On 9/28/07, John Locke <..hidden..> wrote:
Hi,
I think I missed the original post--haven't seen the cable drum case:
THe cable/drum issue is the fact that a supplier of cables also provides the drum free of charge as part of the package. If you buy the drum from someone else, you have to pay. Therefore, you can't rely on other vendor data for the cost of the drum or else your COGS gets potentially skewed as the cable gets undervalued.
Chris Travers wrote:
>
> The large issue is what I call an information completeness problem.
> The fact is, we don't really ever know what the relationship between
> component costs are. Basing this on data from other vendors could run
> into problems (in the cable drum case, for example). Basing the data
> on the same vendor might not give you what you need. But either way
> you cannot *prove* that the flow of information is accurate, so you
> can only make educated guesses about cost relationships.
>
> I would *hope* there are established accounting rules to cover this
> sort of thing. However, I do not know what they are and until I do, I
> don't want to build a system which in all likelihood could be doing it
> wrong.
I have just the client to find out this type of thing, and have been
looking for a way to bring LedgerSMB up to them. They manufacture steel
springs, and have stayed stuck with a circa-1991 custom ERP system
written in FilePro (no, not Filemaker pro--think TRS-80 here) because
they do not have confidence that any of the newer systems will calculate
their wire lengths appropriately.
Sounds to me like we need a "container" system which can hold things like lengths of wire or cable.
This sounds like a perfect way to get them hooked up with LedgerSMB, and
off their much-less maintainable system, and probably get a good
practical scenario to come up with the right calculation. I'll approach
them with this.
This is likely to be a larger project because of the fact you are likely to have other manufacturing considerations as well. Hope your discussions go well!
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers