1. The Problem

Food Manufacturer’s ERP system used standard costing models with assumptions that often varied up to 50% from reality. With sales demand exceeding capacity, management needed to decide which orders to accept or decline, but ERP data couldn’t reliably show true profitability by SKU.

2. The Solution:

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Integrated real production data from MES, historian, and ERP with costing models to determine actual cost per SKU. Data included:

  • Raw material consumption

  • Packaging usage

  • Changeover times

  • Waste and rework

  • OEE and production states

FrameworX dashboards visualized this costing intelligence, enabling sales and operations to base decisions on actual margins rather than ERP standards.

Technical Specifications:

  • ERP: Microsoft D365 (Cloud)

  • MES: GE Plant Applications

  • Historian: GE Proficy Historian

  • Front End: Tatsoft FrameworX (dashboards for costing analysis)

  • PLCs: Rockwell Automation

  • Scope: Cost modeling based on years of historical production data

3. Key Enablers:

  • Real-time integration of production metrics with ERP costing

  • FrameworX dashboards to visualize true SKU profitability

  • Flexible data model that grows as more production metrics are tracked

4. The Results:

  • Identified SKUs and customers that appeared profitable but actually lost money

  • Allowed sales to prioritize high-margin orders during capacity constraints

  • Improved bottom line by 10–12% simply by shedding low-margin products

  • Provided sales and marketing tools for negotiating based on real costs

In this section...