Page 127 -

Production and Supply Chain Management Information Systems
accounting information that allows managers to better evaluate schedule trade-offs in
terms of costs to the company.
Providing Production Data to Accounting
In Chapter 1, you learned that for a company to be successful functional areas must share
107
data. Accounting needs to know what Manufacturing has produced and what resources
were used in producing those products, to determine which products, if any, are producing
a profit—and then provide information for management to determine how to increase
profits. In manufacturing plants, ERP systems do not directly connect with production
machines. For example, in Fitter’s case, SAP ERP could not directly read the number of
bars that came off the packing segment of the snack bar line. The data must be gathered in
some way and then entered into SAP ERP for inventory accounting purposes.
Data can be entered into SAP ERP through a PC on the shop floor, scanned using bar-
code or RFID technology (discussed in more detail in Chapter 8), or entered using a mobile
device. SAP ERP is an open-architecture system, meaning that it can work with automated
data-collection tools marketed by third-party hardware and software companies.
In an integrated ERP system, the accounting impact of a material transaction can be
recorded automatically. For example, when a shipment of oats arrives at the Fitter plant,
someone in the Receiving Department must verify the material and the quantity and quality
of the shipment before it is accepted. Once Fitter accepts the shipment, Receiving must notify
the SAP ERP system of the arrival and acceptance of the material. This communication is
done by completing a goods receipt transaction, which is shown in Figure 4-23.

Source Line: SAP AG.
FIGURE 4-23 Goods Receipt screen in SAP ERP

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.