Original Date: 06/05/2006
Revision Date: / /

Rockwell Collins has implemented manufacturing resource planning functionality that allows proper allocation of costs and supports determining completion progress of various hardware being built on a common production line, even when funded from multiple government cost-plus customers.

The Rockwell Collins Cedar Rapids facility was in a situation where government cost-plus contract accounting and the company Enterprise Resource Planning/Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) system forced separate build groups for each customer’s contract, even though common engineering development model (EDM) hardware was involved. The system in place made it difficult to exchange common hardware and transfer costs between contracts if needed. The process was also time-consuming to release orders and required work-completed percentages to be determined outside the MRP system in spreadsheets. Entering data from the MRP system to the spreadsheets and back into the MRP system was also prone to human error. These problems were aggravated by the fact that the company was producing hundreds of EDM systems on a preproduction cost-plus contract, with quantities expected to approach 1,000.

To allow for more efficient builds of common hardware for multiple customers, Rockwell Collins implemented a change to its MRP system. The newly implemented MRP functionality allows for all build and test of common hardware to be performed in one group, regardless of different cost-plus customer origins. These costs are then pegged automatically to the correct contract and distributed using a process called “group pegging and distribution.”

Earned value and other claims reporting formerly accomplished external to the MRP system in spreadsheets are now accomplished in a new MRP workbench, saving many hours of effort. Benefits of this new process include: