Your first week as a maker

North & Kiln makes mugs and bowls. The goal of the week: know what a mug costs to make, make the first batch, and see what the shelf could still make.

1. Add the materials

Open Warehouse → Materials and click Add material/component for the clay, the glaze and the shipping box. Pick the Unit each is counted in, and mark the box as Packaging material. Switch on Opening stock and enter the Quantity and Unit cost of what is already on the shelf. If a supplier quotes the glaze by the liter and you stock it by weight, enter its Density, kg/l.

Steps in detail: Add a material, Start with the stock you have today.

2. Set the rates

Open Settings → Positions and add Potter with an Hourly rate. Open Settings → Resources and add Kiln with an Hourly rate for machine time. Leave electricity out of that rate, because overhead already carries it. The position’s rate prices every specification step, so you can cost a mug before you know who throws it.

Steps in detail: Cost the work with positions, works and rates.

3. Write the bill of materials

Add the mug in Catalog → Products first. Then open Production → Bill of Materials, click Add bill of materials, choose Product as the Output kind, choose the mug and set the Batch size. On Contents, click Add materials and enter the quantity of each for one batch, with a Waste % for clay lost in trimming. On Works, click Add operation for throwing (Hourly, position Potter) and the glaze firing (with the Kiln as Machine). For drying, tick Consumes no labor, so the time counts without being paid.

Steps in detail: Write a bill of materials, Count drying and curing time without paying for it.

4. Read the planned cost

The Production cost at the top of the card adds the materials and the works. If it says Incomplete, Set cost and Show materials take you to what has no price or rate. Truecost — cost by category splits the figure into Materials, Labor, Machine time and Overhead. Overhead reaches the product only after you set normal capacity under Finance & team → Overhead.

Steps in detail: Compare planned and actual cost, Add overhead to product cost.

5. Make the first batch

New workspaces start in Simple assembly, where a run is created when you confirm a sales order the shelf cannot cover. On the bill of materials, open the Specification tab and set Automatic production to Create the job and wait for a person. Then confirm a sales order for the mug in Sales → Orders; the run appears in Production → Manufacturing as Planned. If your plan includes multi-level production, you can instead choose Multi-level assembly in Settings → General and click Plan production in Production → Manufacturing.

Open the run and read Required materials, then click Reserve materials. When the batch is done, click Execute, enter Actually made, each material’s Scrap and Actually used, and the Actual hours. Click Confirm and complete.

Steps in detail: Make shortfalls produce themselves, Plan a production order, Complete a production order.

6. Compare planned and actual

The finished run shows What this run cost: materials, labor, machine time and cost per unit, locked for good. Put the cost per unit beside the Production cost on the bill of materials. Then open Finance & team → Cost variance (finance roles only): a material marked Drifted costs more or less than the cost you set, and Adopt actual on its card copies the real figure into the production cost.

Steps in detail: Spot cost drift with cost variance, How a purchase changes what a material costs.

7. See what you could make now

Open Warehouse → Stock matrix and switch on Buildable. Each product shows how many more could be made from the materials on hand. The product card shows the same figure under Buildable, with the material that limits it: Then you run out of the name. Order that material, or let the replenishment plan suggest what to buy.

Steps in detail: See stock across every location, Plan what to reorder.

What you have at the end

Each material’s card shows its stock and its Actual cost.
The bill of materials shows a Production cost that is not Incomplete.
The completed run shows What this run cost, and the materials’ stock dropped by Actually used.
Finance & team → Cost variance lists the mug and its materials with a Variance.
Stock matrix → Buildable gives a number for each product you make.