ABSTRACT
According to Ralph Currier Davis in The Fundamentals of Top Management, a project is “any undertaking that has definite, final objectives representing specified values to be used in the satisfaction of some need or desire.” For a project manufacturer this final objective is a physical product that meets the requirements of the customer. The project manufacturer builds products that are very low in volume and extremely high in variety. It is not uncommon to build items that are one of a kind. At the other end of this production spectrum are the process and repetitive manufacturer. The project manufacturers also usually have a requirement to track costs to a top-level project. Projects may span multiple years and the cost collection must continue to aggregate at the very top project level. Managing scope, time, and resources, including costs, is essential for the enterprise. Integrating the overall project plan with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functions can help provide that management control.
