A company can be organized in such a way that its operations are subdivided into subsidiaries, and these may be for manufacturing specifically. A manufacturing company or subsidiary can have divisions which manufacture different types of products. Within the operations of a manufacturing division, there may be specific departments which perform certain operations within the manufacturing process.
Usually companies employ ERP systems (Enterprise Requirements Planning Systems) to report on their internal operations. Internally an ERP system will have several components that enable the reporting for the operations specifically devoted to the manufacturing of the product, but in terms of accounting for these operations, there is also billing, accounts receivable, payroll and accounts payable, as well as reporting which would include internal and external financial reports on operations.
A manufacturing operation has the role of producing a specific product, product group or product line. This includes procuring the raw material, employing labor, converting the materials into a finished product (called work in progress), which may include assembling components of the product, also the company must store materials and finished products until the goods are produced and shipped. Often they employ logistics people who enable the appropriate shipping after the goods are packaged. Material handlers move the product around within the physical boundaries of the company. A distribution department may have to keep manufactured goods stocked at retail outlets.
Information required in the process of manufacturing includes orders, backlog, quotations and bills of material that specify the makeup of the product and the sequence of operations required to turn the materials into a finished good. This also includes the type of labor required to work on the job, batch or flow process. There is also a scheduling process that decides in what order products are to be made. And the ERP system has an inventory component that tracks the quantities purchased and used, in process, finished and shipped.
The Human Resource Department is actively engaged in staffing and structuring the policies for the employment of individuals, their benefits and other considerations. They make certain the employees have the right skills to satisfy the needs of the operations of the company.
There is a lot of important information that management requires about the manufacturing operations including the quantity produced, the ontime deliverables and the planned production, as well as the usage of resources such as material and manpower.
Usually a manufacturing division of a company is treated as a profit center and is responsible for the profitability of the operations of the company, meaning that they must maintain a certain margin on the sale of the product by keeping their costs close to the standards set for the product.
The industrial engineering department is responsible for setting up the machines and the operations to make the product, while the design engineers design new products or upgrade existing products, based on marketing information they receive. The industrial engineers and the cost accountants help to set the standards by which the products are being made to assist in determining the profitablility fo the product.
The product must have a positive margin within a certain range or percentage to be considered profitable and contributing to the overall income of the company. The chief financial officer is involved in assessing profitability of operations. Sales solicits the business, quotes the product pricing and helps customer service establish the orders, based on a credit review. The orders are fed to the manufacturing operations in order to be scheduled.
Externally the manufacturing department must maintain certain types of standards called ISO which states what good procedures are necessary. The manufacturing company must report on their production activities to the government and must maintain certain licensing and other requirements for their products, patents, trademarks etc. For this they need legal assistance and much of this is the overall responsibility of the chief operating officer and/or the chief executive officer.
Warranties often are carried on manufactured goods, and a great deal of information is required to maintain warranties for customers. If something is wrong they can often receive a replacement item or a repair. Customer service enables this as well. Part of manufacturing is devoted to quality control and inspection that should help to control the outcome of warranty programs.
I hope this helps. It is a complex subject. This link may help a lot: from How Stuff is Made
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/