Manufacturing

Our Expertise

Turn mounting manufacturing challenges into opportunity

The manufacturing industry continues to face significant challenges. Rising costs, labor woes, supply chain disruption, complex regulations, and an evolving trade and tariff environment are putting leaders to the test. As experienced manufacturing accounting, tax, and consulting advisors, we’ll help you get ahead of constant challenges and seize transformative opportunities for your business.

We were founded in the Midwest — the heart of American manufacturing — and we’ve been serving manufacturing and distribution clients for 100 years. Our manufacturing practice is the largest in our firm, with over 3,000 clients and 400 experts representing this industry alone. Our experts have a thorough understanding of the manufacturing industry with knowledge gained from hands-on client experience, comprehensive industry training, professional association involvement, and proprietary market forecasts and benchmarking data. We serve owner-managed manufacturing businesses, global market leaders, and private equity firms across the largest sectors, including food and beverage; automotive and mobility; dealerships; plastics; metals; chemicals; aerospace and defense; machinery and equipment; and transportation and distribution.

Strategies to find your advantage amid rapid change

Manufacturing leaders rely on our accounting, assurance, tax, consulting, and wealth management services to excel in an evolving world. Here’s how we can help you navigate today’s top challenges.

Grow or diversify your business with M&A opportunities

Industry consolidation, digital transformation, sustainability, reshoring, and industry diversification are all trends driving M&A activity in the manufacturing industry. In today’s rapidly changing and uncertain environment, strategic M&A provides opportunity amid global and domestic unpredictability. Discover how your manufacturing company could explore M&A as a dynamic strategic vehicle to drive expansion, growth, and financial performance.

Integrate AI, technology, and automation on the plant floor

Does your manufacturing company struggle with manual processes, siloed data, and lack of real-time insight into operations? Smart technology is revolutionizing traditional manufacturing, but it can come with considerable price tags. The truth is smart manufacturing isn’t an option — it’s the inevitable future. Learn how your manufacturing company can harness Industry 4.0 technologies that lead to greater flexibility in processes, increased productivity and revenue, and higher-quality production.

Mitigate supply chain disruption and better forecast demand

Geopolitical complications, labor shortages, and continually shifting optimum manufacturing locations are creating extreme disruption and challenges for manufacturers. From managing evolving trade and tariff policy to sourcing and tracking, the strength and flexibility across your supply chain must be assessed. Learn how you can make your supply chain more agile, adaptive, and sustainable — with technology as the enabler — starting with our supplier risk assessment guide.

Offset investment costs with tax credits and incentives

Nearly every financial decision related to your manufacturing business has tax implications, and it’s critical that you’re continually informed at the federal, state, local, and international levels. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created sweeping tax credits and incentives for manufacturers — are you taking advantage of the IRA and other tax laws? Dig deeper into how manufacturers can specifically benefit from Section 45X advanced manufacturing production credit as well as other tax credits and incentives to help offset tax liabilities.

Streamline or enhance manufacturing strategy and operations

Manufacturing executives are spending considerable time managing transformation and disruption and too often forget about their strategy. Whether it’s leaning into a more flexible operating model or achieving greater efficiency through AI/machine learning, automation, and robotic process automation (RPA) to stay competitive, manufacturers need to invest in smart technology — and even smarter and more flexible practices — to drive operational efficiencies and improve utilization.

Use adaptive costing to improve profitability and lower costs

Do you know where you’re making money and where you aren’t? Poorly designed or implemented costing and estimating processes can do more harm than good. Whether you’re adapting to changes to your cost structure from personnel, infrastructure, or operations or trying to address flat or negative margins, understanding your true cost and margins is critical. Learn how to quickly adapt to changes like supply chain disruption with an adaptive, predictive cost and margin intelligence model.

Discover strategies to manage trade & tariff impacts

See how we’ll help

If you’ve prioritized developing an ESG strategy but don’t know where to begin, we can help.

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Upcoming Events & Webinars

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Revisions to Chinese reciprocal tariffs

Blog / 2 min read

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Case Studies

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Interior photo of one of Carhartt's stores with Carhartt apparel on the shelves

June 06, 2024

Carhartt: The story behind overall dependability

For 135 years, Carhartt has made high-quality, durable clothing for hardworking people everywhere. And just as they rely on Carhartt’s dependable workwear, Carhartt counts on us for dependable compliance and consulting services. Here’s their story.

Case Study / 3 min watch

Business professionals having a meeting together while looking at a laptop computer screen

May 16, 2024

Gorilla Glue enhances decision-making with cost and margin intelligence

Gorilla Glue needed to establish and integrate best-in-class standard costing and cost-to-serve metrics in a new ERP system. Plante Moran answered their call for guidance.

Case Study / 2 min read

Exterior photo of a New Belgium Brewing Company location

June 04, 2024

New Belgium Brewing Company: How we champion big celebrations

For over 30 years, New Belgium Brewing Company has been a cornerstone of the craft brewing industry. They’ve experienced tremendous growth and many changes — and through it all, they’ve counted on us to help keep making world-class beer. Here’s how.

Case Study / 3 min watch

Client Experience

The right partner to take you to the next level

Clients tell us our people are our secret weapon. We build lasting relationships to foster a client-focused, collaborative culture. We know the manufacturing industry inside and out — and the better we know you, the better we serve you. We entrench ourselves in your businesses, from the shop floor to the boardroom, to keep you positioned for success.

Future-focused manufacturers today need creative thinking, multiple perspectives, and bold ideas from their professional services provider. That’s why we involve multiple, knowledgeable Plante Moran partners for every client we work with. We refer to this extra level of partner involvement as our colleague partner approach to working with clients, and it allows us to ensure you’re getting the best possible ideas and guidance well beyond the immediate needs of your engagement. And, with some of the lowest turnover rates in the industry, you’ll get consistent service from a team you trust.

In the words of Brian Wiedenhoeft, our manufacturing industry group leader, “When we work with clients, we’re always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. We tailor everything we do to match your unique needs because we want you to succeed, and because we know the industry so well, there’s no challenge we can’t handle.”

Our clients say

What I value most about working with Plante Moran is the trust I have in their expertise, truthfulness, and transparency. Their work on our tax provisions, annual tax filings, and R&D tax credit give me confidence I’m fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility as CFO.
In addition to tax services, Plante Moran also consulted with us on a significant operational investment for one of our largest U.S. metal plants. They assisted us with financial modeling, overhauling our coating and finishing lines, and increasing our return on investment.
No matter what issue I bring to them, their expertise is spot on. Even if they don’t have the answer right away, they’ll connect me to other people at the firm who do. Beyond being super knowledgeable, they’re personable and easy to relate to. I always feel like they care about our business and want to be successful in meeting our needs.

Andrew Callahan

Chief Financial Officer, ARaymond North America

Our transition to Plante Moran was remarkably smooth. We were impressed with the experience level and knowledge of everyone that worked on our audit. The communication and planning were exceptional, meeting all of our expectations, requirements, and deadlines.

Jim DeVleeschouwer

Corporate Controller, PVS Chemicals, Inc.

FT Precision engaged Plante Moran to assist with implementation of a new ERP software, Plex. One of the main reasons we partnered with Plante Moran was their bilingual capabilities. Being a Japanese-English company, it was very important to have smooth communication with our executives and our people on the shop floor, especially when our workforce was not technically savvy. Their ERP specialists came in and worked side by side with our staff to achieve a quick implementation, while establishing best practices moving forward. Plante Moran and Plex have made our jobs easier and more efficient, by helping FT Precision collect real-time data which has increased our decision making capabilities and made us much more flexible as a company.

Kent Baxter

IT Assistant Manager, FT Precision

Kellie Becker

Partner

kellie.becker@plantemoran.com

+1-586-416-4904

Tom Clement

Partner

tom.clement@plantemoran.com

+1-586-416-4911

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About us

Manufacturing

Our Expertise

Strategies to find your advantage amid rapid change

Grow or diversify your business with M&A opportunities

Integrate AI, technology, and automation on the plant floor

Mitigate supply chain disruption and better forecast demand

Offset investment costs with tax credits and incentives

Streamline or enhance manufacturing strategy and operations

Use adaptive costing to improve profitability and lower costs

Our Offerings

Tax planning, compliance, and consulting

Tax credits and incentives

Audit and assurance

Operations improvement

Supply chain optimization

Tariffs and trade

Cost and margin intelligence

Technology consulting

ERP consulting

Strategy consulting

Smart manufacturing and industry 4.0

Data and analytics

Cybersecurity consulting

M&A and transaction advisory

International services

Risk management

Strategic alliances

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)

Upcoming Events & Webinars

Driving success: Tariff impacts on the automotive value chain

Coffee Break: Midyear review of the automotive industry

Holding it together: Owning Section 1202 stock through pass-through entities

Insights

2025 top supply chain issues

Manufacturing analytics: Enhance visibility and drive actionable insights

Tariff impact: Don’t speculate — assess and act

MEMA OE & SAA Purchasing Summit

Q1 2025 U.S. Industrial Real Estate Market Report