A project management blog for manufacturing and engineering
You’re probably familiar with the Time Logs page in Standard Time, right? It’s that list of barcode scans from the shop floor? Or, the list of hourly entries from employee timesheets?
Yeah, that one!
Well, did you know there’s a nice dashboard that shows time logs on a bar chart. Take a look at the video below, and try it out!
Filtering Standard Time pages helps you find the information you’re looking for. How so? Without filtering, you’re seeing all records mixed together without categorization or grouping. Some of those records won’t fit the criteria you’re thinking of. They just get in the way, and obscure the ones you’re really trying to find.
How can you remedy that? Filtering!
Simply choose filter (aka search) criteria from the tree at the left. That eliminates rows that don’t fit your search, and shows only those you’re looking for.
Try the filter tree. It’s really handy and nice!
Hang a big TV on your factory floor to display job status.
This little video below shows how to use a Chromebook to display shop floor job status on a 75-in TV. Employees can look up and see the current status of every job in production.
Want to reduce unnecessary shop floor communication? This is how to do it.
Those kinds of questions are answered immediately by a status display like this.
Here’s a unique idea!
Do you have preprinted QR codes, RFID’s or barcodes coming into your shop that you want to scan and perform actions on?
Consider using “Barcode Rules” in Standard Time. You can set up a few easy rules to recognize those scans, then a few more rules to extract data from them. Now you don’t need to preregister anything to use them. Just scan-and-go! When you scan, Standard Time will grab data from the QR codes, RFID’s, and barcodes and use that to start a new timer or deduct from inventory.
Watch the video for inspiration and ideas.
Watch what happens when you scan a QR code into the Standard Time software.
This little video is very enlightening!
Standard Time extracts all the information necessary for employee time tracking and job status directly from the QR code. It registers all the information so you don’t have to enter it manually. That means less admin work. A single scan starts everything!
Watch the video below to see it happen.
Here’s a pithy saying: QR codes change the whole manufacturing ballgame. (watch the “short” video below)
How to they change the ballgame? What’s so special about QR codes in manufacturing?
Schedule jobs for your manufacturing shop. The video below describes the use of calendars and graphs for job scheduling. Your factory resources almost always have limited availability, and must be considered when scheduling new work. This is how to do it. Have a look and let us know what you think!
Bill of materials handling is described in this instructional video. Learn more about how inventory items are built into BOM’s, and how to scan BOM’s on the factory floor.
Scanning BOM’s deducts each inventory item in its list from stock. It also tells you when to reorder each inventory item, and how many to reorder.
Have you tried “Clear To Build?” CTB tells you how many BOM’s you can build, based on the quantity in stock for each inventory item inside the BOM. As you scan BOM’s, the inventory item is reduced, and therefore the CTB goes down. But as you scan inventory into stock, CTB goes up.
The little Project Assistant works hard. He guides you through the process of creating new jobs. It can be a thankless job, and he rarely gets back-slaps for the work he does. 🙂
Have you tried the Project Assistant?
Tap to start your manufacturing jobs. Tap… tap… tap is all it takes to record job status on the shop floor.
Follow this sequence to start a job timer:
That’s it! A new timer will start. You’ll get real-time timestamped records of job status. Watch this video for the steps and inspiration.