Category: Manufacturing

This video shows how to set up barcode scanning for manufacturing on the shop floor. (scroll down for video)

It is so easy to begin tracking time for employees on the shop floor. Just slap a barcode scanner in their hands and ask them to scan their work orders and tasks. Now that is a hundred and ten percent easier than filling out paper timesheets and yelling job status across the floor. Just scan and go.

Wait… what do employees scan?

Try scanning in this order:

1. Scan your employee badge
2. Scan the work order
3. Scan the task you’re working on

That’s it! A timer will start, and you can begin your work. When you finish your task, scan these things:

1. Scan your employee badge again
2. Scan the word STOP

No the timer stops. You have just communicated the following things to your boss:

1. When you started work
2. How long you worked
3. What job you worked on
4. What task you worked on
5. What client the work was for
6. What department the work was done in
7. What phase of the job was worked on
8. How many times the job was touched
9. How many tasks it took for the job
10. The total hours accumulated on the job
11. The percentage of completion for the job
12. When the job is likely to be done
13. And about a dozen other things you don’t readily think of

See how valuable this is? Just a few scans communicate a huge amount of information. Watch the video and give it a try.

Standard Time® is not just for time tracking and project management. It’s also for tool control and accountability on the shop floor. Watch this video below for steps to scan barcodes to check tools out. Scroll way down…

Three scans will check a tool out, and assign it to an operator.

1. Scan username (to tell which user is checking the tool out)
2. Scan tool name (to tell which tool is being checked out)
3. Scan CHECKOUT (to perform the operation)

Those three scans assign a tool to an operator on the shop floor. Now the tool is under their care, and is assumed to be returned in the same state it was taken. This is the basics of tool accountability for manufacturing and factory floor use.

Here’s how to check a tool back in:

1. Scan username
2. Scan tool name (this shows the date/time you originally checked the tool out)
3. Scan CHECKIN

After checking a tool back in, the actual hours between CHECKOUT and CHECKIN are added to the total. Now you know the total number of hours the tool was in use (approx). You can use this for PM purposes.

Most bespoke and custom manufacturing shops start with work orders. Every job has one, or it has some unique title that designates and identifies it on the shop floor. This video describes how you can collect data for those work orders or unique identifiers.

scroll down for the video

A simple barcode scanner is all you need to collect interesting data.

But what can you collect? Here are some possibilities, but the list is endless, and depends upon what you want to collect. Just about anything is possible.

1. Time stamps for when jobs start and stop
2. Employees who work on jobs
3. The actual work order number for each time segment
4. The client the job is for
5. A department where the work was performed
6. A percentage of completion
7. Inventory and expense usage
8. Bill of material usage

Here is an infographic that shows 16 things you can collect with 4 barcodes:

http://www.stdtime.com/infographic-things-you-get-scanning-barcodes.htm

As it turns out, Standard Time® is not just for project and time tracking. You can scan expenses on the manufacturing floor, which deduct items from inventory. (see video below) Here’s how it works:

First, set up an expense template that represents something you use a lot. That template has all the predefined fields for cost categorization. It also has a link to an inventory item that is deducted when the expense template is scanned on the factory floor.

Now scan that expense template name. Two things happen:

1. A new expense item is added to the list in Standard Time
2. The inventory item (for that expense) is deducted

You now can easily track expenses incurred and inventory along with time.