How much time goes into your work orders? Do you know?
Some companies know. Many do not.
But the fact is, you can know. Just put a barcode scanner on the shop floor and find out. You might be surprised. 🙂
Manufacturing Software, Made In America!
Want to support Made-In-America? Here’s your chance!
We build software for manufacturing, and we’re in America. And our customers make products in America. It’s a double value. Two for the price of one.
Actually, it’s a lot more than just two. It is the trickle-down effect of keeping jobs in your backyard and all the commerce that arises from it. Nothing new, you’ve heard it before.
Take a look at Standard Time®. Let us know what you think. 🙂
Track Time with Barcodes
Even welders can run a barcode scanner! And even web developers can light a torch… or maybe not. Anyways, tracking time with barcodes is still the best way to track work orders on the shop floor.
Where is that last order? In welding yet? Or still in plasma? If you don’t know, consider scanning barcode labels for each stage of the process. It’s really easy and lets you know where every job is at.
The little inspiring video below might spark your interest.
Girl power! Assembly Line Time Tracking with Barcodes
What if manufacturers had barcodes in 1944? Production would have doubled!
But alas, barcodes were not invented until 1974, thirty years later.
Well at least you have them. So what are you waiting for? Put them to use on the shop floor and double your production. We’ll show you how.
Track Time and Materials With Barcodes
Employees can use barcodes to track their time and materials used. Just scan employee names and then job numbers. A timer will start, and will know how much time this employee took, and how long this job took. Wow! Yeah! Just two scans get you all that!
Production Time Tracking using Barcodes
If you haven’t tried barcodes on the shop floor for production, you should. A few scans will collect enough information for employee time cards, process improvement and manufacturing metrics. We hope the little video below will inspire you to give barcodes a try.
Download Standard Time and start scanning today!
Track MFG with Barcodes
Did you know that employee manufacturing time can be tracked using barcodes? A few scans will start a timer, and a few scans will stop it again. Now you’ve collected some pretty valuable information you can use to improve the manufacturing process. What can you collect? (scroll down below the video for some ideas)
Things manufacturing metrics you can collect with barcodes:
- Employee shift attendance
- Work order manufacturing time
- Process steps within each work order
- Inventory
- Client hours for invoicing
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
- Machine speed
- Yield
- Operating time
Find “Standard Time®” on Google, and download a copy to begin collecting mfg data with barcodes. It’s a good product you’ll like.
Track Employee Time and Work Orders
How do you track employee time on the shop floor? Here are some popular solutions available on Amazon or other retail outlets:
- Yell across the shop floor when your job is done
- Number 2 pencil, greasy sheet which is lost 33% of the time (you hope)
- Punch-clock built in the late 1970’s but mostly still keeps time
- Nothing beats a good guess
With these leading solutions in place, you should not even consider barcode time tracking solutions. Don’t even think the words “Standard Time®” or you could be fired. Don’t rock the boat… don’t change… everything will be fine… your shop will remain just as competitive as it was in 1988. Cuz, really… Standard Time shop floor software is just a passing fad. It’ll never catch on. See ya in the 90’s!  🙂
Barcode Scanners for Manufacturing
Which kind of barcode scanner should I buy? Which scanners work with Standard Time? How do you connect a barcode scanner to a computer? Can you use barcode scanners with a Windows tablet?
All these questions are answered in the short video below. Scroll down below the video for more…
Turns out, any barcode scanner works with Standard Time. Just plug it in and begin scanning. Actually, barcode scanners work exactly like keyboards. They connect to USB ports like keyboards and send text like keyboards. That enables them to connect to Standard Time like a keyboard and can start and stop a timer, plus scan inventory, materials and expenses. All this is many times faster than keyboards, and much more reliable.
You can print barcode labels with any word processor or spreadsheet. Just choose a barcode font like IDAutomation. Include an * asterisk before and after every label, and you’re ready to scan.
For about $150 you have a simple barcode scanning station for manufacturing shop floor use. Scan time and materials into Standard Time.
Cavemen don’t use barcode time tracking software
It is a known fact that cavemen do not use barcode time tracking software. They have good dredlock hair but no manufacturing metrics. They have superb cave drawings but no real KPI’s to speak of. Honestly, it’s just not their thing.
Cavemen pick lice from their coworkers hair; that is how they count and measure time.
“I picked 238 lice today”
“Ha! 372 lice, here!”
“Counting lice works. It’s the way we’ve always done it.”
You can’t really argue with that logic. It works, and that’s that. It is what it is. Barcoding work orders is not even a remote possibility with cavemen. They don’t think in terms of employee hours, work order status, and continual improvement. They don’t even have a WIP screen on their cave walls. And if they did, what would it say? “796 lice this week”? It would definitely not show all the jobs in progress on the shop floor, and predict ship dates. Nope. Lice picks is all. Okay, cool. Carry on…