A project management blog for manufacturing and engineering
Here’s a quick tip for office worker who need to collect time using a timer. A single click will start or stop a timer for a given task.
Standard Time® displays tasks assigned to you. A single click will start a timer to record your work. When you’re done, just click again to stop it.
You’ll probably also notice some right-click menus that offer other timer options. Go ahead and explore!
Here’s an easy way to create new work orders in Standard Time®. The “Project Assistant” in this video steps through all the pages of a new project.
And did you know, once you have created a project, you can create a copy from it? Creating a duplicate of an existing project is even simpler. Just right-click on any project and choose Duplicate! Now you have a new work order that is ready to scan!
Watch this video for inspiration. 🙂
Hey, want an airport “arrivals” and “departures” screen for your jobs on the shop floor? Watch this video for some inspiration. What you need is a “Work In Progress” screen. It shows all your manufacturing jobs currently on the shop floor.
You may have hundreds of project and thousands of tasks for engineering and production. This video shows how to manage those tasks in a calendar. Specifically, a graphical calendar that displays tasks on dates and hours of the day. Drag and drop tasks to various dates to manage start and finish dates. Then view a bar chart of future manpower efforts in what we call the “Resource Allocation” chart.
This video uses the Standard Time cloud test site.
We are barcode time tracking experts! Did you know that? Of course you did!
There are dozens of things you can scan in Standard Time® to aid in project tracking, work order tracking, inventory, expenses, employee tracking, and of course… good old time tracking.
Scroll below the video for a few.
What to know a few things you can scan with a simple barcode scanner? Here are a few to start:
Google “Standard Time time tracking” to download and start. It will not disappoint. 🙂
Dreading your next project milestone? It’s a date you hope nobody remembers so it can slip silently into the night. Watch Kat in the video below.
Project milestones mark dates where you evaluate the state of your project. They could be customer related, like a date you can invoice the client for work performed. Or, they could be go/no go events where you evaluate the status of your work and decide if you can move forward to the next phase. Project milestones could trigger staff meetings to bring everyone onto the same page, and make sure everyone is ready to proceed with the project. Is there anything outstanding? Any reason not to begin the next phase? Finally, project milestones can relate to release dates. You have completed a phase of the project and are ready for public delivery and release.
As stated above, ST has project milestones. You can get email notifications for upcoming milestones, and view a short list of them. Project milestones can be used for client invoicing. Just choose the billing type: date range, percentage of project cost, or fixed amount. The actual invoice amount is based on the project milestone settings.
Watch the video and give project milestones a try.
Is your project wrecking your company and leaving you destitute? The problem may be your project tracker. Watch the video below for a definition.
It’s true; projects can go crazy without a project tracker. Employees camp out on favorite tasks, and convince managers that more time is needed. Tasks go over budget, and nobody notices slowdown trends that triple the project duration. Feature creep balloons up the scope until you wake up one morning and realize you’re chasing a moving target… or the moving target is chasing you. You have to get things under control, but you don’t know how.
Those are some of the things a good project tracker can do. You can set “do not exceed” percentages for tasks. That holds tasks to a reasonable duration. It prevents the slow lag from developing. You can monitor new tasks added to the project to prevent feature creep. You can view the health of your project with Project Triangle charts. You can check resource levels to make sure nobody is over or under allocated.
Are you running a project tracker? Why not try Standard Time?
My day yesterday:
How do you remember all that? You can’t, because you can’t even remember what you ate last night for dinner.
That’s what a web developer’s time tracking app is for. Not only are you collecting enough information to bill your clients, you’re also collecting the various kinds of work you do. You’re documenting your work, which effectively creates a status report. Now your boss knows what you’re doing all night with your office light burning, and zillion red and blue LED’s glowing against dark office hallways. Pulling an all-nighter is the perfect reason for a good time tracking app. At least you’ll remember some of it the next afternoon when you wake up.
Guess what’s hot in manufacturing project tracking?
Barcode scanning. (scroll down for the video)
Turns out you can scan a few simple barcodes to track manufacturing time. Scan your employee badge to let the system know who you are. Scan a task name to let it know which job or product you’re on. A timer records the exact starting time for the work. Scan the word “STOP” and the timer stops.
In those few scans, you have just collected the following information:
Manufacturing is all about efficiency and cost. A few barcodes may surprise you. You may be spending more time than you thought. Or certain jobs are costing you a lot more than you ever imagined. Or secondary jobs may be crowding out your core competencies. Without the exact time measurements, you may never know.
A $200 Walmart tablet is all you need to track projects. This video demonstrates. Just pop off the keyboard and start entering project hours.
scroll down for the video
The video shows both a Windows app and a cloud time tracking app in use. Both look and feel fantastic. Tap and scroll with your finger, and enter time and expenses with a pop-up virtual keyboard.
The most common use for a system like this is freelancers, consultants, field workers, and support techs. But sales and other road warriors can also benefit. Imagine tracking your clients and time on the same tablet. You could record customer visits plus the time you spent with them. Or the time you spend on the road. Or the mileage and vehicles. Or all of the above.
You’ll see a list of all your clients and client-projects. For each project, you can have a complete list of tasks to track time to. Tap a button to start a timer. Tap again to stop. The complete time is recorded in your weekly timesheet. You’ll see daily totals, weekly totals, and a graphical block view of every time entry. Invoice clients and run reports, right on the tablet.
That’s a lot of awesomeness for $200. 🙂