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!  🙂
Replenish Inventory By Work Order
The video below describes a sequence of events that automatically creates manufacturing work orders when inventory is low. (scroll down below video for more)
Let’s assume you pull items from inventory for manufacturing. (You manufacture something that includes other pre-built assemblies) You have to maintain stock of the pre-built items so they are always available for use in other product. Problem is, it’s hard to remember to restock inventory when it’s low. You may pull a few off the rack and never remember to replenish them. The last thing you want is to go back and find the rack empty! Now you’ve got to build those items before you can fulfill your orders.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an email when inventory stock fell? And even nicer if a new work order was created, telling you to build and replenish inventory? Such an automated system would let you keep inventory levels high enough to fulfill orders when they came in.
This video describes exactly how to do this.
The sequence goes something like this:
- BOM is scanned and deducted from inventory
- Stock quantity drops below a threshold
- New work order is automatically created
- Email notification is sent
- Employees build and replenish inventory from the work order
- Work order is completed and deactivated
Most of these steps are accomplished with barcode scanners on the shop floor. Employees may not realize the automation occurring in the background, but admins and project managers will appreciated it.
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.