Shop Floor Tracking
Shop floor tracking means knowing what's happening on your production floor in real-time — which operators are working on which jobs, how long operations are taking, how much scrap you're generating, and whether jobs are on schedule. Without it, you're managing by walking around and asking questions.
What to track on the shop floor
The essentials: (1) Time per operation — who worked on what, for how long, including setup vs run time. (2) Quantities — parts completed, parts scrapped, parts requiring rework. (3) Job status — which operation each job is currently on. (4) Machine utilization — how much of the available time a machine is actually running parts.
Everything else (tool usage, material consumption, quality checks) is valuable but secondary. Start with time, quantity, and status.
Methods for shop floor data collection
Paper travelers with handwritten times are still common but create data entry backlogs and accuracy problems. Barcode scanning (scan the traveler, scan the operation) is faster and less error-prone. Touchscreen kiosks on the floor let operators start/stop jobs with a tap. The best approach depends on your shop — but the key principle is: make it easier to log data than to skip it. If it takes more than 10 seconds, operators won't do it consistently.
What good tracking enables
Accurate time data feeds everything: job costing (actual vs estimated), scheduling (how long operations really take), capacity planning (real utilization, not assumptions), quoting (base estimates on historical data instead of guesses), and continuous improvement (identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies).
The shops that track well quote better, schedule tighter, and make more money. The shops that don't are guessing — and the gap widens over time.
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See How Midrung WorksBuilt by a founder who's actually run a shop floor.