A project management blog for manufacturing and engineering
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.
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!
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!
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:
Find “Standard Time®” on Google, and download a copy to begin collecting mfg data with barcodes. It’s a good product you’ll like.
How do you track employee time on the shop floor? Here are some popular solutions available on Amazon or other retail outlets:
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! 🙂
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.
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…
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. 🙂
Manufacturing reports include everything from employee activity to detailed KPI’s. How do you customize these reports in Standard Time® for your purposes? With custom fields. These fields may contain the results of barcode scans, automated input, or manual entry. However the data arrives, they are included on reports using this method.
Watch the video and try it yourself!
Most small to medium-sized shops do not have a simple tablet-based system to check work order status. Status is often communicated verbally, electronically by text and email, and in staff meetings. But rarely is it communicated the way Standard Time® does it. So how does ST do it?
(scroll down below the video)
Standard Time presents work order status like they do at the airport. All your flights at the airport are displayed on a big-screen. Each flight has its own line, and those lines are sorted alphabetically so you can quickly scan the list and find your flight.
What if there was such a system for your work orders?
Scan the list… find the work order you’re interested in… and instantly see its status. That’s exactly what Standard Time does for you.