Simitless helps small-scale manufacturing workshops upgrade their productivity

Simitless helps small-scale manufacturing workshops upgrade their productivity by automating the tracking of their production orders.
Simitless helps small-scale manufacturing workshops upgrade their productivity by automating the tracking of their production orders.

App 11/60: Fabrication Time Tracker

Simitless helps small-scale manufacturing workshops upgrade their productivity by automating the tracking of their production orders.

Say, you run a small-scale manufacturing business, producing on-demand goods. You have recently hired a few employees. You are passionate about working with wood, metal, or even glass. And you put working with these materials above all else. In fact, you started your business because you wanted to not only spend the majority of your time doing what you love and do best - working the materials you love - but to be able to make a living of it. And, as the story goes with every business, you find yourself spending an increasing amount of time doing administrative and organizational chores. All you wish for now is a tool that could help you offload the time you spend doing the administrative tasks, i.e. tracking the commissions’ progress (everything from time spent on production to precise details about the order itself) in favor of the actual work that you love doing.

Until now, in order to keep up with the commission manufacturing progress, you had to print a commission description sheet that followed the commission you were working on throughout the workshop. But nowadays, tracking commission orders on paper has become near to impossible for your business. Especially, considering that all other information regarding the commission - be it quotes, invoices, customer contact information, etc. - is already available in digital form. Besides, for your part, you are thoroughly convinced that there is no way you are going back to handling this information in paper format ever again.

Yet, when it comes to manufacturing processes, for some reason, the paper remains king. As if guided by an invisible force, you enter the data into your management system manually, once the job is done. Which, as you are fully aware, takes a tremendous amount of additional time, besides the actual hours you spend working on the commission itself. What’s worse, relying on the weary process of printing out and inputting information by hand on a piece of paper impedes proper and timely cost monitoring. As a result, you tend to miss out on nipping in the bud possible production surcharges before it is too late.

Thus, when a customer calls asking for some clarifications regarding an order or requesting an updated time estimate for when a certain commission is going to be completed, you are forced to abandon everything you are currently doing to go and inquire with your employees about the current status of the commission, before giving any response. Tracking the progress of an order and providing this up-to-date information to your customers is, as you yourself painfully realize, very difficult.

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Managing commission orders on a loose paper sheet?

Having analyzed the situation from every angle, you decide that what you need is a simple order tracking system that reduces information processing time by allowing direct data input. Such a system will be beneficial for your business not only because it will improve your information processing time, but because it will enhance your brand image and ameliorate communication between you and your customers.

Simitless offers you the exact kind of solution you are looking for - a customizable app that enables you to track the time you spend on fulfilling a custom order. No unnecessary frills, simple efficacy. The application opens on a list of custom manufacturing orders from your customers. All orders come with an order ID accompanied by a bar code, thus enabling you to scan the printed document with the same bar code with a basic laser scanner. A simple print template is provided within the app.



The main setup required is to input the name of each operator in the data type "Operator". ( Edit app Edit data types Operator) At the bottom of the “Operator” field edit page, you will find the list of values ​​available for the categories. Modify this list to make changes to your application!) The template provided presupposes that there is a single machine used for data entry located in the middle of the workshop and that it is shared by all operators. However, it is possible to modify the application in such a way as to enable each operator to use their own mobile terminal for data entry purposes. In this latter case, you can change the type of the field “Operator”, simplifying the data entry process, as the operator will be automatically selected, based on the account of the person connected.



Talk to your local IT specialist, we will guide them through the process of setting up your system on your premises.



To use the app, create a record for each commission you receive and then print out a card that will physically follow the order throughout its manufacturing process in the workshop.

Use the main screen of your application as a starting point for each operator to scan the barcode of the commission they are working on to input data in the "Time spent" field and to select their name. The starting time is recorded automatically. Once the operator finishes his work, he checks the box in front of "In progress", which allows the app to automatically record the amount of time that was spent on completing the operation. Your app tracks the time spent on manufacturing each custom order to be able to calculate either the invoice price or the productivity.



Your app, provided by and hosted on the Simitless platform, can be expanded, personalized, modified as much as you need to help you upgrade and improve your company's organizational practices.



You can augment the app to track the materials used, organize customer records for communication purposes, manage group orders for more efficient shipping organization, add a status field for each production order in order to display only those that are not yet finished, and much more. The possibilities are endless, as the app grows and evolves hand in hand with your business needs.

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