ShopPAK has two optional shop floor data collection systems:
Both systems capture information at its source, eliminating shop floor employee and administrative data entry errors. Both systems eliminate the cost of solving problems caused by missing and incomplete information. Shop employees like using shop floor data collection because at the end of the day, they’re done. They don’t have to fill out and turn in time cards or material use cards. And management likes it because it saves time and improves accuracy. Instead of having administrative personnel key in daily labor transactions, they can spend their time doing more productive activities, hopefully the kind of activities that contribute to the bottom line... like working receivables. Note: The base ShopPAK package comes with screens to manually enter time and attendance, job cost, and stock material usage transactions. The two automated shop floor data collection systems simply update the ShopPAK "Time Card" and "Material Card" tabs for you.
Our most popular shop floor data collection system is the networked PC based system.
It is very easy to operate - and fast. Typically, a transaction can be finished in less than 10 seconds! You can use a keyboard and mouse, touch screen monitors, or a bar code scanner to interact with the system. The PC based system automatically uploads and posts shop floor data collection transactions directly to the ShopPAK database as they occur. Job cost, inventory and job tracking data is immediate, automatic, and always up to date. As with other parts of ShopPAK, we allow you to configure how the PC data collection screens look and behave, so you can tailor their behavior to your unique needs.
For example, one of the options is whether or not you want ShopPAK to automatically approve uploaded transactions and post them to job cost actuals, or if you want someone to manually approve them before posting job cost actuals to jobs. Shop Floor Employee Status Since the PC shop floor data collection system uses the shared ProjectPAK / ShopPAK database, you can see what’s happening on the shop floor from any PC running ShopPAK.
At a glance you can see what everybody is doing, how long they’ve been on that work order, and what they’ve done all day. You can filter the list by a particular job or department. If you manage a big shop, this is a great tool to monitor what’s happening throughout the shop from your office. PC Data Collection Message Broadcast You can compose messages and send them to the PC data collection workstations. You can broadcast them to a particular employee, one or more departments, or the entire shop. You can create messages ahead of the time, and ShopPAK will deliver them to the PC data collection workstation on the delivery date.
Whenever an employee scans into the PC data collection workstation, the message is delivered and they must ‘OK’ receipt. As soon as the message is delivered to the employee, ShopPAK returns the date and time that the message was delivered back to ShopPAK.
We’ve written several programs that run on the hand-held Tricoders. Since they are computers, they can check information that is being entered, making sure that data is accurate and makes sense. For example, when using Tricoders to scan products that are part of a shipment, if a product isn’t supposed to be a Ship Ticket that is being validated, the Tricoder displays a warning message and sounds a warning beep.
Data that has been entered into a TriCoder is easily uploaded to ShopPAK. No special hardware or networking is required, lowering your shop floor data collection investment. Any PC that has ShopPAK installed on it and that also has a serial port can be used. For 5 hand-held units, on average, it will take 20 minutes to gather up, upload data, and return them to the shop floor.
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What people are saying about ProjectPAK and ShopPAK:
Bollock Industries, Inc. uses ProjectPAK to accurately bid all of their diverse jobs and ShopPAK to track job cost and calculate their profit sharing contributions. Growing AWI architectural millwork company, New World Millworks, uses ProjectPAK & ShopPAK to manage, track, schedule, and job cost all of their work. Buford Georgia's Atlanta Cabinet Shop uses ProjectPAK and ShopPAK to track job costs, automate and fine tune estimates, and run the company more effectively. Modern Woodworking Magazine's report on Daiek Woodworking of Sterling Heights, MI says, "Technological improvements included utilizing TradeSoft software and installing touch screen computers out in the shop to improve the ability to monitor jobs and materials." Masco Support Services of Indianapolis, IN uses ProjectPAK and ShopPAK to streamline its bidding process and increase efficiency of their exhibit and point of purchase display manufacturing. In there mission to streamline, CBR Woodworking of Riverside, NJ added ProjectPAK and ShopPAK to their software line up, providing up to the minute project information. Paul Jutras of Jutras Woodworking in Smithfield, RI uses ShopPAK and PC Data Collection to provide up-to-the-minute feedback for all jobs at his high-end cabinet and millwork company. |
The advantage of using portable hand-held units is they don’t require a network to use them. If you don’t want to invest in extending your network into your shop, or you want employees to record actuals with a computer while working off site, our portable hand-held Tricoders are a great solution.
