Production Control

Production Control for made-to-order manufacturing

For machining, CNC job shops and fabrication teams managing different jobs every day. Connect allocated work to shop floor execution, with operators recording progress, labour and material consumption on tablets.

Active operator participation streamlines quality and dispatch processes. Maximise your people and resources to achieve speed, reduce costs, and enhance product quality.

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Benefits

Run like a well-oiled machine

Turn every part of your operation into a competitive advantage.

Increased operational efficiency

By connecting scheduling with shop floor operators, real-time production data helps supervisors remove bottlenecks, improve operator performance, and optimise machine utilisation to maximise efficiency.

Informed maintenance planning reduces downtime

Make regular maintenance a priority without sacrificing productivity or causing costly interruptions. Schedule maintenance smoothly into your workflow to increase equipment uptime and lifespan while lowering emergency repair costs.

Operator-led quality reduces rework costs

Empower operators to own quality at their station. Built-in quality checks throughout production reduce defects and rework costs.

Real-time information for better decisions

Give every role the insights they need to be effective. Data comes straight from the shop floor and updates system-wide automatically, so everyone works from current information instead of chasing down answers.

Shop Floor Data Collection

Minute-by-minute labour and productivity data capture

Get real-time data from your shop floor that captures labour, material usage, and job progress with precision you've never had before. As your operators work through their digital timesheets and log any downtime on tablets, Smart Shop Floor captures everything without disruption, tapping into how they already work.

Log downtime reasons using customised options to pinpoint exactly when and why holdups happen
Record precise job times for bulletproof costing and up to 30% more reliable scheduling estimates
Andon calls from the shop floor to the right person

Quality Management

Every operator taking ownership of quality

Empower your operators to take ownership of quality instead of relying on a dedicated QA person to catch everything during crunch time. Operators complete simple checks before passing the job to the next work centre, logging their digital hold-point QA report in Smart Shop Floor. Any measurement outside specifications immediately triggers rework, preventing small issues from becoming expensive problems downstream.

Quality issues trigger immediate alerts and supervisor sign-off is required before work continues
Auto-generated forms ensure the correct form every time, properly filed
Quality forms shared through the Customer Portal provide traceability and confidence

Bill of Materials & Materials Tracking

Smart Shop Floor connects your ERP to the shop floor

Smart Shop Floor connects your ERP to the shop floor, delivering digital pick lists and BOMs directly to operator tablets. Material usage is logged automatically as work progresses — turning your weekly stocktake into a quick check instead of a full-day exercise.

Material availability is checked before new work is scheduled, so shortages don't derail jobs already in progress
Delayed jobs go on hold automatically until stock arrives, with completion times recalculated to protect delivery deadlines
When physical stock doesn't match the system, operators log actual quantities used and variances are flagged for supervisor sign-off before any adjustments are made

Tablet showing inventory assigned to job

Maintenance Planning

Easy planned maintenance scheduling that minimizes production disruptions

Treat planned maintenance in your scheduling just like any other job to ensure it gets done reliably without disrupting your important work. Smart Shop Floor makes it easy to stay on top of preventative maintenance so you can avoid equipment breakdowns that cost time and money. Well-maintained equipment keeps your shop running smoothly and protects your profitability.

Maintenance scheduled and tracked automatically so it happens when it should
Displaced operators reassigned to priority jobs, keeping everyone productive during scheduled downtime
Complete maintenance records captured and stored for compliance and easy reference

Dispatch

Staging queue dashboard brings order to dispatch

Stop finished goods from getting lost in the dispatch shuffle. The Staging Queue is a unified dashboard that helps packing and shipping staff coordinate their work to keep goods continuously flowing to customers on time. This detailed level of information makes partial shipments easy and reduces mistakes. When dispatch happens on the fly, delivery windows get missed and completed work sits around gathering dust instead of heading out the door.

Clear view of incoming and outgoing orders keeps your team coordinated
On-demand dispatch documentation with photos of packed goods for insurance records and customer confidence
Complete digital recordkeeping packages all job records into encrypted PDFs stored securely

Machine monitoring

Our wireless sensors record when a machine runs and when it stops, without accessing its controller or PLC.

Explore

Manufacturing execution system components

Manufacturing execution from allocated work to dispatch

How does MES reveal opportunities to improve operator utilisation?

Smart Shop Floor captures motion and waiting losses so supervisors, production managers, operations managers and business owners can identify process and training improvements. Combined with workstation information and collaboration, this supports recovering 45 minutes per operator per shift. This is distinct from scheduling's throughput improvement.

What is a manufacturing execution system (MES)?

A manufacturing execution system connects the production plan to the work performed on the shop floor. Smart Shop Floor's execution modules give operators their allocated jobs and capture progress, labour, material use and quality checkpoints. Scheduling plans the work; execution records what happens; the connected ERP receives the agreed updates.

What should machine shop management software connect?

For a high-mix machine shop, the key is keeping the job's requirements, allocated work and actual progress connected. Smart Shop Floor brings scheduling, operator execution and material tracking together alongside your ERP, so sales and production can follow the same job through to dispatch.

How can I track jobs without walking the factory floor?

Smart Shop Floor brings operator progress, downtime and material-usage updates into a shared production view. Office and shop-floor teams can see job status and identify delays without relying on someone to physically locate each job. Updates from the floor feed back into the production plan.

Read the shop floor control article

How does that support job costing and the ERP?

Recorded labour and material consumption provide actuals to compare with the estimate. Smart Shop Floor sends hourly or end-of-shift timesheets and consumed materials to the connected ERP, and updates production stages through the agreed integration.

What happens after full dispatch?

When a job is fully dispatched, Smart Shop Floor triggers a draft invoice in the connected ERP for human review and approval. Your team sends it to the customer.

How is machine utilisation different from operator time?

Machine monitoring records equipment run and idle time, with operator feedback providing context for downtime. Operator job timesheets record labour against the work. These are different measures: machine uptime is not the same as labour capacity or a payroll saving. Klinger's published account describes its use of wireless sensors and operator feedback.

The shop floor solution that gets the job done.

We bring together everything you need to schedule and manage your shop floor. Save time, reduce downtime, and boost productivity.