How do you guys keep track of orders/jobs currently in your shop?

[ADVANCED DISPLAY]

This very well could have been covered in one or more posts but I am curious: when a customer places an official order, what's your guys' process for putting the order into production and keeping track of all the jobs currently in need of producing in your shop? I ask this because it's becoming a bit of an issue for me in my shop but also, a big screen printer I work with locally showed me how they do it: literally a big cork board with the most post-it's I've ever seen in my life. This shocked me as I see them as a pretty big-boy operation and assumed they had a more sophisticated method than that! just thought I'd get some feedback from you guys..

 

[ColorCrest]

I am curious: when a customer places an official order, what's your guys' process for putting the order into production and keeping track of all the jobs currently in need of producing in your shop?

An “official” order means the customer has approved a quote form with all its details of product make-up, delivery schedule, costs and terms. Only then can the sales department release the work order for production. The work order form travels in a job jacket through the shop from sales, production, shipping and ends with billing. The work order is primarily identified by a unique ID number.

Job tracking is viewed as a WIP list (work in progress) from a central database at work stations or mobile devices. Each production department has its place on the WIP list with simple status marks to show the stage of each job or work order line item. The WIP list is usually sorted by the due date of the job but operators can sort by other criteria also. Only certain staff members can set the status of jobs for their particular areas.

What are you currently using for work orders?

 

[White Haus]

We currently use a combination of paper docket folders and Smartsheet for our "Job Board". I've never been satisfied with this part of our business and have always been on the hunt for a better way of doing things. Our current method takes way too long to write up orders and we're constantly looking through the shop for order dockets. Efficiently writing up orders and tracking them is definitely one of the more challenging parts of our business.

The other downside of our method is that we'll usually make notes on the paperwork which then gets filed and has to be dug up down the road if we need to refer back to it.

We're currently evaluating PrintLogic and I think it will help us write up orders more efficiently and schedule projects. Pretty cool MIS software that is only about $150 CDN a month.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Order info gets printed out on a piece of paper along with the shipping label (all of our stuff gets shipped).

 

[Stacey K]

Order gets entered into my Excel file, printed and put on a plastic clipboard and set on my desk. Once they are ready for production they get set in a line most important first. Not the most organized way to do things but I tried other ways and keep going back to this.

 

[myront]

We use trello solely for tracking orders from start to finish. Everyone can see the process from their own workstation. In for proof design, in to email client, in waiting for approval, in approved, in for print to specific substrate, in for laminate, in for application, in for vehicle install, in for site install etc. You can see who is assigned to handle the proof design, as well as, who the salesperson was that took the order. You can write text messages, drag the job from one stage to another or manually move the job. Here's a small snip from my workstation. I have many other lists hidden as to not clutter my board. As a designer I'm only concerned with these. The other hidden lists are used primarily by the sales team. New order is input with only a salesperson assigned. The designers pick and choose to take the orders by adding their name to it so the other designers know they can choose another.

p.s. the "mad face" is me. Iron Maiden. You can customize your own as you wish.

We use separate software for sales orders & invoicing.

 

[ColorCrest]

For those interested in using Trello as a WIP list, I recommend understanding their method of KanBan’s original concept of status “signals” with a particular “lane” as a stage of production. For manufacturing businesses, a lane is most often a stage or department of the production process. A status is often a color tag acting as a signal. Ideally, there are very few lanes and status signals.

A manufacturing shop’s WIP list can often use as few as three lanes; pre-production, fabrication, and completion. Status colors, codes, or terms often represent; <no code> unopened or unacknowledged yet, “open” or acknowledged, “approved” to proceed, “hold” for some reason, and “completed” at this stage.

More typical WIP lists use more of a spreadsheet / table layout as opposed to Trello's style. Items in the list just need to be sorted vertically and not both vertically AND horizontally like Trello.

 

[Jason Thomas]

We use trello solely for tracking orders from start to finish. Everyone can see the process from their own workstation. In for proof design, in to email client, in waiting for approval, in approved, in for print to specific substrate, in for laminate, in for application, in for vehicle install, in for site install etc. You can see who is assigned to handle the proof design, as well as, who the salesperson was that took the order. You can write text messages, drag the job from one stage to another or manually move the job. Here's a small snip from my workstation. I have many other lists hidden as to not clutter my board. As a designer I'm only concerned with these. The other hidden lists are used primarily by the sales team. New order is input with only a salesperson assigned. The designers pick and choose to take the orders by adding their name to it so the other designers know they can choose another.

p.s. the "mad face" is me. Iron Maiden. You can customize your own as you wish.

View attachment 160743

We use separate software for sales orders & invoicing.

~Love the Eddie face, circa 2000, Brave New World.

 

[Chuck7772]

I am playing with a free trial of sign traker. So far i like it

 

[gnubler]

I use a magnetic Kanban system. Cut out a bunch of business card size pieces of magnetic and arrange them in columns on the side of a 5-foot tall filing cabinet. Dry erase market, different colors for normal/rush/problem jobs. Columns include New, Quoted, Proofed, Shop, Outsource, Install, and WTF. I can move the job magnets around according to where they are in production.

 

[ikarasu]

We have work orders. 3 color orders - Pink (Control copy, follows the sales order / pick ticket) Green - Substrates... IE to the CNC or Table saw, And White - Digital print.

I hate the system and I've been looking into others.

Got an E-mail from Onyx about them coming out with a solution and theyre looking for testers... forgot all about it until this post, so I just submitted an app.

Aside from that we're looking into trello.

 

[Precision]

We use Trello, with three boards. One for all employees that has columns, Design, Print, waiting for processing, ready for install, then each of our installers names, with their daily workload.

On the 2nd and 3rd board, which are designated to the project manager/salesperson. These have columns listed as: waiting on estimate, design overflow, site surveys, vended in production, waiting in client and finally Completed/Collect.

It takes someone to manage and train employees how to communicate on each of the cards, and to move to the next step in this WIP, but is easy and easy to see everything you got going all the time.

We also use a 3 month calendar to plot installs and block dates, so we always know how far out our installs are running. Just updated the install Calendar today. Booked through almost the whole month of September.

I'd love to hire another vinyl installer or table guy, but there is a shortage of people willing to give you a thoughtful and honest days work.

There's a time for everything, this year it looks like we will continue to work at a maxed pace, but will only grow the team if the right person comes along.

Hope this helps.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Sometimes old school works better. We're conditioned to advance but it seems like it's counterproductive in a small business environment

 

[BigDogPrinterMan]

I only make one customizable product with 3 raw skus, so it’s literally just a print out of their paid detailed invoice with their graphic attached - cause a job isn’t a job until the money sings.

 

[ColorCrest]

I use a magnetic Kanban system. Cut out a bunch of business card size pieces of magnetic and arrange them in columns on the side of a 5-foot tall filing cabinet. Dry erase market, different colors for normal/rush/problem jobs. Columns include New, Quoted, Proofed, Shop, Outsource, Install, and WTF. I can move the job magnets around according to where they are in production.

Each of order types you’ve mentioned; New, Quoted, Proofed, Shop, Outsource, Install, and even your WTF placed nicely in the attached Trello example image.

 

[ColorCrest]

We use Trello, with three boards. One for all employees that has columns, Design, Print, waiting for processing, ready for install, then each of our installers names, with their daily workload.

Each of order types you’ve mentioned; Design, Print, waiting for processing, ready to install, Installer A, Installer B, and Installer C placed nicely in the attached Trello example image.

 

[ColorCrest]

The trouble with Trello is the fact that each column (lane) is a list unto itself. Therefore the layout is composed of a few lists. Contrarily, a traditional and effective WIP list is one, single list. It should occur especially to sign makers the importance of communicating information using the most advantageous layout designs. Trello is great for some things but it's very limited as an efficient WIP list for custom, made to order products such as signs.

 

[cnysigns]

We use our website admin section. It not only keeps tracks of orders, but it auto notifies customer of status changes via email or sms. It also serves as our invice and billing, where as customer can log in and pay bills, view past orders and such. All notes are kept with each order online and can be set to either customer or private mode. As you can see in this screen shot, we also linked to wave accounting to handle auto import of new orders. We also implemented auto review reminders so clients can leave reviews on the job.

We also have a art proof section, you upload a pdf or image and the customer is notifed, once they approve the job status is auto changed to approved and a notification sent back to the shop.

All theses functions are customizable as needed.

 

[rydods]

We had a custom workflow app built for us from a freelance programmer on upwork. It's a lot like trello and clickup which were good but more than what we needed. Even some of the sign/printing workflow software and apps seem to be way over complex, at least for a smaller sign/printing company. I hate paper! A wise man (on a commercial) once said, "we don't need to print the internet".

 

[John Miller]

Probably too simple fore some but we have work orders that have spaces for all info needed for the job, quoted price, deposit received, size. Each year is a different color, never white, so when looking for a work order the colored sheets of paper stand out. I also have an excel spread sheet with the pertinent info. When the job is finished & installed it's removed from the list.