Work Order / Job Flow Software or Process, what do you do?

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

What is everyone using for Work Orders / Job Flow?

We are finding SignVox clunky and slow for our faster paced shop, between 3 people (sales, design/prepress, and production/finishing) it totals out to 45mins just to update and go through the steps per job. Since discovering this slow down, we have installed a dry erase board for sales and long term design projects then we print our work orders from signvox and put the in job jackets for production and finishing.

Ultimately there is lost information in this method, so I'm trying to find a solution that I can implement to be relatively quick and include all the info we need to be efficient and correct.

If anyone has insights, opinions, or options please fire away!

 

[jfiscus]

Trello is free and worked when I had a smaller shop.
We have a completely software here now, I can't see how forcing your business into a 'set' software will work for most people unless you are just starting out.
Online (access anywhere) and calendar functionality are the most important parts for you to look at IMHO.

No matter what you choose, getting your materials and costs into it at the beginning will be a big pain.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We are a small shop but doing a lot of work (Broke $400,000 already this year), primarily in the fairs an event industries. We are just getting to overload mode and its quickly turning to chaos. I don't really need estimating, invoicing, and work flow in one system... I just need fast and efficient work flow between the 3 of us.

 

[nate]

Cyrious Control has worked great for us-- It takes a bit to set it up, but after that it's great.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We have Cyrious Control 5.4, I like it save for the limited access and pay for everything mentality. Work flow is also clunky and slow in Control.

 

[nate]

We have Cyrious Control 5.4, I like it save for the limited access and pay for everything mentality. Work flow is also clunky and slow in Control.

We saw the new 5.5.5t at the Cyrious convention and it's slick. Much much faster.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I must look in to it and see what the upgrade cost is, do you know if they have added remote/cloud viewing or is it still through RDP?

 

[nate]

I must look in to it and see what the upgrade cost is, do you know if they have added remote/cloud viewing or is it still through RDP?

They've released a Cyrious Control Connector thing that will do stuff in the cloud though there is only one app in the cloud right now. They have six guys working on apps so they're pretty enthusiastic about their timeline for new apps.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Wow, no one has any other solutions?

What does everyone outside of signvox use?

 

[Ditchmiester]

We are in the same boat as you and we are trying to find a new solution even though we are a larger shop than you the same thing is a problem. We need a better way to get parts from station to station in a timely and efficient matter. We are demoing everything I can find as a solution. There are some really good softwares out there. One I just looked at was ShopWorx here is a link http://www.shopworx.com/ it was a little limited for what we are looking to implement. We are looking for more of a true ERP solution. But maybe it will work for you. If you want you can PM me and I can give you a list of everything we have looked at.

 

[Typestries]

We ran shopworks for 10 years before switching to signvox. At the time of the switch signvox offered the better option to us as it was geared more to the sign industry. I understand that shopworks may have improved their support for our industry. And given the signvox headaches as of late, might be worh us all investigating.

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

Small shop here, just the owner and 3 employees.
We use a combination of excel spreadsheet on google docs and hard job sheets.
Everyone can have the spreadsheet open and update live on their own work stations.
We do more than just signs and vehicles so we have a section for printing (business cards and forms etc.). embroidery, screen printing and signage/ Vehicles.
Everyone is responsible for updating as they do things.

It seems to help keep track and anyone who answers the phone can instantly look and see where in production a job is when a customer wants an update.

 

[DirtyD]

Wow, no one has any other solutions?

What does everyone outside of signvox use?

You are seriously asking this question? Do a quick search and there will be tons of answers to threads that ask this EXACT SAME QUESTION. It seems this questions comes up about every two weeks as if people change what software they're using like they change underwear. Do a search and all those threads are still relevant.

Geesh - it's almost as bad as how much should I charge for my work threads. Der di der de derp

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

You are seriously asking this question? Do a quick search and there will be tons of answers to threads that ask this EXACT SAME QUESTION. It seems this questions comes up about every two weeks as if people change what software they're using like they change underwear. Do a search and all those threads are still relevant.

Geesh - it's almost as bad as how much should I charge for my work threads. Der di der de derp

What died in your panties today. I'm asking a simple question that isn't directly answered in any of the threads. I just want to see how everyone handles JobFlow. I know how they want you to do it in SignVox, Cyrious, GraphixCalc, and SignTracker... I want to see what people do outside of the common programs, are most people still manual (Print paper, hand fill in job details, etc.), and hybrid, or all digital solution beyond the most well known solutions.

 

[paul luszcz]

To stay on topic and answer your question, we use Basecamp. It's not really a project manager (as they would tell you) but it's a great communication program. We start a project with a template that lists all the to do's necessary to do the job, and then assign the items to the appropriate people with dates if needed. For example, if a customer approves an estimate (a to do item), the person responsible for getting that approval marks it done and assigns the designer to start drawings. The designer completes a drawing, marks it done and submits it to the manager for "internal approval". The Manager approves it and assigns it to the sales person to get "customer approval" and so on and so on.

It's easy to set up and easy to use. But it isn't the everything system.

Now to stray off topic a bit, I don't mind these additional threads on this issue. It's an important one and constantly evolving. I would be very surprised to find out that "nothing has changed" in the software industry over the time these threads have appeared.

 

[DirtyD]

What died in your panties today. I'm asking a simple question that isn't directly answered in any of the threads. I just want to see how everyone handles JobFlow. I know how they want you to do it in SignVox, Cyrious, GraphixCalc, and SignTracker... I want to see what people do outside of the common programs, are most people still manual (Print paper, hand fill in job details, etc.), and hybrid, or all digital solution beyond the most well known solutions.

Nothing died in my panties today - I don't where any..lol

I've grown away from this forum that is all, it is all the same questions about the same stuff, do I know everything no, have I asked easy questions yes. That is all...

Go on with your bad selves!

 

[CanuckSigns]

Nothing died in my panties today - I don't where any..lol

I've grown away from this forum that is all, it is all the same questions about the same stuff, do I know everything no, have I asked easy questions yes. That is all...

Go on with your bad selves!

Cool, don't let the door hit you on the a$$ on the way out!

 

[neil_se]

I've considered the same problem and I think processing time is just an unfortunate downside of having a larger shop. Lots of information needs to be communicated about lots of jobs to lots of people. In a small shop, you can keep a lot of the detail in your head as it's probably you that will be working on the job anyway.

The system needs to be the one source of all the job detail otherwise you end up with people wandering about the place trying to get answers. We found that all these internal conversations take up more time than just putting all of the info into the system up front. Error rate also increases without accurate information.

 

[Sidney]

GraphixCALC Pro Sign Estimator 14 day free trial with Free 30 minute walkthrough

GraphixCALC Sign Estimator was established in 2003 and is available for a Free 14 day Trial with an additional Free 30 minute walkthrough. We are reasonably priced, Not subscription based, Sync estimates on licensed computers and our UI is user friendly .

Please feel free to get your 14 day Free Trial @ http://graphixcalc.com/gc_downloads.html. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

 

[jfiscus]

We've been struggling with the same issue for a while and have found a combination of using Smartsheet ( www.smartsheet.com ) and paper quote/order forms seems to work ok, but ALL the steps need to be taken to ensure details aren't left out.

The most difficult part I find (and of course this is due to the go-go-go nature of our business) is the final steps at the end of a job. There are several things that NEED to be documented in order to ensure proper reproduction down the road and I haven't yet found the perfect solution. For jobs printed on the Rolands, I'll save the .rvw file in the respective folder for the job (which I name PO#_date_project description) and for jobs printed on our Edge or flatbed, or just cut vinyl jobs, I've started just saving a simple txt file in the folder with any and all details for the project.

I'll usually hand write notes along the way on the order form but once the job is invoiced and the paperwork filed it's a pain in the a$$ having to run upstairs and dig up the invoice to look up the details. We've tried scanning the form once the job is complete using one of these http://www.neat.com/products/neatdesk/ but it adds an extra step, although I think it may be worthwhile.

The thing that drives me crazy (Neil Se you touched on it) is how many things are in my head when it comes to producing a job from start to finish. Tricks like add a bit a weight when cutting this, increase the heat a bit when printing this....etc etc. Having to efficiently produce several custom jobs a day/hour/minute is difficult when EVERY job is different somehow and there are tons of opportunity for error. I supposed this is were documentation and SOP's comes into play but it's also hard to take the time to do this when you're swamped all the time.

Keep the suggestions coming, as I'm sure we can all benefit from these discussions. I know I for one can sure use a better way to organize workflow around here.

Pat, on those little notes that are in your head on those jobs; most of those details can be put directly into the artwork file.
On funky Edge jobs I put it in the composer file and on funky large format jobs I put the notes right alongside the printed art.
On funky overall jobs, I try to put the notes into the job description area.

 

[jfiscus]

Our system has a dynamic calendar; that is one of the most important parts to me.
As anyone at any time can change the schedule and it updates for everyone else immediately.
Everything else is stored in the job details (click on the calendar entries for the full info).
All costs are added to the jobs after completion for later analysis. All customer details (phone/email/etc) are in the job details.

We still do print out a work order for every job; it gets printed on a special color paper (to make it easy to find) and gets paper-clipped to any other info/pictures associated with the job.
That paperwork can travel around the shop between departments.