advice needed please!

[jardo]

Rsands,
Nice job. I saw the screen shots. It is always better to do it home grown when you have the talent.

[WBlaue01]

You may want to look at a truly dynamic scheduling system that automates data entry, workflow analysis and scheduling and provides shop floor data collection to allow everyone in the shop to see the job status in near real time. Scheduling is automated to the point where it takes less than 20 seconds to schedule even complex jobs. Manual schedule manipulation is as easy as moving a block on the screen via drag and drop. The representation of schedule information is similar to that of the board you mentioned. And it's so easy to learn that even inexperienced employees can schedule jobs in less than 5 minutes. See here for details: In Scope Solutions, Inc. Home, PSched, Dynamic Scheduling for the Printing Industry, for small and mid-sized commercial Printers, inhouse Print Shops and other Manufacturing Industries

But don't take my word for it. Feel free to contact Drew Bergen at Zip Print in Amarillo, TX for an objective evaluation.

[past_print]

We have scheduling boards in every department. Plus a job tracker on the computer.
Once a job is written, it automaticly shows up as new in the tracker. From there the manager physically moves it to the next appropriate step/ dept. (ie. repeat jobs can go to prepress for new plates)
Employees punch into and out of each job. Once a job is punched out as 100% complete for that dept, it is automaticly moved to the next function/dept in the tracker.
When the manager first moves the job, the scheduling ticket goes on the scheduling board in that dept. All info is on the ticket as far as customer, press size, final size, paper, ink color(s), and due date. When an employee is done, they can put the scheduling ticket on the main board for the manager to move to the next function. He/she can then put the scheduling tickets in the order they want the stuff done. If scheduling for press, they can be scheduled by press size, common inks, due dates, etc.
We are a relatively small shop. Scheduling is pretty easy. It works well for us, but I guess it depends on how your shop operates.

[Morning Flight]

I think I will go with a T-Card board to put in the press room (as a visual guide for all staff to see) but I also like the idea of an excel spreadsheet to keep open on my mac/pc that I can update as jobs move on to the next process. Does anyone have a spreadsheet like this that they are currently using? If so would you like to share it?!!?

Good call, leetaylor. Two years ago, I sold the print shop I had established back in 1969. Despite the fact that we had our own, home-brewed computer estimating and order entry system up and running ten years later (two years before IBM introduced the PC), our job tracking system never left the oversized corkboard and pushpin system on the shop wall. Not because job tracking would have been difficult to code, but because in all those years I never felt the need for it. There's some information that just works better on paper than it does on a monitor. We, of all people, should know that. We make our living putting information on paper.

And we're not the only industry where that's being recognized. The U.S. government has spent billions modernizing our air traffic control system. Yet when you board the plane for your next business trip, you're in the hands of ATC controllers who keep track of your airplane on strips of paper. The reason that time-tested system is still in place is not because the FAA hasn't tried to deep-six it. They just haven't come up with anything better.

Bondmaster put his finger on another key factor: Tracking is only half the solution if it doesn't tie in with scheduling. I'll point out a third. Any job tracking/scheduling software, including that spreadsheet you mentioned, will be cumbersome and error-prone if not fully linked to your order entry system. Just think of all the duplicate entries you'd have to make to keep your MIS customer and order files in sync with your Excel tracking file.

Now, does job tracking work on a computer screen? Sure it does. It will work phenomenally well once we can shuffle jobs around with our index finger on a 50-inch plasma. Until then, if you're still interested, check out the Job Tracker that's built into the Gold Edition of Morning Flight (Version 2008.3 with New Booklet Module - The Morning Flight Lounge). It's a free beta download that won't expire at the end of the test cycle, a quick and painless way to stick your toe in the water.

Me, honestly? If I had to start another print shop, I'd go back to the corkboard. And wait for that 50-inch touch-screen.

Hal Heindel