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Manufacturing & Industry 4.0

Work-in-Progress (WIP) Tracking System

In most fabrication and machining plants, the answer to where a job has reached is a phone call to the shop floor. We build the WIP tracking system that replaces it - scan-based operation confirmation against your own routing, so planning knows the true stage of every job card.

Operation-Wise Scan Capture

Scan-in and scan-out at every operation, so run time and queue time separate automatically.

Sub-Assembly And Kit Visibility

Child parts, kits and bought-out items tracked against the parent assembly they are destined for.

Bottleneck Seen Early

Queue length by work centre exposed live, rather than at the month-end dispatch review meeting.

Real-Time Job Status

Know the exact operation, waiting time and production status of every active job.

Our Work-in-Progress (WIP) Tracking System

A shop-floor WIP capability covering job card digitisation, operation confirmation, bottleneck visibility and inventory valuation, delivered as one engineered system with hardware and training included.

1. Job Card & Traveller Digitisation
The paper traveller that walks with the job becomes a scannable record, without removing the printed copy your operators are used to handling. Both stay in step through the route.

Key Capabilities:

Barcode job cards printed at release with routing and drawing revision
Operation sequence, work centre, setup and run time held per job
Drawing, work instruction and inspection plan available at the work centre
Split, merge and partial quantity handling for jobs that break up
2. Operation Scan-In & Confirmation
Every operation is confirmed where it happens, by the operator who did it. Queue time and run time then separate cleanly, which is what makes the data usable for planning decisions.

Key Capabilities:

Rugged handheld, fixed scanner or kiosk at each work centre
Operator, machine and shift captured against every confirmation
Good, rework and scrap quantity with reason at operation close
Offline scanning with automatic sync when the shop network returns
3. Sub-Assembly, Kit & Bought-Out Tracking
Assembly delays are usually caused by one missing child part, not the main item. We track sub-assemblies and kits against the parent, so shortages appear before the assembly bay stalls.

Key Capabilities:

Parent-child linkage from cut piece through sub-assembly to finished item
Kit issue against pick list with short-supply flagging at stores
Bought-out and vendor-processed items tracked through subcontract gate passes
Serial and heat number retention for parts needing full genealogy
4. Bottleneck, Rework & WIP Valuation
Planning needs queue visibility, quality needs a controlled rework route, and finance needs a WIP figure that ties to the general ledger. A single capture dataset serves all three teams.

Key Capabilities:

Live queue and load by work centre with ageing of waiting jobs
Rework, hold and concession routing with authorised release only
WIP inventory value by operation stage using your costing method
Promise-date slippage alerts against the committed delivery date

Technologies That Power Our Solutions

Capture technology chosen for a working shop floor, where labels meet coolant, swarf, welding spatter and gloved hands every single day.

Industrial Barcode & QR Systems
Label stock, print method and scanner class are selected against actual handling conditions at each work centre, not chosen on price.

Applications:

Job card labelling Operation confirmation Kit picking Stores issue and receipt
Rugged Handhelds & Shop-Floor Kiosks
IP-rated Android terminals and fixed kiosks are placed at work centres, so scanning never adds a walk to the operation.

Applications:

Operator confirmation Material issue Rework booking Physical verification
RFID for Bulk Or High-Value Movement
Where individual scanning is impractical, such as trolleys, bins and pallet movement between bays, passive RFID tags replace line-of-sight reads.

Applications:

Trolley and bin tracking Bay-to-bay movement Bulk kit reads Subcontract dispatch
Integration & Reporting Layer
WIP data is only valuable when it reaches planning, costing and dispatch, so ERP integration is engineered as part of the core build.

Applications:

ERP work order sync Planning feeds Costing and valuation Customer status reporting

Industry Success Stories

Representative outcomes from discrete manufacturing deployments. All figures are indicative ranges and must be confirmed against your own baseline before publication.

Sheet Metal & Fabrication Shops
Laser cutting, bending, welding and painting routes where jobs split into many parts and reconverge at assembly.

Results Achieved:

Job search and expediting time reduced by 50-70%
Nest-to-assembly part loss substantially reduced
Promise-date accuracy improved by 20-30 points
Precision Machining & Job Shops
Multi-operation CNC routes with subcontracted heat treatment, plating or grinding between the in-house operations.

Results Achieved:

Subcontract turnaround visibility established for the first time
WIP inventory value reduced 15-25% through queue control
Rework identified at the operation that caused it
Equipment & Panel Assembly Units
Build-to-order assembly units dependent on kits, bought-out items and tight control of drawing revision levels.

Results Achieved:

Assembly stoppages from missing child parts materially reduced
Kit shortage identified before the job reaches the bay
Month-end WIP reconciliation shortened by several days

Key Performance Indicators

The numbers a production planning head and plant manager use to judge whether the system earned its place on the floor.

WIP Location Accuracy
Match between the system stage of a job and its physically verified shop-floor location.
Target: >98%
How we get there: Sustained through mandatory scan gates at each work centre and periodic floor audits.
Scan Compliance Rate
Share of operations confirmed by scan within the shift in which they were completed.
Target: >95%
How we get there: Achieved by placing terminals at the work centre and keeping confirmation to seconds.
Average Queue Time Per Operation
Time a job waits at a work centre before the operation actually starts.
Target: Reduced 20-35%
How we get there: Delivered by exposing work centre load and ageing queues to planners each morning.
Promise-Date Adherence
Proportion of jobs completed on or before the date committed to the customer.
Target: >90%
How we get there: Improved through slippage alerts raised at the operation where the delay first appears.

How We Deliver

Delivery is staged so one product family proves the routing model before the whole shop is scanned.

01

Requirement Study & Routing Mapping

We document your product families, operation sequences, work centre layout, job card format and the points where jobs currently disappear from view.

02

Solution Design & Scan Point Layout

Terminal placement, label specification, offline behaviour, ERP interfaces and the WIP valuation method are documented and signed off in writing before any procurement.

03

Pilot on One Product Family

One family runs end to end through scan capture against defined acceptance criteria, so queue and cycle numbers are validated on real jobs first.

04

Rollout, Training & Support

Remaining product families and work centres are onboarded, operators and supervisors are trained, and the system moves into an agreed support arrangement.

Why Choose Our Work-in-Progress (WIP) Tracking System?

What a purpose-built WIP tracking system gives a job shop that an ERP production module alone does not.

Built Around Your Routing
Routings, splits, subcontract legs and rework loops are modelled exactly as your plant runs them, including the exceptions your planners handle informally today.
Capture At The Operation
Confirmation happens at the machine, by the operator, within seconds. Data entered in an office at end of shift is always a reconstruction.
Labels That Survive The Shop
Label material, adhesive and print method are trialled against coolant, heat, spatter and handling on your floor before the specification is fixed.
One Team, Floor To Finance
Scanners, labels, software, ERP integration, training and support all come from a single engineering team that remains accountable for the whole chain.

Know Where Every Job Actually Is

Book a requirement discussion with our engineering team. We will map one product family end to end, agree the scan points with your planning head and shop supervisors, and return with a scoped pilot, hardware list and timeline.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A work-in-progress tracking system records the movement of every job, part and sub-assembly through the operations of a manufacturing route, from material issue to finished goods. Each job carries a barcode, QR or RFID identity, and operators scan it in and out at each work centre, so the system knows which operation the job has reached, how long it waited in queue, how long the operation took, and how much was passed, reworked or scrapped. Planning, quality and finance then read one live picture.

It is engineered for your plant. We are a custom solution development and systems integration company. The project begins with a requirement study of your routings, job card format and shop layout, and the scan points follow.

ERP production modules record what was declared, usually once per job or shift, from an office terminal. A WIP system records what happened at each operation, when it happened, on the floor, and feeds that back into your ERP.

Yes. Rugged handhelds, fixed scanners, kiosks, label printers, label stock and RFID hardware where needed are scoped, supplied, installed and supported as part of the project, and we trial the label specification on your shop floor before fixing it.

That is a specification decision made after a site survey. Depending on the work centre we use synthetic label stock with high-tack adhesive, resin-ribbon thermal transfer printing, laser-marked plates or metal-mount RFID tags.

SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Navision, Tally, and in-house or legacy systems. Work orders, routings and delivery commitments flow in, while operation confirmations, scrap, rework and WIP valuation flow back out.

Yes. On-premise, private cloud and hybrid deployments are all supported. Scanning terminals also work offline and sync automatically when the shop network returns, so production confirmation never stops because of a connectivity failure.

A pilot covering one product family is usually live within six to ten weeks of requirement sign-off, with plant-wide rollout in phases after that. Timelines depend on routing complexity, work centre count and ERP integration depth.

Subcontract operations are modelled as legs in the routing. A gate pass with a scannable identity is raised at dispatch, receipt back is scanned against the same job, and ageing runs against the promised turnaround.

Support runs under an agreed arrangement covering defined response times by severity, preventive maintenance and replacement of scanners and printers, label supply, and routing or report changes. Escalation path is documented in the contract.