Shop Floor Data Collection Systems - Overview

Shop floor data provides critical information for production tracking and scheduling, job/project costing, materials movement, time and attendance recording, payroll and order management. In many businesses, collecting this data is a paper-based, manually intensive process, resulting in information that is often not recorded correctly and is usually late.

Inaccurate and late data can be costly in terms of production mistakes, delayed deliveries, payroll errors, incorrect costing information and many other issues that can undermine operational decisions. Adding to the problem is that paper-based systems are costly in terms of the time spent by shop floor and office personnel in the data collection process.

The solution is a combination of automation and integration. Automation by using data collection tools, such as bar code readers, touch screen terminals and card-scanning equipment. Integration by capturing the data in a single database so that it can be used to supply all the needs of production management, scheduling, ERP, materials management and payroll systems.

Automated data collection is faster, more efficient and more accurate by eliminating hand-written documents, avoiding rekeying of the data, and reducing the collection time and effort. Some systems can provide other benefits such as two-way data communications, allowing data to flow efficiently to and from the shop floor: CAD drawings and engineering change orders, for example, can be communicated instantly to operators on the shop floor.

There are a number of data collection systems available that can result in a return on investment measured in months. BW&A can review your requirements and recommend the solutions best suited to your manufacturing business.

For more information, see Labour & Job Tracking / Time & Attendance systems.