Production tracking software for CNC machine shops

Why tracking breaks down in a job shop

A machine shop may run a one-off replacement shaft, a batch of 200 flanges and a 40-line project for a machine builder in the same week. Each part follows its own routing: saw, turn, mill, drill, grind, inspect. When travelers are paper and tracking lives in a spreadsheet or on a whiteboard, the same problems come back:

• A customer calls for a status update and someone has to go out on the floor and ask.
• Nobody knows which machine sat idle today until the end of the shift, and then only roughly.
• Quotes rely on remembered cycle times, because actual times were never recorded.
• A late job turns out to have been sitting in a queue in front of one machine for days.
• Scrap and rework are not logged, so the same problem shows up on the next order.

How an order moves through ModernMES

In ModernMES a customer order is opened as a project. You add the parts and apply a routing to each one. Every routing step (say "CNC lathe – 25 min" or "Machining center – 40 min") becomes a work order in the queue of its resource group.

1. Import parts and routings in bulk from an Excel template; for repeat parts, apply the saved routing in one click.
2. Print the route card (traveler) for the project. Every step carries its own Code128 barcode or QR code, and the card travels with the parts.
3. At the machine, the operator scans their badge or enters their code, scans the step barcode and starts the job.
4. When they stop, they pick a reason (setup, tool breakage, waiting for material…). When they finish, they enter the good and scrap quantities.
5. The project screen shows which step every part is at, how far along the project is and which jobs are late.

The terminal runs in a web browser: a tablet, an old shop-floor PC or the operator's own phone, paired once with a QR code. There is nothing to install.

Machines and workload, live

The live shop floor view shows which job is running on which machine, who is on it and which machines are waiting. Each resource group (lathes, mills, machining centers) can have its own TV board, so everyone on the floor sees the queue.

The production status report covers workload per resource group, deadline forecasts, plan versus actual and operator hours. Every table exports to Excel.

Real times for quotes and due dates

Every start and finish records the actual time on the job. Each night ModernMES recalculates the typical (median) time of every operation from that history and uses it to suggest times on new routings. The next time you quote a flange, the turning time comes from records, not memory.

The deadline feasibility card on each project compares the remaining work with the capacity of each resource group up to the due date, after the other open work already on it. It tells you whether the project fits, is tight or is over capacity, names the bottleneck group and estimates a finish date. It does not model setup sequence, breaks within a shift or operator availability, so treat it as an early warning rather than a schedule.

Downtime, quality and maintenance

• Downtime: every pause is recorded with a reason. Setup, tool breakage, machine breakdown and waiting for material come built in, and you can add your own.
• Quality: first-piece, in-process and final inspection results are kept on the work order. Scrap is recorded by defect type, with a photo if needed.
• Maintenance: set daily, weekly, monthly or yearly plans per machine; a maintenance work order opens automatically the morning a plan falls due.
• ERP: the ERP integration add-on books finished work in SAP Business One, Business Central, Odoo and other systems.

Getting started

You can try ModernMES in the cloud free for 14 days, without a credit card, in English or Turkish. Shops that want their data to stay on site can install it on their own server. Look around the live shop floor demo first, or compare the plans on the pricing section.

Frequently asked questions