Project-based production tracking for machine builders

The tracking problem in engineer-to-order work

A company that builds special machines runs several projects at once. Each has machined parts, welded frames, paint, electrical work and assembly; some parts are made in-house and some go to subcontractors. The project manager asks the same questions every day:

• Are any parts still missing for assembly, and if so, on which machine?
• Will we make the delivery date, or is one department going to be the bottleneck?
• How many hours did this project actually take, compared with the quote?
• If we accept a new order, which existing due dates will slip?

When the answers are spread across a parts list in Excel and the memory of the foremen, every answer costs a few phone calls and a walk around the shop.

Project, part, operation

ModernMES is structured for project-based manufacturing. Each order becomes a project with its customer, due date, budget and phase. You add parts to the project and apply an operation routing to each; every routing step becomes a work order in the queue of its resource group.

• Import the parts list and routings with an Excel template; the file is checked first and invalid rows are shown before anything is saved.
• Routings are versioned and a part can have a default routing, so repeat parts are not routed again from scratch.
• Each step keeps its estimated and actual time and its planned and actual machine and operator.
• Work orders are ranked on a five-level priority.

Will the due date hold? Find out early

Every project has a deadline feasibility card. It compares the project's remaining work with the working capacity of each resource group up to the due date, after the other open work already waiting there. The result is shown as fits, tight or over capacity, with the bottleneck group and the earliest finish date the current load allows.

The production status report adds workload, deadline forecasts calculated earliest-due-date first, plan versus actual and operator hours. Every table exports to Excel.

These calculations do not model setup sequence, breaks within a shift or operator availability. They are not a detailed scheduler; they are a warning that a due date is at risk, weeks before it is missed.

Capture on the floor: route card and terminal

The route card printed for a project has a Code128 barcode or QR code for every step of every part. On the terminal, or on their own phone paired with a QR code, the operator scans their badge, scans the step and starts. They pick a reason when they pause and enter good and scrap quantities when they finish. Times are recorded automatically.

The live shop floor view and per-group TV boards show which project's part is on which machine. The project screen shows which step every part is at and how complete the project is, so the assembly team can see what is still missing.

Actual hours and the next quote

When a project is done, the actual time of every operation is on record next to its estimate. Each night ModernMES recalculates the typical (median) duration and the typical order of operations from that history, suggests them on new routings and flags inconsistencies in a plan.

Quality checks, scrap records and machine maintenance plans live in the same system. With the ERP integration add-on, finished parts are booked in SAP Business One, Business Central, Odoo and other systems, and stock items and customers are pulled from the ERP.

Frequently asked questions