What it produces
Labor, completions and scrap posted within the shift, with reasons, so job cost and the schedule are true.
Workflows
Shop Floor Reporting
the recording of labor hours, completed operations, good quantity, and scrap against the work orders on a production floor
The job in one minute
Who owns it
Production control and supervisors, with operators, planners, manufacturing engineering, cost accounting and payroll.
How often
Every shift.
Why it hurts
Three sources feed one record: the terminal where the operator clocks on, the machine or MES count, and a paper traveler someone keys the next morning. They disagree more often than anyone admits.
The usual suspects: an activity left open overnight that books 14 hours to one job, 100 reported complete on a job for 80, scrap with no reason code, and a last operation never closed so the schedule shows a queue that does not exist. Every one lands in job cost, and job cost feeds the next quote. Labor time can also be pay time, so a "fixed" clock-out nobody verified becomes a wage record.
Systems it touches
The agent reads MES counts, terminal entries and scanned travelers (taking job and operation from the barcode, not the handwriting), then keys and corrects labor on the ERP's own screens. Time and attendance remains your payroll source. Product →
- ERP labor and job screens
- MES
- Shop-floor terminals
- Barcode scanners
- Outlook
- Teams
- Excel
- SharePoint or OneDrive
12 steps · 4 actions · 7 decisions · 1 human reviews
The workflow, step by step
Action Decision Human review Select a step in the flowchart to jump to it.
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Action · Agent
At shift end plus a grace period, list everyone with an open activity.
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Decision · Agent
Never close a clock-out with an invented time. Propose shift end and send it to the supervisor.
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Action · MES
Read scanned travelers and scrap tags, and pull the shift's MES counts.
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Decision · MES
Terminal, MES and traveler must agree within tolerance, or the item goes to review.
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Decision · Agent
Hold any completion above the required quantity plus allowed overrun.
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Decision · Agent
Good quantity at an operation cannot exceed the operation before it, unless the routing allows overlap.
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Decision · Agent
Every scrap quantity needs a reason code. Scrap above your percent or dollar threshold needs a supervisor.
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Decision · Agent
Overlapping activities for the same person become merge candidates. Hours per piece far from standard are flagged for engineering, not blocked.
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Action · Agent
Key missing labor from travelers and correct flagged transactions.
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Decision · Agent
Complete plus scrap at or above required closes the operation. A short close needs the supervisor.
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Human review · Supervisor
The supervisor clears open clock-outs, short closes and big scrap from one queue, traveler image beside each item.
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Action · Agent
Post labor, verify job quantities and status, and publish the shift summary: open activities, scrap by reason, jobs outside the hours band.
✓ Done
See it done in the Gallery
Rules vs judgment
Corrections go to payroll with before and after values and the approver. The agent never edits time in the payroll system.
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Exact rule
- Three-source tolerance, over-completion, sequence, scrap reasons and thresholds, duplicates, hours band, operation close
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Model reads
- Handwritten traveler values and scrap tags
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Person decides
- Any clock-out time the system did not record; short closes and scrap above threshold; routing changes when hours keep missing standard (engineering); reversals in a closed period
When it stops
Steps
- 01
The supervisor sets the time.
- 02
The supervisor picks which one to trust, with a reason.
- 03
The operator is asked the same shift and the transaction waits.
- 04
Held for production control or engineering.
- 05
The supervisor confirms or corrects the ID.
- 06
Escalates to the production manager; posting waits.
What you end up with
- One review queue per supervisor per shift instead of next-week detective work.
- Operations that are really closed, so planners schedule from the truth.
- Scrap by reason, so you can see which cells skip it.
- Jobs outside the hours band delivered to engineering as patterns. If the standard is wrong, it gets fixed at the source.
Questions
Can the agent close a forgotten clock-out?
It proposes one and stops. Only a supervisor sets a time the system did not record.
Does this replace an MES?
No. The MES captures events at the machine. The agent reconciles it with terminals and paper and handles what the MES leaves behind.
What if operators never enter scrap reasons?
The transaction waits until a reason exists. Within two weeks the report shows which cells skip it.
Why flag odd hours instead of blocking them?
Because the standard may be what is wrong. Posting and flagging keeps pay and job cost current while engineering decides.
No prompts. No babysitting. No Integrations.