Real-time tracking
Real-time production tracking software
See the state of the whole factory as it is right now, not as it was when somebody last updated the spreadsheet.
Definition
What is real-time production tracking?
Real-time production tracking shows what is happening across the factory as it happens: which jobs are running, at which machines, with which operators, how far through they are and what has stopped.
The distinction from reporting is timing, and it changes what the information is for. A report tells you what happened so you can explain it. Real-time tracking tells you what is happening so you can change it.
The practical difference is whether you find out about a problem while it is still a problem. A machine that has been down for forty minutes is an intervention. The same machine discovered on a report the next morning is just an explanation for a missed delivery.
See it live
The factory as it is right now
Every live job, its current operation, who is on it and how long it has been there, updating on every booking. This is the screen that ends the morning status meeting.
Put it on displays in the factory and the floor manages itself against the day's target.
- Updates on every single booking
- Same picture on floor and office screens
- Stalled work flagged within the hour
How it works
How real-time tracking works
It has one hard requirement: data has to arrive continuously, not in batches at the end of a shift.
Capture at the moment
Operators book on and off operations at terminals as they work. Every booking updates the picture immediately.
Machines report where they can
Equipment able to output run status feeds in directly, removing even the scan on those resources.
State is derived
Job position, machine status and queue lengths are calculated from the events rather than typed in by anybody.
Exceptions are pushed
Rather than expecting people to watch a screen, jobs running late or machines stopped beyond a threshold are raised actively.
Capabilities
What real-time tracking shows
Live job positions
Every open works order and the operation it has reached.
Machine status
Running, stopped, in setup or idle, with elapsed time in state.
Who is on what
Which operators are booked to which jobs right now.
Queues and dwell
What is waiting at each work centre and for how long.
Output against plan
Progress today measured against what today was supposed to deliver.
Shop floor displays
The same picture on screens in the factory, not just in the office.
To the door
Live through to despatch
End-of-line tracking carries the picture through final checks and out of the building, so today's promises are being watched all the way to the van.
A job at risk at 10am is an intervention. The same job discovered tomorrow is an apology.
- Final operations and despatch live
- Output against today's plan
- Late risk raised while it is actionable
Benefits
What live visibility changes
The value of production data decays extremely quickly. Most of it is gone by the following morning.
Problems get intercepted
A stalled job flagged within the hour can often still make its date. The same job discovered tomorrow cannot.
Meetings get shorter
A large part of most production meetings is establishing what actually happened. When everyone is looking at the same live picture, that part disappears.
The floor self-corrects
Teams that can see their own output against target adjust without being managed. Screens on the floor are consistently more effective than reports in the office.
Escalation gets targeted
Instead of a general sense that the week is going badly, you get the three specific jobs that need attention.
Live vs reported
Real-time tracking or production reporting?
You want both, and they are built from the same captured data. What differs is when you look and what you can do about it.
| Real-time tracking | Production reporting | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | What is happening now? | What happened over a period? |
| Used by | Supervisors, cell leaders, sales | Directors, finance, continuous improvement |
| Acted on | Within minutes or hours | Within weeks or months |
| Typical view | Live board or shop floor screen | Weekly or monthly pack |
| Value decays | Fast, within a shift | Slowly, trends stay useful |
| Requires | Continuous capture | Accurate capture, timing less critical |
Right for you?
When you need live tracking
The pattern is a factory where everyone is well informed about yesterday.
- Your production picture is assembled each morning for a meeting and is out of date by lunchtime.
- Machine stoppages are noticed by whoever walks past rather than flagged.
- Sales cannot answer customer questions without asking production first.
- Nobody on the shop floor can see how the day is going against target.
- Late jobs are identified at the despatch bay rather than three operations earlier.
- You are running enough concurrent work that nobody can hold the state in their head.
DynamxMFG
Live because the data arrives as work happens
There is no way to make tracking real-time by reporting harder. If capture happens at the end of a shift, the best possible system shows you a picture that is several hours old.
DynamxMFG updates as operators book. Every scan changes the live view immediately, on office screens and on displays in the factory, which is what allows problems to be dealt with on the day they occur.
Updated on every booking
No refresh cycle and nothing to compile. See shop floor data capture.
Visible on the floor
Live boards where the work is, not only in the office. See manufacturing intelligence.
Job level detail
Drill from the factory view to one job. See job tracking.
Integrations
Connects to what you already run
Live status is most valuable in the hands of people outside the factory. DynamxMFG connects to your CRM and inbox so sales answer customers from the live picture, not from memory.
See all 33 integrations →
Customers
What manufacturers say about DynamxMFG
“DynamxMFG is an excellent choice for manufacturers looking to digitise operations without being overwhelmed by complexity.”
“As GMC has grown, it had become harder for me to have such a keen view on components to see if those parts were profitable or not. DynamxMFG enabled us to monitor the machine time and see whether we are making a profit or a loss on each component.”
“The ability to dynamically modify BOMs after release, adding or removing items from work orders, scrapping and reworking parts, has been the single biggest improvement for our business.”
“We chose the system over competitors because of its ease of use, strong customer support and friendly delivery team. So far, everything has matched what was promised.”
“With DynamxMFG, all our production processes are tracked and the relevant data is captured. This increases our control over the business and helps us identify more opportunities to enhance efficiency and quality.”
“Our experience has been positive, and it was definitely worth switching. The support we have received has been extremely helpful. My favourite feature is the integration and automation capabilities.”
Questions
Real-time tracking questions, answered
How real-time is real-time?
It should update on every booking, so seconds. Be sceptical of anything describing itself as real-time that refreshes on a schedule measured in hours.
Do we need screens on the shop floor?
They are one of the cheapest and most effective parts of this. Teams that can see their own performance against target adjust without anybody managing them.
Does this need machine connectivity?
No. Operator bookings are enough for live job tracking. Machine connectivity adds precision on run and downtime, and is worth doing on the constraint first.
Will people feel monitored?
They can, and how it is introduced matters more than the technology. The framing that works is that the data protects the floor from being blamed for delays that were not theirs.
What if the network drops?
Terminals should keep working offline and sync when it returns. A shop floor system that stops with the wifi loses trust permanently the first time it happens.
Is this the same as a dashboard?
A dashboard is one way of displaying it. Real-time tracking is the underlying capability; the dashboard is the window onto it.
Related reading
Read next
Background reading on real-time production tracking from the DynamxMFG glossary and blog.
See your factory live
Book a 30 minute call and we will put a live production view on screen and drill into whatever you want to look at.
