Production stages and job status boards

A status board answers one question without anyone walking across the shop: where is this job? If the answer is in the software, the front counter can tell a customer at once, and production can see what's next.

The way you set up stages matters more than which screen shows them.

Stages come from your own floor

Don't start with the software's default list. Walk the shop and write down what happens to a job. For a print shop that may be artwork, proof, print, cut, laminate, pack. For a sign shop it may include weeding, application tape, mounting, install.

Prepress alone covers several steps, including preparing artwork for press, media selection, proofing and quality control checks.¹ A short list that lumps all of that into "artwork" may hide a stuck job.

What a board looks like

Many job systems offer a board in the style of a kanban board. Such a board uses cards to represent work items and columns to represent each stage, and cards are moved from left to right to show progress.² Simple boards have just a few columns, such as waiting, in progress and completed. Complex kanban boards can subdivide "in progress" into multiple columns.²

Two views are worth checking for:

• A board. Good for a quick look at the whole shop.
• A list. Good for sorting by due date, customer or machine.

Some products offer only one. Ask to see both with a realistic number of open jobs on screen, not three demo cards.

What a board is good for

A kanban board is described as a tool that helps identify bottlenecks and overcommitments.² In a shop, that might show a pile of jobs waiting for the laminator while the printer sits idle. The software can only show it if each stage is a real step with its own column.

Moving a job between stages

Look closely at how a card moves. Does a person drag it? Does it move on its own when something happens, such as an approval being recorded or a file being sent to a printer? Automatic moves save clicks but can be wrong if the setup is off.

Check these points:

• Can a job skip a stage? A reprint may skip artwork.
• Can staff see only their own stage, or the whole board?
• Who is allowed to move a card backwards?
• Is each move recorded with the person and the time?

The last one gives you a history to look at when something goes wrong.

Status your customer sees

Some shops want the customer to see a simple status, like "in production" or "ready". Internal stages are usually too detailed for that. Ask whether the software maps several internal stages to a single customer-facing one, and what message goes out.

Check how notifications are sent. If email or text messages are involved, the sender and the customer's consent rules vary by country. Look at your national guidance, such as the FTC in the United States, the ICO in the UK or the OAIC in Australia, or ask a lawyer.

Jobs from outside

Orders received from outside an organisation are often dispatched, meaning reviewed and scheduled, before they're carried out.³ If you take orders by web form or email, find out where new orders land. A "new" or "to review" column stops them from disappearing. The page on web-to-print order forms covers that route.

Due dates and overload

A board shows what exists. It doesn't always show how much work a machine can do in a day. Ask whether the software lets you set due dates and view jobs by date, and whether it warns when a day is overbooked. If it can't, you'll still be doing that in your head.

Keep the first setup small. A handful of stages you actually use beats a long list nobody updates.