Job tracking
Machine shop job tracking that fits on one list
One Excel job list that answers a customer phone call in ten seconds: where the job is, how many hours are left, and whether the promise date is still real. Built for shops running twenty to two hundred open jobs without an ERP.
An Excel workbook you own, delivered as a download after purchase. No macros, no data connections. The ReadyOps cloud platform is still in development.
Production Control — Shop Overview (sample data)
SampleOpen jobs
38
Hours in WIP
412
At risk this week
5
inside 3-day window
Past due
2
| Job | Customer | Part | Work center | Due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J-10428 | Northline Ag | Bracket, 3/8 plate | Laser 1 | Aug 21 | On track |
| J-10431 | Vance Hydraulics | Shaft, 4140 | Turning 2 | Aug 21 | At risk |
| J-10433 | Cedar Fab | Weldment, frame | Weld 3 | Aug 24 | On track |
| J-10419 | Trail King Repair | Pin set | Grind | Aug 18 | Past due |
How it works
The routine, start to finish
01
Enter the job once
Job number, customer, part, quantity, promise date, and estimated hours by work center. One row per job, in an Excel Table so added rows never break the summaries.
02
Update stage daily
Change the current work center and status, and the remaining hours when something material changes. That is the whole daily entry — a few minutes, not an hour.
03
Read the flags and ship
Past-due and at-risk jobs highlight themselves against your own risk window. Log the shipment when the job leaves and the job closes out of WIP.
Scope
What it does, and what it does not
Straight answer before you spend anything. This is a workbook, not a shop system of record.
What it does
- Keeps one row per open job with customer, part, quantity, and promise date
- Tracks current work center and status so anyone can answer where a job is
- Carries remaining hours, which is the number scheduling and load views need
- Flags past-due and at-risk jobs automatically against a risk window you set
- Rolls jobs into a WIP summary by stage, with hours and value in process
- Prints a filtered daily schedule for the morning meeting
- Logs shipments so closed jobs leave the active list with a history behind them
What it does not do
- Does not collect time from the floor with a clock terminal or barcode scanner
- Does not schedule operations automatically or promise a date for you
- Does not quote, invoice, or post to accounting
- Does not explode multi-level bills of material or drive purchasing from a forecast
- Does not sync with a cloud service — it is a workbook on your own storage
Most job tracking failures are not tool failures. They happen because job data lives in three files that disagree, so nobody trusts any of them and everyone falls back to walking the floor. The fix is one list, a short field set, and a daily update small enough that it actually gets done.
The Production Control System is that list already assembled, with the work center load view, at-risk flags, WIP summary, printable daily schedule, and shipping log wired to the same job rows.
Keep reading
Ready for the full Production Control workbook?
One workbook for job status, work center load, and promise dates. Replaces the whiteboard and the three spreadsheets that never agree.