WIP tracker
A manufacturing WIP tracker you will keep current
How many jobs are in process, where they are sitting, how many hours are still in the building, and how much money is tied up in unfinished work — all read from one job list with a current-stage field.
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
Stamp the stage, not every operation
One current-stage field per job plus the date it entered that stage. Two fields, one edit when a job moves. Coarse and current beats detailed and three days behind.
02
Read WIP by stage
Job count, remaining hours, and value in process summarize by stage automatically. Age in stage surfaces the job quietly parked behind a fixture.
03
Reconcile monthly
Walk the shop with the summary once a month, correct the rows that are wrong, and close out jobs that shipped without being closed. That is what keeps the number quotable.
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
- Counts open jobs by stage so you can see where the pile is
- Totals remaining hours by stage — the size of the pile in work, not in units
- Shows value in process from remaining hours and material already issued
- Tracks age in stage from the date a job entered its current stage
- Drops jobs out of WIP when the shipment is logged
- Uses the same job rows as the schedule, load view, and at-risk flags
What it does not do
- Does not capture operation-level start and stop times from the floor
- Does not value WIP to an accounting standard or post journal entries
- Does not scan barcodes or read machine signals
- Does not replace a physical walk of the floor — reconciliation is still a monthly habit
Operation-level tracking is where most small-shop WIP projects die: the entry burden lands on people who are already busy, so data arrives late or in batches and ends up looking precise while being wrong. Start coarser than feels right. A stage field updated once a day gives you WIP accurate to within a day, which is enough to run a shop.
The Production Control System keeps stage, remaining hours, and value in process on the job list that already drives the daily schedule, so the WIP summary is a by-product of the routine rather than a second system.
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.