The shop floor can be the busiest, most complicated part of your company. As the heart of your business, the shop floor contains a host of different products, jobs, people, and technologies. Without clear communication and seamless software integration, your well-oiled machine can quickly devolve into chaos. Thankfully, custom software development can give you the solutions that your company needs.
Custom Software Development
You have a lot of options when choosing your software. There’s certainly no shortage of off-the-shelf software choices. On the surface, these choices seem fairly convenient. However, what looks like a time-saving decision can often cost you in the long run. Custom software development can address very specific and personalized needs. You can seamlessly integrate your software into your business, creating shop floor solutions that would not have been available if you had chosen a more generic option.
Start With Your Database
Your custom database will become the core of all of your shop floor solutions. It’s the foundation on which you can build your entire business and send all of your communication. Your database can capture information from several different sources, including barcode scanners, test equipment, operator’s PCs, and so much more. Shop floor managers can then use this information to create better communication between the shop floor and other areas of the company. The increased communication will increase efficiency and result in a better ROI from your software. Managers will be able to answer questions quickly. Shop floor employees will get clear answers so that they can quickly solve problems with minimal interruption to the work day.
Product Tracking from Start to Finish
Imagine that you’ve shipped a large quantity of products only to realize that something went wrong in the supply chain. Custom software development can help you avoid this problem, reducing your need for recalls. Whether you produce just one type of product or several different products, tracking from beginning to end can help you produce excellent quality. Your company provides a product for many customers on a daily basis. You want to make sure that each one gets the best quality product that you can provide. Custom software development can help you achieve that goal with product tracking.
The shop floor deals with product development from every stage of the building process. At the beginning, the product looks like a stack of raw materials, and by the end, you have a fully-developed product that you’re ready to ship to customers. The number of steps that product has to go through in between those two stages, of course, depends on the product. You can track each and every one of those stages. With a barcode scan or other simple update, you can track a product from start to finish. If anything goes wrong at any point on the shop floor, you’ll know about it. You can correct the problem immediately, saving the company from a lot of lost time and lost revenue.
Better Customer Communication
You’re not the only one who wants updates on your product development. Your customers want to know, too. When a customer purchases a product, he or she will often check for updates on that product. By providing better customer communication, your custom software development helps to satisfy the part of the customer’s brain that wants access to the product immediately. Although they cannot get their product right away, they can stay updated on the process.
Improved Workflow Solutions
Tracking workflow with a pen and paper – or even with an outdated, off-the-shelf software, can slow down production. With a team that is well-versed in custom software development, you can have an application solution to track and increase workflow. Furthermore, better communication between management and shop floor increases workflow by default. With custom shop floor solutions, management can answer requests for service right away. Management can also receive immediate updates if problems arise on the shop floor. They can address these problems as soon as possible so that these issues no longer interrupt workflow. By improving shop floor workflow, software solutions can increase productivity, giving you an excellent ROI.
Ayoka Software Solutions
Ayoka is a solutions-based custom software development company. We can help you develop custom software solutions to help you manage the shop floor more efficiently. We have years of experience working with the software needs of different companies, and we get consistent results with our shop floor management solutions. With our custom software solutions, you can increase customer satisfaction, streamline your production, reduce the need for scrap and rework, and see many other benefits. If you’re ready to start building your custom software solution, contact us today. You can reach us at 817-210-4042 or get in touch with our contact form.