When you think of growing your shop, you probably think about getting more square footage. Sometimes this is the best move for your shop, and sometimes it isn’t. However, there are several ways to find growth in your shop and not all of them involve moving or building an addition. Four ways to grow your shop are physically expanding, becoming more efficient with paperwork, becoming more efficient on the shop floor, and adding another shift.
Physically Expanding
There’s a reason this is the most common way people think to grow their shop. If your shop needs more machines or more people to grow, then this is probably the right move. With an addition onto your shop, you will need to contend with construction while your employees are trying to work. If you need a new building entirely, then you have to find the right space before moving or adding another location. All of these considerations aside, if your shop needs more space, then the headache will be worth it. No one wants to feel cramped when they’re working and having more space to work with is sometimes the answer to these problems.
More Efficient with Paperwork
Is it hard to get anything done in your shop because you can’t find the right paperwork? You would be surprised how much it would help your shop to get all your paperwork organized. One of the best solutions here is to get an ERP system.
With an ERP system, all the information you need is easy to find and put in a report. There’s no more hunting down papers or spreadsheets to make a report manually. ERP systems help your shop track everything from quote to shipping. When no one has to spend time searching for a job order or a quote, you’ll find that your shop has more time. Your shop can make more accurate quotes, run more jobs, and whatever else needs to be done with the extra time. An ERP system can make up the lost time so that your shop is able to do more with the existing resources.
More Efficient on the Shop Floor
What route does an employee have to take on a shop floor to make one of your most common jobs? Do they know where to take the job next, or do they have to search for that information?
Another great way to grow your shop is to look at how smoothly everything runs on the shop floor. If your most common jobs require a lot of backtracking and unnecessary moving, maybe it’s time to move some of your machines. The fewer steps your operator has to walk, the more quickly the jobs will run. If it’s a question of knowing what to do next, an ERP system makes it easy to create and print a job traveler to follow. The job will get completed more quickly if no one has to search for the next step in the process. Job travelers can also help you determine which machines are often used together so you know which machines to group together.
Adding Another Shift
Sometimes the size of your shop is just fine, but you need more time on your machines. In this case, it may be best to add another shift to your shop. If you have the technology, you could consider adding a lights-out shift. In this kind of shift, almost all of the work is done by machines and only a few workers are there to keep an eye on them. Otherwise, you could add a traditional third shift. An ERP system can make sure everyone stays on schedule. With an ERP system on the cloud, you can check in on the shop and what’s happening even if you’re not there.
Whether your shop finds growth by physically expanding, becoming more efficient with paperwork, becoming more efficient on the floor, or adding another shift, any kind of growth is good. However, when your shop grows, it’s important to avoid any communication breakdowns or paperwork problems. The key is to stay organized and this is the easiest to do with ERP software. Interested in learning more about ERP software?
