Quality

Make Employee Performance Management Easier in the Job Shop

employee performance

One of the greatest resources of any job shop is its employees. You wouldn’t be able to finish any jobs without them. So, just like any resource, you want to manage it well. Making sure your employees know what to do is the easy part. Employee performance management is the hard part. You may have a gut…

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How Job Shop Goals Lead to the Right ERP Software

let shop goals be your guiding star

Before you start looking at ERP software, it’s helpful to have goals for what you want the software to do. These goals act as your shop’s North Star when you’re looking at ERP software. Most ERP systems will make your shop better in one way or another. However, if you want to be sure it’s…

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8 Ways ERP Software Can Improve Your Job Shop

improving your job shop

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software encompasses many things. You probably know it can help you run your entire job shop, but what exactly does that mean? In general, ERP software helps your shop operate more efficiently and gives you the data you need to run it better. Specifically, it can help improve your job shop…

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An Opportunity for Change in Your Job Shop

time to make changes in your shop

We’re going to continue to see the impact from COVID-19 for a long time. Your shop has probably already had to make changes, and you may have to make more. As long as you’re making changes in your shop, it may be time to think through some improvements you’ve been considering. These improvements can be…

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Why These 4 Shops Love Their Quality Software

You want every job that your shop ships out to be the best. However, that can be difficult unless your shop has quality software. Quality software makes it much easier to ensure that all pieces fit your shop’s standards, and track anything related to that goal. For these four shops, E2’s quality software was exactly…

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How to Manage a Machine Shop

best practices of managing a machine shop

Many people end up managing a machine shop because they started it. When they started, their shop was small. However, as their shop grew, they hired more people until they were doing more managing than they were working the machines. For others, they came into a management position more directly. No matter how you got…

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4 Ways to Reduce Scrap Material in Your Shop

No shop wants to have scrap material. It is possible to sell or recycle scrap, but it’s better not to have it in the first place. Reducing your shop’s scraps can raise your bottom line and improve the flow of work on your shop floor. Quality Control One of the easiest ways to reduce scrap…

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How to Improve Your Machine Shop’s Productivity

seeing improved productivity

Every shop wants to improve productivity but making that happen can be tricky. Once productivity goes up, so does the bottom line and all sorts of other things, but getting started can be difficult. This is especially true if you’ve already tried to make your shop more productive and have run out of ideas. Below…

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5 Ways Technology Helps Your Shop’s Bottom Line

using quality technology in the shop

We’ve all heard that technology can make our lives better, but it can be hard to know, specifically, what technology to use. There are plenty of examples of technology that can be used in a job shop. Some things, however, work better than others. Below are five examples of technology that can do wonders for…

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Why Your Employees Want Your Shop to be ISO Certified

ISO Certified Shop

You probably already know how getting ISO certified can help your shop. Potential customers like to see that your shop is meticulous enough to have earned this certification, and in some cases, they require it before giving your shop work. So, it’s understandable that shop owners would like to have this certification. However, shop employees…

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Why Your Shop Needs Quality Software

quality software

When you don’t have too many jobs, it’s easy to keep an eye on the quality of your products, but when you start getting more jobs, it becomes more difficult. You need to make sure that everything that leaves your shop meets your standards, but without some sort of quality tracking software, this can be…

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5 Mistakes your machine shop makes every day

Do you feel like your machine shop is in a rut? There’s plenty of work and you and your team are always busy, but still, you never seem to get ahead. It feels like there’s always a cash crunch looming or there’s always a crisis that you have to deal with. Sometimes you may even…

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Increase your shop’s value by investing in your employees

There are lots of ways to increase your company’s value. You can grow sales. You can pay down debt. You can implement job shop software to make your shop more efficient. You can even upgrade your machinery and facility. However, one of the best ways to grow your bottom line and increase the value of…

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The road to ISO certification: Post-certification – Part 5/5

Getting certified isn’t the end of the certification journey. In many ways, it’s just the beginning of a new process. Once you’re certified, you have to meet certain criteria to keep your certification. Auditors want to know that you not only have a quality process in place, but that you actually implement that process. In…

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The road to ISO certification: The audit – Part 4/5

This is what you’ve been preparing for. It’s finally time to put all your hard work to the test and earn that valuable certification designation. Many people get nervous or anxious about the idea of an audit. However, it doesn’t have to be a stressful experience, especially if you’ve put in the preparation. In the…

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The road to ISO certification: Pre-assessment – Part 3/5

If you’ve reached this step in the process, then you are well on your way to certification. In the previous two parts of this series, we talked about initial on-site training and creating all of the necessary documentation. Once you complete those steps, you’ll almost be ready for your certification audit. Before you move forward…

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The road to ISO certification: Documentation – Part 2/5

Welcome back to our five-part series on ISO certification. In Part One, we talked about on-site training and how important it is to starting the certification process on the right foot. In future parts of this series, we’ll talk about internal audits, your certification audit, and how to keep your certification. If you can’t wait…

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The road to ISO certification: On-site Training – Part 1/5

So you’ve decided to get your ISO certification? Congratulations! Being ISO certified can open the door to a whole new world of jobs and customers that your job shop would never otherwise have access to. More importantly, though, it will help you improve your processes and service. You’ll operate more efficiently and provide better quality…

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Software can speed job shop ISO certification

Rehtek Machine Company, one of E2’s customers, was recently featured in the ‘Better Production’ section of Modern Machine Shop, one of the top metalworking publications. The article largely spotlights how the company used software to speed job shop ISO certification. We thought we’d toot his horn some – and ours too in the process – and…

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Job shop software helps shops get ISO certification

E2’s quality module and ISO quality certification for job shops got some props recently in a Modern Machine Shop article about K & E Plastics, a second-generation machine shop in Vermont. ISO 9001:2008 certification is built into the E2 job shop software solution, offering shop owners a cost-saving alternative or supplement to an ISO-certification consultant. Read more here about ISO 9001:2008…

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