Spring is often the time we start cleaning out homes and making them look nice. This spring, consider cleaning up your shop’s operations and making them more efficient. Below are four tips to help you.
Track Important Data
To make your shop more efficient, you have to determine how you’re going to measure that. Do you want to send out more jobs on time? Have more pieces pass quality control? Whatever you decide is important, you have to measure so you can see the difference over time. Sometimes, merely measuring these things can help your shop to improve. It’s easiest to track data in an ERP system because everyone can access it quickly and easily.
Spring Clean
Spring cleaning isn’t just for your home. If it’s hard to move around in your shop or find things, it’s a good idea to clean up your shop as well. You can start by sorting items into three categories: used often, sometimes used, never used. Make sure that the things that you use frequently are somewhere easy to reach and that people either put those items back when they’re done or that you buy enough that everyone in the shop has one, depending on what the item is. For the things that you don’t use often, it’s helpful to move those out of the way, but somewhere that people can still find them when they need them. For items that your shop never uses, it’s time to get rid of them. Whether that’s throwing them out or selling them, don’t take up valuable space in your shop with things you don’t need.
One Source of Truth
If your shop runs on spreadsheets or pieces of paper, you know the pain of finding up-to-date data. You need accurate, current data to make the best decisions. Without it, you’re making an educated guess, and if someone else in your shop has different data, you’re both guessing, but you won’t get the same answer. An ERP system is one source of truth for your shop. All the data in it is correct and up to date, and you know that you’re looking at the same information as everyone else. With reliable data, you can make concrete plans for your shop without having to waste time looking for the most current data.
Communication
Communication in a shop is critical for all jobs to go through correctly, including any last-minute changes the customer might need. Without that communication, you could make the wrong part or too much of something that the customer won’t pay for. When you update an order or a job in an ERP system, it’s automatically updated everywhere. The folks on your floor can keep up with even the most demanding customer, and you’ll always know what’s happening in the shop.
ERP systems can also automatically communicate with your customers. You can set it to send out an email when a job gets to a specific step in the process or when you send the job out the door. This way, you can still give customers a look into what’s happening with their job without having to dedicate too much time to it.
To make your shop more efficient, you’ve got to try some new things, and spring is a great time for new beginnings. Tracking your improvements, cleaning up the shop, and keeping everyone on the same page are great ways to make your shop run better. Now that you know how to make your shop more efficient, why not also make it more productive?
