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QView version 1 was originally created for a small custom mattress Manufacturing company called Sleep Boutique (www.sleepboutique.ca). Their workload became overwhelming to manage as every order was different and one customer might have several custom products per order. At the time they were using their accounting system, pulling reports, creating work schedules and spreadsheets, and then distributing it to the product team. The production team would then spend time going over what was complete and still in progress. This was time consuming, fraught with errors, and was repeated weekly.

As Sleep Boutique grew it was time to change and get more organized. They spent the time to look for a system or tool that could do what it needed. They reviewed so many ERP/MRP, work load scheduling, and work flow systems but none were quite right.

Most of these systems were too large and complicated for a job shop of this size. They were also designed so that the company would have to change to work with the system, instead of a system changing to work with the company. None of the systems were designed for smaller custom manufactures, job shops, Make to Order, or D2C Direct to Consumer manufactures.

Another factor that was important was having a system that was as easy as paper for the production team. The production team simply needed to see the work in their queue and know what to do next. The system needed to be easy to use for these team members.

So, Sleep Boutique created their own customized system built for themselves. Once QView was created life at the business became much better. There were less errors, more time for both management and the production team, and the visibility to see all the work and know what is being done at any moment. They were also able to do more complicated designs which created to product lines that were too hard to manage on paper.

The system worked so well we decided to make it available to all custom manufactures and job shops that needed to get off paper, get organized, and grow their business.

This might seem like a simple to answer question but it isn’t. The majority of custom manufactures around the world are smaller companies with 30 or less employees, and sometimes paper is the easiest and least expensive ways to manage workflows and operate their business.

Paper work orders and spreadsheets can work well for HIGH MIX / LOW VOLUME manufactures; however much depends on the volume of work. If your production team works on one order for a full day or more then workload management isn’t too complicated. If your production team works on multiple orders each day then managing the workload with paper becomes more difficult but might not be a hinderance to the growth or your job shop.

Benefits of Paper Work Orders

• Simple to use
• Paper can work your way
• Easy to read
• Cheap (does depend on how much paper is used)
• Can be easy to organize

Obviously, paper works as the majority of small manufactures still use paper to create orders and organize their workflows. As companies grow, they eventually get to a place where they have to change and adapt. Moving off of paper work orders can be a great first start, if you have the following issues:

• Too much time managing workload
• Errors due to improper order entry or not enough information for production
• Too much walking around
• Lost Orders
• Late on orders
• Not knowing what is being done or where an order or the paperwork is
• Production volume needs to increase
• Team not knowing what needs to done next

There are many ways to get off of paper, but the most common for custom manufactures is some kind of an ERP / MRP / Workflow management system / or Work load scheduling software. What system is right for you is another blog post. These systems can help your company become more organized and streamline part or all of your business. Some systems can be very complicated and hard to implement, but are designed for larger organizations.

Once you have made the decision to utilize a system or tool to get off paper you may find many benefits. That being said you want to ensure you find and use the best system for your business. Just make sure that the system you use if right for your business and works the way you need it to. Custom manufacturing can be an exciting business, but there are many moving parts and it is always more complicated than people realize.

If you can find the right system and get off of spreadsheets and paper work orders you should see following things happen at your business.

• Higher Quality Orders
• More Production
• Less Errors
• Better Employee Engagement
• Faster Turnaround Times
• More Customer Satisfaction
• Visibility to workload
• Time spent on every product
• More Money on your bottom line

Going from paper based process to a digital solution isn’t for all businesses. Once you reach that point the benefits out weight paper in too many ways to quantify.