How Can I See What’s Happening on My Factory Floor Right Now?

Illustration of connected factory work; not a product screenshot or a customer factory.

Use Optiwise, our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, to follow each job through its production steps, material issues and quality decisions. Your operator or supervisor records the work against the job, and you can see what has been produced, what is still waiting and what needs rework. Our machine dashboards show assigned jobs and production details, so the next conversation starts with the job that needs attention.

We connect that shop-floor work with the factory's core operations, from quotation and purchasing to inventory, quality and dispatch. Built by manufacturers, for manufacturers, Optiwise keeps the order and its production records together. You can trace a late order back to the unfinished work instead of collecting a separate update from every department.

Start with the job and the operation that is still open

In Optiwise production, record progress process by process. Keep the job reference, produced quantity and process start and end times with the entry. Your worker can enter production activity, or a supervisor can record it for several workers and jobs. If your first rollout uses the production module alone, your team can enter process updates there.

These entries give you a way to separate machining completed from inspection completed. Work in progress means material or parts that have entered production but are not yet finished. A part waiting for inspection still needs a decision, even when the machining operation has ended.

When you review a delayed job, check the last recorded operation and speak to the person responsible for the missing step. If the work has happened but the entry is missing, update the record. If the work has stopped, resolve the material, machine or quality problem before giving sales a new completion date.

Follow one order through a partial completion

Here is an illustrative example, not a customer result. You need 120 finished parts. The machining entry records 80 parts produced. Inspection passes 70, sends six for rework and rejects four. The remaining 40 have not been machined.

The quantities reconcile: 70 passed + 6 for rework + 4 rejected + 40 not yet machined = 120. The first 80 produced are not all ready to dispatch. In this example, all other production steps are complete, but the 70 passed parts still need the finished-goods receipt and dispatch arrangements.

Optiwise records produced and rejected quantities separately and keeps rework active until the parts pass or are finally rejected. Your quality team handles the six rework parts; your production supervisor plans the remaining 40 and decides how to replace the four rejects. If the six rework parts pass, you have 76 accepted parts and still need 44 more to complete the order.

If replacement work needs extra material, record the extra issue against production. Your team can then distinguish the original material requirement from what the rejection added. Sales can discuss a partial delivery of accepted goods while production resolves the balance.

Check whether the material can actually be used

A delivery at the gate does not mean the next job can start. In our inward-first purchasing workflow, stores records arrival before completing the goods receipt note, or GRN. Material that requires inspection goes to the quality team before the receipt closes. The stock update follows the completed receipt.

Use the purchase record and quality decision to establish what can be issued. Our Smart Suggest feature considers the bill of materials, demand, stock, existing production and purchase status when calculating quantities that need action. If a delivery is late or a quality decision is pending, the planner must resolve that constraint before promising a start.

For outside work, the subcontract service-order snapshot shows raw material sent, finished goods received and receipt status. A partial return still leaves an outstanding quantity to follow up. Check that balance before treating the whole outside operation as complete.

Choose the right way to capture shop-floor updates

Operator and supervisor entries are supported ways to begin. Agree who records each operation and when: at completion, at shift handover or more often when the decision needs it. A dashboard can only reflect work that has been recorded; a missing entry needs attention before you rely on the displayed progress.

Use our industrial internet of things (IoT) devices when you need machine signals alongside the job records. The Assembly Monitor captures ready, running and issue states. OptiEdge collects machine data and can buffer it during a connection interruption before synchronising it. That buffering applies to machine data; it does not mean the whole ERP works offline.

A running machine does not establish that its parts have passed inspection. Keep machine status, production quantities and quality results together when deciding whether an order can move forward. Our production-line dashboard shows production performance and failures, while the machine dashboard gives the operator their assigned work.

Ask for the order status, then make the next decision

Our artificial intelligence (AI) tools can retrieve order status from connected business records. Use a question such as “What is the status of this order?” to start the review, then follow the production and quality records behind the answer. Supported AI actions work within the user's role permissions. A quality hold still needs the authorised quality decision.

If an inspection needs another measurement or a clearer rejection reason, use our no-code forms to add the fields your process needs. This lets your team record the missing detail with the work instead of maintaining another disconnected form.

Bring one unfinished job to an Optiwise demo. We will follow its material, process entries, rejected output and rework through the same system, then show what your supervisor and owner can see. For a wider morning review across departments, use our daily manufacturing dashboard guide.