Job card demystified: Learn how to use job cards to streamline production processes

A job card is a detailed description of work that is performed for a work order.

It specifies planning and scheduling information that can be used by your production facility’s digital machines.

A job card quite simply offers a timing method to monitor a task that has to be accomplished within a specified timeframe. It can also be used to send details of jobs to workers in the field and receive feedback about the status of work.

Job cards effectively transfer information recorded by your production employees into the system, and allow it to be used by other production modules as well. It specifies several important details such as materials used, current reports, units produced, components left to purchase, timeframe and more. 

Digitization and automation of job cards can help you raise invoices as soon as the jobs are complete and automatically include the information that the customer requires.

Job cards are vital to the development of an effective master production schedule (MPS). An MPS  is a detailed plan for products to be produced in each time period and specifies important information regarding production, staffing, inventory, etc.

A well-established MPS can help troubleshoot problems in processes and resources, optimize production and drive profitability.

Digital transformation can effectively facilitate integration between your job cards and master production schedule. This can help you avoid shortages, costly expediting, and last minute scheduling. It also improves baseline productivity of employees and prevents inefficient allocation and use of resources.

Working with job cards allows an organization to consolidate planned parts, and produce strongly beneficial schedules. By incorporating many variables as inputs, job cards generate valuable data insights to empower better business decisions. 

You can input data such as demand forecast, production costs, inventory money, customer needs and demands, supply, material inventory size, production lead time, and capacity. It is also possible to generate input automatically by an ERP/MRP system that links a sales department with the production department.

Sales and logistics department data being input can automatically alter demand forecast data and the inventory size data contained within job cards. Outputs may include data such as amounts to produce, quantity available, etc.

An effective MPS combined with job cards will ultimately give your production, planning, sales, and management departments the necessary information to drive highly precise and profitable manufacturing. It also allows your marketing department to make legitimate and accurate delivery commitments to partnered warehouses and customers. 

Benefits offered by a job card:

• Provides first hand job related information such as materials required and skill set applicable to complete the job.
• Helps you to find the right type of employee to deliver a specific job successfully.
• Helps you to establish effective hiring practices. Allows you to answer key questions such as who is to be filled where, when, and how, who is to be relocated and why, can all be answered by using job cards. 
• Guides you through performance evaluation processes by comparing the performance of an employee with the desired output. Empowers you to take informed decisions related to promotions and bridge skill/knowledge gaps of employees.
• Helps you to identify and plan training and development needs.

Manufacturing leaders across the globe are employing shop floor automation solutions like job card digitization to reduce downtime, upscale ROI and improve productivity. Our custom shop floor solution driven by Industry 4.0 can be your first move towards lean manufacturing. 

It enables you to monitor every single human and machine activity on the shop floor in real-time through a centralized and interactive dashboard. It also allows you to foresee and predict manufacturing activity for the coming cycles through advanced analytics. 

Ready to transform your shop floor operations through holistic digital solutions?