The Phone Shop Floor
Shop floor staff can start orders, run timers, use material lots and record output from the SikaBooks app. The office still finishes and costs each batch.
- Production managers, finance teams and shop floor supervisors
- Updated
In this guide
The phone screens come with the mobile app update. Until your app has them, record shop floor work on the production order page.
17.1 Opening the Shop Floor
In the SikaBooks app, open the business and tap Shop floor ("Make, record output and track time") under your apps. If it is your only app, it opens straight away. The apps icon (All apps) takes you back.
You need Inventory on, Manufacturing access and View recipes, production orders and batch trace. Every action button also needs Issue materials, log time and record output. Without access you see Shop floor unavailable.
The phone must connect once to prepare the shop floor. After that it can open without a network.
17.2 Today
The first tab, titled Shop floor, lists today's orders for the chosen Workshop: planned, waiting for materials, in progress and partly done, plus orders finished today. Pull down to refresh.
Each order card shows the product, order number, quantity and status:
- Planned orders show Start now. Planned orders with held stock list the held materials. After tapping, the button shows Start saved
- Orders waiting for materials say "Waiting for materials. The office can check stock and plan again."
- Orders in progress show running timers with a live clock, Stop timer, Record output, Start timer and Use more material
- Finished orders say "The office finished this batch." or "Waiting for quality release."
17.3 Scan a Lot
The Scan a lot tab opens Use more material:
- Choose the Order and Material
- Tap Scan a lot to use the camera, or type the Lot code, then tap Check lot
- Pick an eligible lot. Held, expired or empty lots are marked not eligible
- Enter the Quantity in the material's stock unit
- Tap Save material
Offline, Check lot is not available. You can still save a typed lot code; the server checks it when the phone is back online, and the record needs review if the lot cannot be used.
17.4 My Time
My time shows running timers on today's orders, including timers started on other phones, and time saved on this phone today.
- Start timer — choose the Order, the Step and the People on this step
- Stop timer — anyone with the work permission can stop any running timer
- Log time — choose the order, step and people and enter Hours per person (or Machine hours for a machine step), from 0.01 to 168. Time is logged for today
Outsourced steps are recorded in the office, not on the phone.
17.5 Recording Output on the Phone
Tap Record output on an order card:
- Enter Good and Rejected units. The screen shows how many were planned and how many good units the recipe expects
- Tap a reject reason — Cracked, Under weight or Bad cut — and enter how many. Reasons must explain every reject
- Add a Photo of the rejects with Camera or Gallery (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 5 MiB)
- Check the Batch number, marked Provisional until sent, and Best before
- For piece-rate steps, enter each Payroll employee's units under Who did it. Counts must add up to the good units
- Tap Save output
Phone output is always saved as partly done. The office finishes the batch. If rejects exceed the recipe's normal loss, the screen says so.
17.6 More
More has Saved records, Log time and All apps.
17.7 Saving Offline
Every action is saved on the phone first, then sent. With no network you see "No network. N records are saved on this phone and will send by themselves." When online with records still to send, you see "N records are saved on this phone and waiting to send."
Records send by themselves when the app opens, every 30 seconds while online, when the network comes back and when you return to the app. After a failed attempt the phone waits longer each time, up to 30 minutes. Nothing sends while the app is closed.
Records can arrive in any order. A timer stop waits for its start, output waits for its photo, and work on a planned order waits for the order to start. An order waiting for materials holds back its work until the office plans it again. A saved record is not yet a stock movement until it shows Sent.
17.8 Saved Records and Needs Review
Saved records shows how many are pending and how many need review, and Send saved records to send now. Each record shows its action and status:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Saved on the phone, or sending |
| Waiting for required records | Accepted by the server, waiting for a record it depends on |
| Sent | Applied |
| Needs review | The server refused it, or a record it depends on needs review |
When a record needs review, a red notice says "N records need review. Open saved records." The original record is kept. Ask the office to review it before recording a correction. Recover original result asks the server what happened to the original. Copy record ID helps the office find it. Never record the same work again under a new record just because a send was slow; the phone keeps the original identity so nothing is counted twice.
Work saved for an order the office has since finished or cancelled is refused, and so is work dated in a closed manufacturing month. Review these records with the office.
17.9 Costs on the Phone
People with cost permission see an order's costs while the phone is online. Costs and rates are never saved on the phone.