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Set up the manufacturing board

The manufacturing board is a kanban view of your production. You build it once from the steps in your manufacturing plans, and it keeps itself up to date from then on.

For how the board decides which orders go where, see Manufacturing board.

Prerequisites

The board is built from work order templates, and work order templates come from your manufacturing plans. Before you start, make sure you have at least one manufacturing plan with steps.

Haven’t set this up? See Set up manufacturing plans.

It helps to sketch your process on paper first: which steps come first, which come last, and which ones happen at the same time.

Step 1: Create the board

  1. In Orderkraft, go to Manufacturing orders
  2. Click the Zoom out button (−) in the top right, next to the heading
  3. Click Create manufacturing board

Your shop has one board. Once it’s created, the editor opens.

Step 2: Add columns

Each column is a point in your process, read left to right.

  1. Click Add column once for every point in your process
  2. Drag a column by its handle to move it

Columns are numbered by position. You don’t name them. The stages inside them carry the names.

Step 3: Add stages

  1. In a column, click Add stage
  2. Enter a Name. This is how the stage is labelled on the board, so use the word your team uses: “Upholstery”, not “Step 3”
  3. Pick the Work order template this stage follows. Templates that are already on the board aren’t in the list
  4. Click Add stage

Repeat for every step. When two steps happen at the same time, add both stages to the same column. You can drag a stage up or down within its column, or into another column.

To change a stage’s name or template, click the edit icon next to it. To take it off the board, click the delete icon.

Step 4: Check the board

Click Done. The board shows each stage with the manufacturing orders that have work waiting or in progress there.

If a stage says No work order template yet, it needs a template before it can show anything. Click Edit board and pick one.

If a stage is empty, there’s no open work for its template right now. That’s normal for a step near the end of your process when nothing has reached it yet.

Changing the board later

Click Edit on the board to add, move or remove columns and stages. Changes show up straight away, and none of them touch your manufacturing orders or work orders. The same goes for Delete: it removes the board, and everything on it stays as it was.

When you add a new step to your manufacturing plans, remember to give it a stage too. Work from a template that isn’t on the board still happens, it just doesn’t show up there.

Using the board day to day

  • Search by order number, SKU or product to find one job
  • Sort by ship-by date to put whatever has to leave next at the top of every stage
  • Switch location next to the heading if you produce in more than one place
  • Click a card to open the manufacturing order
  • Zoom in to go from the board to the manufacturing orders list, and once more to the work orders

See also