4. Finish step, machine minutes and QC sign-off

Who this is for: everyone who finishes steps; the QC part is for whoever signs off quality.

Finish step

When the step's units are through, press Finish step and confirm Finish. Your timer stops, the card shows Finished, and the next step of that order becomes Ready on its own centre. The order's job moves along with it.

If you press it early, Reopen puts the step back to Paused with its counts kept.

Machine minutes

At a work centre with a machine rate (a laser, a press brake, a CNC), the Finish sheet asks how long the machine ran, offering what you clocked, or the standard if nothing was clocked. Type the real figure if it differs: the machine's time is costed to the order apart from your labour, and the office uses it to see whether the routing's standard is right. A centre with no machine rate doesn't ask.

QC sign-off

Some steps are marked QC on the routing. Finishing one leaves the card at Needs QC with a QC sign-off button. Whoever checks the work opens it and presses:

• Pass, with a note if there is something to say. The step is finished and the next step frees.
• Fail, with a note saying what is wrong (the note is required). The step stays open for rework; press Start again, fix it, Finish step, and sign off again.

The sign-off is recorded with the person's name and time, and shows on the order's operations list and the traveller.

What finishing does for the office

The order's actual labour and machine time, its scrap and its QC results all come from what the floor records. An order with every step finished is ready for Record output at the office end, which puts the finished units into stock.