Paperless work on the production floor
Digital work orders on tablets, live production status for office and shop floor, automatic post-calculation as soon as an order is finished. AI checks on bills of materials before they reach the floor. No ERP module, no per-user subscription. Custom to your work process, connected to your existing ERP.
The familiar problem on the shop floor
Forty percent of Dutch manufacturers already work paperless. Twenty-one percent want to take it up in the coming years. For those still working with clipboards and paper work orders, the problems are recognisable:
- Work orders that get lost, are illegible or half filled in
- Bills of materials with errors only discovered on the floor
- Hours entered afterwards on a note, often with rough estimates
- No idea what is running on the floor right now, except by physically sending someone there
- Post-calculation that happens weeks later, if at all
- Photos of deviations stuck on phones that never reach the right person
- Material and product usage tracked manually and rarely correct
One by one, problems that cost money, cause errors and make the shop floor needlessly stressful. Paperless work does not solve them all at once, but it does so structurally.
What we build for your shop floor
Digital work orders on tablet
Operators see their work orders on a tablet at the machine. Bill of materials, drawings, quality requirements, customer instructions. Register hours by pressing start and stop. Scan material usage with the camera. Take photos for deviations or deliveries.
Live production status for the office
A dashboard where planners, work planners and management see at a glance what is running. Which work order is behind schedule, which is done, which is stopped. On PC, on tablet, on a large screen in the workshop.
AI checks on bills of materials and work orders
Before a work order reaches the floor, AI checks whether the bill of materials is correct. Are materials missing that are on the drawing? Does the processing time deviate strongly from comparable work orders? The work planner gets an alert before an error reaches the floor.
Automatic post-calculation
Once a work order is finished, post-calculation runs automatically. Actual hours against calculation, actual material against stock, actual cost against sale price. Direct insight into margin leakage per product, per customer, per work-order type.
Photo and deviation management
Operators take photos of deviations, peculiarities or deliveries. They reach the right person directly instead of a private phone. With date, work order, location and automatic tagging. Usable for customer communication, audits and knowledge retention.
What sets us apart from existing solutions
There are more parties delivering digital work orders or shop floor control. ECI with Ridder iQ Shopfloor Control, Halloy, Axians i-Make, Paperless Production. All good solutions. We deliberately do it differently on four points.
Works alongside your existing ERP, not as a module of it
ECI's Shopfloor Control works within Ridder iQ. Great if you have Ridder iQ. Not usable if you run Exact, AFAS, Microsoft Dynamics or SAP. We build a solution that works alongside what you run now, via an integration with your ERP. No switch needed, no double licences.
Build once, no per-user subscription
Many solutions charge per user per month. With twenty operators at ten euro per month you pay twelve thousand euro in five years in licences alone. We build it once, you own it, no fixed monthly cost.
Self-hosted on your own infrastructure
Production data is sensitive. Bills of materials, customer data, production figures. With us the whole solution runs on your own server. No external cloud, no vendor lock-in. GDPR and EU AI Act compliant.
Custom to your work process
Standard packages force you into a way of working. We tune the software to how your floor already works. What deviates from the average in your company becomes part of the solution, not an obstacle.
Frequently asked questions
We have Ridder iQ. Does this make sense then?
Ridder iQ has Shopfloor Control as a module. For the basics (work orders on tablet, registering hours) that is usually enough. We come in when you want more: AI checks on bills of materials, integrations with other systems, a dashboard that also shows other data, or when the standard module does not fit your work process.
Our operators are not digitally inclined. Does this work then?
A tablet interface is usually easier than paper for those who work with it for a few days. We design the screens as simply as possible: large buttons, few choices. Delivery includes training and extra support in the first weeks. If an operator really cannot keep up, paper can always exist alongside the tablet.
What happens if the wifi on the floor fails?
The tablet application works offline for updating work orders, hours and photos. Once the connection is back, it synchronises automatically. For critical workshops we advise a dedicated wifi network covering the workshop.
Which tablets are suitable?
For most shop floors consumer tablets work fine (iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab, around three hundred to six hundred euro each). For harsh industrial environments with oil, water or grinding dust, ruggedized tablets (Zebra, Panasonic Toughbook) are a better choice, from around a thousand euro each.
How do you handle operator sensitivities around time tracking?
Honestly: digital time tracking is sometimes experienced as surveillance. We deliberately do not build it as a monitoring tool. Operators see their own working day, press start and stop themselves. The data is used for post-calculation, not micromanagement.
Does this also work for a small production company with ten employees?
Yes, provided the work orders are complex enough. For a workshop with ten employees each running their own orders this is worthwhile. For ten employees working together on a handful of large projects, a simpler system is often enough. We make that distinction during scoping.
How much does a first implementation cost?
A defined tablet workflow for a department starts from ten thousand euro implementation. Hardware comes on top. For a complete shop-floor solution reckon from twenty thousand euro. You know the cost up front.
What it costs
- A defined tablet workflow for a department, connected to your ERP: from 10,000 euro
- A full shop-floor solution with dashboards, post-calculation and AI checks: from 20,000 euro
- A shop-floor platform with multiple departments, document AI and ongoing extensions: from 40,000 euro
Hardware is your responsibility: tablets, optional barcode scanners, a network covering the workshop. We advise what fits, you buy it yourself. No margin on hardware. Our rates and approach are transparent on the approach page.
Ready for a conversation?
A no-obligation introduction about your situation and whether we can help. If it fits, we look at a first step. If not, we say so too.
Plan an introduction