The paperless factory – part 2: what does one lost work order really cost?

The hidden costs of a paper work order

A pack of 500 sheets of A4 paper costs around €4. That is a lot of work orders, so at first glance, paper seems pretty cheap. If only it were that simple. The real costs come afterwards.

A paper work order goes on quite a journey through the factory. On the shop floor, employees write down quantities produced, hours worked and perhaps some comments about what went wrong. Then someone has to enter all that information into the ERP system. And there is your first hidden cost: manual data entry. Followed immediately by the second one: typing errors and questions about handwritten information. “What does this say? Is that a 3 or an 8?”

And what happens if the work order accidentally “disappears”? Or if someone uses an old revision of a drawing? Production planning changes continuously. A paper work order doesn’t. The moment a work order is printed and sent to the shop floor, there is a risk that the information is already outdated. And that is where the hidden costs really start to add up.

Digital changes everything

With a digital shop floor, employees always have access to the latest information and the latest revision. Materials used and hours worked are registered in real time. Changes are immediately visible. Everyone works with the same information, and everyone knows the current status. The result? A more efficient organisation, fewer mistakes and shorter lead times.

And the funny thing is: the paper itself was never expensive. Working with paper is.

Start digitalising your shop floor today, and you can already see the difference tomorrow. Because the right information reaches the right person, at the right place, at the right time.

Missed it? Read part 1: why is paper so persistent? Or see how JobControl brings the work order to the shop floor digitally.