Blog
Articles for the shop floor
Short, practical articles on production tracking, quality and traceability. Not sales copy; knowledge that is useful in the shop.
7 min readJob costing and profitability in a CNC machine shop
A job's real cost is machine time, labour, material and other expenses. A worked example, common mistakes and how Spindeo's profitability report does it.
- job costing
- profitability
- quoting
- machine hourly cost
- reporting
8 min readOperator terminal: production tracking on a shop tablet
Operators start, stop and finish jobs on a tablet; time, downtime and production records write themselves. Setup, PINs, QR codes and common questions.
- operator terminal
- tablet
- production entry
- downtime tracking
- QR code
7 min readQuality records in a CNC shop: inspection, NCR, calibration
How to get inspection reports, nonconformance, calibration and maintenance records out of folders. A simple record system and Spindeo's Quality package.
- quality records
- nonconformance
- NCR
- inspection report
- calibration
7 min readWhat is Spindeo? Production tracking for CNC machine shops
Spindeo keeps what a machine shop tracks, from work order to shipment, in one place. What the free plan includes, what each package does, what it won't do.
- Spindeo
- production tracking
- CNC shop software
- free plan
8 min read10 questions for choosing production tracking software
Browser or install, operator screen, pricing per machine, data ownership, export, data protection, support, integrations, trials and how easy it is to leave.
- software selection
- production tracking
- data protection
- purchasing
8 min read7 ways to reduce scrap rate in a CNC machine shop
How to measure scrap rate, and how first article inspection, tool life tracking, setup, material checks and operator feedback cut scrap by finding root causes.
- scrap
- quality
- root cause
- tool life
- first article inspection
8 min readAI CNC programming: what is AI CAM and where does it help?
What AI CAM is, how it goes from STEP and drawing to a process plan, where it works well and where it falls short, the CAM programmer's role and who approves.
- AI CAM
- artificial intelligence
- CNC programming
- G-code
- simulation
8 min readHow to set up part traceability: audit-ready shop records
What traceability is, how to build the chain from material certificate to shipment, what auditors ask for, where paper breaks and how to go digital.
- traceability
- quality management
- quality audit
- material lot
8 min readWhat is OEE and how do you calculate it in a CNC shop?
The three components of OEE, a step-by-step calculation for an 8-hour shift, typical values in CNC machine shops and common mistakes that distort the number.
- OEE
- productivity
- machine utilization
- reporting
8 min readWork order tracking: 6 steps from paper to digital
Where paper work orders and Excel tracking break down, the order to go digital in, how to handle operator resistance and what to expect in the first 30 days.
- work orders
- digital transformation
- operators
- production tracking