Chapter 4

Set up Work Tracking

Describe how work moves through your lab once. Pilot then schedules every case and gives each technician a queue.

Growth and up · seatLabs with a production floor

Contents

4.1

Build your production flow

Work Tracking turns every live case into production steps, puts them at the right workstations in the right order, and hands them to technicians. You describe three things once: where work happens, what the steps are, and who does them. Set them up in that order, since each one builds on the last.

Before you start

Your workstations or benches, and the order work moves through them.
The steps your products go through, and roughly how long each takes.
Your technicians and their working hours.

The Schedule Builder

Your whole flow on one canvas: workstations in order, the steps at each, and the technicians with their capacity. Drag steps and people onto workstations, preview how a product would be scheduled, and see which workstation will slow you down.

You're done when: Your flow is mapped end to end, with steps and technicians at every workstation.

4.1.1

Workstations

A workstation is a place in your lab where steps happen, like Design, Milling or Finishing. Each one has a sequence: its place in your flow. Workstations with the same sequence run side by side.

What to set up

1A workstation for each stage, linked to the one a case goes to next.
2How work gets assigned at each one. Automatic gives each step to the technician who can start it earliest. With Push, Pull or Custom, steps wait unassigned until a manager hands them out or technicians take them.
3Departments and lab locations, if you want them. Departments group workstations in reports, and a location tells you where every case is.

4.1.2

Production tasks

A production task is one step in making a product, like “Mill crown”. Every step belongs to a workstation, and runs in that workstation’s order.

What to set up

1The steps at each workstation, in order, with how long each takes: the hands-on time, and the total turnaround including waiting.
2Merge, for a step that’s done once for several products on the same case.
3Scale with quantity, for per-unit work that takes longer the more units there are.
4Machine time, for long machine steps like sintering that shouldn’t use up a technician’s time.

4.1.3

Technicians

Technicians are the people at your workstations. Their shifts decide how much work each one can take on.

What to set up

1Technicians at each workstation they work at.
2Weekly shifts for each person, and a capacity multiplier for anyone faster or slower than the standard step time.
3A capacity check: how many of each step a technician can do in a day or a week, and which workstation is your bottleneck.

Automatic workstations need people

A workstation that assigns automatically needs at least one technician with shifts. Without one, cases with steps there can’t be scheduled.

4.2

Production templates

A production template is the list of steps one kind of product goes through. “Zirconia crown” might be design, mill, sinter, finish and QC. When a case goes live, Pilot builds its schedule from its products’ templates.

Before you start

Production steps set up at your workstations. → Production tasks
Products imported. → Import products and price lists

What to set up

1A template for each kind of product.
2Its steps. You don’t put them in order here: they always run in workstation order, then in step order within each workstation.
3The products that use it. Each product uses one template, and a product without one gets no production steps.
4Outsourcing: which steps a partner lab does when a case is sent out, and how long they take there.
5A preview of a few products in the Schedule Builder, to check when each step would happen and who’d do it.

The Template Builder

Every template is a card on one canvas, with its steps and the products that use it. Drag steps and products from the side panel onto a template, and filter for products that don’t have one yet.

You're done when: A test case shows every step at the right workstation, in the right order, with sensible dates.

4.3

My Work

My Work is where everyone on the floor sees their work: production steps at their workstations and lab tasks assigned to them, in one list.

Who uses it, and how

Technicians: See the steps at their workstations in a table or on a Kanban board, and start and finish them right there. Upcoming shows what’s headed their way.
Managers: See every workstation and how much of today’s capacity each person has used, and hand out work where the workstation allows it.
Everyone: Sees the lab tasks assigned to them, and the ones they’re @-mentioned in.

You're done when: Every technician can open My Work and see what to do next without asking.

4.4

Technician Kiosk

The Technician Kiosk turns a computer or tablet on the floor into a shared screen. Technicians don’t need their own login: they tap their name, enter a PIN, and can clock in and out, check their hours, and scan their work in and out.

What to set up

1A PIN for each technician. Only people with a PIN show up on the kiosk.
2A kiosk computer or tablet at the bench, unlocked by a manager. It stays unlocked for 7 days, and only shows the kiosk.
3A walkthrough for each technician: clock in, scan a case in to start their steps, and scan it out to finish them.

You're done when: A technician can clock in, scan work in and out, and see the case move on in Pilot.

4.5

Non-production tasks

Lab tasks are the work that isn’t a production step: a billing question, a remake review, a shade follow-up, a new-doctor checklist. Each one has an owner, a state and a due date, and shows up on My Work next to production.

What to set up

1Task templates, one for each kind of work. A template sets the task’s workstation, its fields and its turnaround time.
2Task states: the stages each kind of task moves through, like Submitted, Waiting on Customer and Resolved. Each state can have its own time limit, and a state like “Waiting on Doctor” can pause the clock.
3Tags, like Urgent or Warranty, to filter by.
4Exception tasks, for follow-up on a case. They’re tied to the case and show on it.

You're done when: Non-production work shows up on My Work with an owner, a state and, where it matters, a deadline.

4.6

Operational reporting

Once cases are flowing through your workstations, you can see where work piles up, who has room, and what’s running late.

Before you start

A few days of cases moving through your workstations.

Floor: The work waiting at each workstation, against what it can handle.
Technicians: Each person’s load, and their share of the work.
Lateness: Open work that’s late or about to be, by day, so you can act before a case misses its date.

You're done when: You can name your busiest workstation, and the cases most at risk this week.

Stuck on a step?

Message the Pilot team from inside Pilot during business hours, on every plan. Or let us run the setup with you.

Onboarding service Talk to us

3. Set up Customer SupportPrevious chapter 5. AnalyticsNext chapter

Build your production flow

Workstations

Production tasks

Technicians

Production templates

My Work

Technician Kiosk

Non-production tasks

Operational reporting

Set up your lab today.