Machine shop process: how a job moves from drawing to dispatch

The stages below follow one typical job: a batch of 120 drive shafts in EN8 steel, made to a customer's drawing. The bar is sawn into blanks, turned on a CNC lathe, has a keyway milled on a VMC, goes out for induction hardening, comes back, goes out again for cylindrical grinding, and is inspected and dispatched. A fabrication unit cutting and welding plate will have different operations, but the sequence of records is close.

At every stage the question is the same: what happened, and what record did it leave? Those records decide whether the shop can tell the customer where the job is, and whether it knows what the job cost.

The process at a glance

1. 1Order and drawingCustomer drawing, revision, quantity and delivery date on the sales order.
2. 2RoutingOperations in sequence, with machine, setup and run time, vendor steps included.
3. 3Material planningBar needed by size and grade, checked against the rack and open purchase orders.
4. 4ProcurementBar bought and received by heat number, with its mill certificate.
5. 5Job releaseOperations placed on machines by hours, bar issued to the job by heat.
6. 6Cutting and machiningSawing, turning and milling, each with first-off approval, counts, scrap and downtime.
7. 7Vendor operationsHardening and grinding out on a challan, back against it, counted and checked.
8. 8In-process inspectionKey dimensions measured at the operation, at the frequency set.
9. 9Final inspectionChecks against the drawing; values kept for the customer's report.
10. 10Finished parts and dispatchParts packed against the order, delivery note and invoice, job cost closed.

What happens at each stage, and what it records

1. Order and drawing

The customer's purchase order arrives with a drawing. The sales order records the drawing number and its revision, the quantity, the price and the delivery date. If the drawing is revised later, the revision on the order is what tells the shop which one this job was made to.

2. Routing

The planner or production engineer writes the routing: saw cut to length, CNC turning in two setups, keyway milling on the VMC, induction hardening at a vendor, cylindrical grinding at a vendor, final inspection. Each in-house operation names the machine, the setup time and the run time per piece. If the shaft has been made before, the old routing is reused; if a similar one exists, it is copied and edited. Where the job is an assembly, a BOM lists its parts, and the guide to multi-level BOM management covers that structure.

3. Material planning

The shafts need bar of a given diameter and grade, plus a cutting allowance per blank. The planner checks the rack and open purchase orders. A shortage that names the job it will stop, and when, is more useful than a list of items below minimum.

4. Procurement and receipt

The bar arrives with a mill test certificate showing its heat number and chemistry. Stores receives it against that heat, and any receipt check (size, grade marking, certificate present) is recorded. If the certificate does not match the order, the bar is held.

5. Job release and machine loading

The job's operations are placed on the saw, the lathe and the VMC according to their available hours. If the lathe is already full on Thursday, the board shows it before release, and the planner decides whether to move another job, add a shift or tell the customer. Stores then issues the bar to the job by heat.

6. Cutting and machining

Each machine starts with a setup. The first shaft off the lathe is measured against the drawing and approved before the batch runs; the same happens at the VMC for the keyway. During the run, the operator logs good counts, scrap with a reason, and downtime with a cause. The record shows setup time, run quantity, scrap and stoppages per operation, by operator and shift. These are the machine hours the job cost will use.

7. Vendor operations: hardening and grinding

The milled shafts go to the heat treater on a job-work challan that lists the job, the quantity and the expected return date. They come back against that challan, are counted, and are checked for hardness if the plan calls for it. The same happens with the grinding vendor. The record holds quantities sent and returned, any short or rejected pieces, and each vendor's charge, which belongs on the job's cost.

8. In-process inspection

Between operations, key dimensions are checked at a set frequency: the turned diameters, the keyway width and depth, the ground diameter after return. A failed check holds the batch until someone decides on rework, use as is, or scrap, and the decision is recorded with a name. The article on reducing rejection by checking at the operation explains why catching it here costs less than catching it at the end.

9. Final inspection

The finished shafts are checked against the drawing on the agreed sample. The measured values are kept, because many customers want an inspection report with the dispatch. Shafts that need rework go back as a rework operation on the same job, with their own re-inspection.

10. Finished parts and dispatch

Accepted shafts are oiled, packed and received as finished parts against the job. They are dispatched with a delivery note and invoice. The job can now be costed: machine hours from setup and run, times each machine's rate, plus the bar issued, plus both vendor charges, set against the invoice.

What to record and control at each stage

Where the process usually breaks

• At the drawing, when the machine works from an old print because the new revision never reached the floor.
• At release, when a job is promised without checking the machine it needs, and joins a queue nobody saw.
• At the saw, when bar is cut without recording the heat, and the offcut loses its identity on the rack.
• At setup, when the first-off check is skipped on a rush job and the whole batch is made to a wrong setting.
• At the vendor, when returns are not counted against the challan and short quantities are found at the next operation.
• At costing, when machine hours and vendor charges were never recorded against the job.

How is one job traced back after dispatch?

Suppose a customer reports a shaft that cracked in service. The trace starts from the delivery note: which job it shipped from, then the final inspection values, the grinding and hardening challans and their vendors, the in-process checks, the operators and machines at each operation, and finally the heat number of the bar and its mill certificate. When each stage left its record on the job, this takes minutes. When the records are in a challan book, a register and someone's memory, it takes days and may not finish.

How FleekERP records each stage

In FleekERP the job is a work order carrying its drawing revision, with the routing created per job or copied from a similar one. Production planning places operations on machines by the hour and shows which job pushes a machine past its capacity. Stores receives bar and plate with the heat number and issues it to the job; operators and QC log setup, counts, downtime, first-off and in-process checks from their phones; vendor steps go out and come back on the challan with short returns flagged. Dispatch raises the delivery note and invoice, which sync to Tally or Zoho, and the job shows its cost and margin. The engineering and machinery industry page shows the same flow from the shop's side.

How the process differs by shop type

• CNC turning and turned-parts shops: repeat part numbers, short routings, and setup time as the main thing to control on small batches.
• Precision machining shops: long routings, tight tolerances, more in-process checks, and grinding or special processes often at vendors.
• Sheet metal and fabrication units: plate and sheet by heat number, cutting, bending and welding, with weld inspection and painting or galvanising often outside.
• General engineering job shops: one-off jobs on mixed machines, so copying routings from similar jobs and checking machine load matter most.