Factory handbookH04 · Templates
Job card and stop-code templates
Three templates that give a plant the data for OEE and order tracking using nothing more than paper. Print them, or download the CSV files and open them in Excel. They are starting points written by our team, not a standard: change the fields and the codes to fit your shop.
Last reviewed · Deda Systems engineering team, Chennai
Template
Production job card
One card per work order per operation. It travels with the batch. The fields in the lower half are the ones a paper card usually lacks and OEE needs: start and end times, a stop code with times, and separate good, reject and rework counts.
Production Job Card
| Job card no. | Date | Shift | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work order no. | Customer | ||||
| Part no. | Part name | Drawing rev. | |||
| Operation no. | Operation | ||||
| Machine | Operator | Material / heat no. | |||
| Planned qty | Ideal cycle time (s) | First-off approved by | |||
| Start time | End time | Good qty | Reject qty | Rework qty | Reject reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop code | From | To | Minutes | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remarks |
|---|
| Operator sign | Inspected by | Supervisor sign |
|---|
Template
Stop reason codes
Seventeen codes are enough to start. More than about twenty and operators stop choosing carefully. Each code maps to one OEE factor, as set out in the six big losses. Codes marked “not counted” are planned time and are removed before OEE is calculated.
Stop Reason Codes
| Code | Stop reason | OEE category | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Waiting for material | Availability | Raw material, bought-out part or previous operation not ready |
| M2 | Waiting for tool, fixture or gauge | Availability | Tooling not at the machine when needed |
| M3 | Waiting for operator | Availability | No operator available |
| M4 | Waiting for drawing, program or instruction | Availability | Documentation or NC program missing |
| M5 | Waiting for inspection or first-off approval | Availability | Quality sign-off pending |
| S1 | Setup or changeover | Availability | Changing from one job to the next |
| S2 | Tool change or offset adjustment | Availability | Planned tool life change or adjustment during the run |
| B1 | Machine breakdown, mechanical | Availability | Unplanned mechanical failure |
| B2 | Machine breakdown, electrical or control | Availability | Unplanned electrical or controller failure |
| B3 | Utility failure | Availability | Power, compressed air, coolant or water |
| P1 | Minor stop | Performance | Short stop cleared by the operator: jam, sensor, chip clearing |
| P2 | Running at reduced speed | Performance | Feed or speed below standard |
| Q1 | Rework at the machine | Quality | Parts reworked during the run |
| Q2 | Start-up or trial rejects | Quality | Rejects after a setup, before the process settles |
| N1 | Planned maintenance | Not counted | Scheduled preventive maintenance |
| N2 | No plan or no order | Not counted | Machine not scheduled |
| N3 | Break or meeting | Not counted | Planned breaks and meetings |
Template
Daily production report
One row per machine per shift, filled from the job cards. The last four columns are the OEE calculation; the formulas are on the OEE page.
| Machine | Work order | Part no. | Operator | Planned min | Stop min | Total qty | Good qty | Reject qty | Main stop code | A % | P % | Q % | OEE % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rollout
How to roll it out
- Start with one machine or one cell for two weeks. Pick the one the owner asks about most.
- Agree the ideal cycle time for each part number with the production head before you start, and write it on the card.
- Put the stop code list at the machine, laminated. Walk through every code with the operators and remove the ones that do not apply.
- Review the cards every morning for the first week. A stop with no code is a conversation, not a mistake to punish.
- After two weeks, count the minutes per code. The top three codes are your improvement list.
When the paper version is working and the daily typing becomes the burden, the same fields move onto a tablet at the machine. That step is described in the paper job cards to live OEE case study.
FAQ
Questions people ask
What should a production job card contain?
At minimum: the work order, part number and operation; the machine and operator; planned quantity and ideal cycle time; start and end times; good, reject and rework quantities; and each stop with a reason code and its start and end time.
How many downtime reason codes should a plant use?
Start with fifteen to twenty. With a longer list operators tend to pick the first plausible code, and the data becomes less reliable. Add a code only when the same note keeps being written by hand.
Can I edit these templates?
Yes. They are free to use and change. The CSV files open in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice.
Is a job card the same as a work order?
No. A work order is the instruction to make a quantity of a part. A job card records what actually happened at one operation of that work order: who ran it, on which machine, when, and with what result.
Also see
Related pages
H05
Manufacturing glossary
Plain-language definitions of 55 manufacturing terms: OEE, takt time, Cpk, PPAP, FMEA, SMED, kanban, MES, MTBF and more. Written for plant owners and supervisors.
The factory handbook
A free reference for people who run small and mid-sized plants: an OEE calculator, shop-floor formulas, machine data collection, job card templates and a glossary.
Next step
Want these numbers live?
Everything on this page can be done on paper. When you want it captured at the machine and on a screen during the shift, that is what we build. Thirty minutes on a call is usually enough to tell whether it is worth doing.
- 30 min
- Free first call, with an engineer
- 2–4 days
- On your floor before any proposal
- Week 1
- First working demo, on your own data
- Fixed
- Scope, timeline and price, agreed before we build
- Zero
- Existing systems replaced