Understanding Work in Progress (WIP) in StartProtoStartProto's system is designed to track and manage Work in Progress (WIP) by understanding the raw materials needed for production and monitoring the movement of parts through different operations.
Operation Pills and Inventory Checks
A core feature for managing WIP is the use of "operation pills".
These pills provide a quick visual status:
Left Side (Ready for Work): Displays the number of parts or assemblies that are ready to be worked on. This number is calculated based on the available material inventory levels. StartProto will not indicate work can be done if the necessary inventory is unavailable. It acts as a go/no-go number, telling you the total number of kits or assemblies you can make based on the minimum material input.
Right Side (Parts in Progress): Shows the number of parts currently being actively worked on or "in production".
By chaining these operation pills together, you can quickly see the status of production, helping you estimate output and identify bottlenecks, such as a backlog in powder coating.
Operations that occur outside the shop (e.g., powder coating or nickel plating) are visually designated by turning the operation pill yellow.
WIP Ratio
Purpose of the WIP Ratio
Operation pills are especially useful when one piece of raw material (e.g., a long bar, sheet, or coil) is progressively converted into multiple parts.
How to read the ratio ( 4:48 (1:12) )
Left Ratio (Blue) → Ratio of raw parts (ex. bars) that could be created in parts.
Right Ratio (Grey) → Ratio telling us the base ratio (eg how many parts each bar creates)
What the example image shows
4:48 (mathematically 1:12)
4 full bars in inventory, but 48 individual parts could be derived from those bars.
Assembly
Purpose of the Assembly Pill
Shows an example of multiple parts converted into a single part. (A : 1)
Blocked WIP
Purpose of the Purple Parts
The purple circle shows us the number of WIP parts that cannot be moved forward due to insufficient inventory of the assembly.
Take this table example below - the table gets assembled in one operation called the "Final Table Assembly" and then becomes a single part. Then it goes into finishing where the manufacturer adds feet that screw in. The company is completely out of feet, but has 4 complete tables. This is how it would look in the system.
The "Finishing" step cannot be complete until we get more feet in stock. Once more feet are in stock the operation will show blue 4.
