Shop floor data collection: what to capture, how to capture it, and what it costs

Morsa publishes this guide. Morsa is software with an AI agent that works in your ERP, email and Teams; on the shop floor it turns the data you collect into a daily plan versus actual and chases the reason for each miss, and a person approves any change to the plan. Prices are each vendor’s own, read on 8 November 2026; the formulas and estimates are ours.

Quick answer

• What to collect: labor time by operator and operation (setup and run as separate records), good quantity, scrap with a reason, downtime with a reason, and the material lot consumed. Nothing else until those five are clean.

• Cheapest method: barcode scans on the paper traveler into your ERP’s shop floor module. No module? See “If your ERP has no shop floor module” below.

• Station apps: for guided steps, checks and photos at each station. Tulip is $100 or $250 a station screen a month, billed yearly, 10-screen minimum [3].

• Machine signals: for run, idle and down time people cannot log. Evocon Basic is $219 a machine a month on a 1-year term or $189 on 3 years, hardware extra [4].

• How to start: five work centers, 12 downtime reason codes, four weeks, one daily review.

What to collect on the shop floor

Labor time by operation, setup and run

• When it is recorded: Operator scans start and stop on the job and operation, once for setup and once for run

• Who records it: Operator

• What it feeds: Job costing, labor efficiency, setup times for quoting

Good quantity

• When it is recorded: At each operation’s end, or each count

• Who records it: Operator or machine counter

• What it feeds: Schedule attainment, WIP, ship dates

Scrap and rework, with reason

• When it is recorded: When a part is rejected

• Who records it: Operator or inspector

• What it feeds: Cost of quality, nonconformance reports

Downtime, with reason

• When it is recorded: When a machine stops longer than a set time, for example 5 minutes

• Who records it: Machine signal or operator, with the operator’s reason

• What it feeds: OEE (overall equipment effectiveness), maintenance, the daily review

Material lot consumed

• When it is recorded: At issue to the job

• Who records it: Operator scan or stockroom

• What it feeds: Traceability, cert packets, inventory accuracy

Every record carries the ERP’s job and operation number, and every stop and scrap gets a reason from a short list, never free text.

Three ways to collect it, compared

Barcode on the traveler

• How it works: The ERP prints a traveler with a barcode per operation; operators scan to start, stop and report quantity

• Best for: Job shops on an ERP with a shop floor module

• Software price: Your ERP’s floor licence, for example $25 a user a month on Cetec [2]

Station app

• How it works: A touchscreen app at each station guides the steps and records times, counts, checks and photos

• Best for: Assembly and regulated work with checks at each step

• Software price: Tulip $100 (Essentials) or $250 (Professional) a station screen a month; Tulip calls a screen an “interface” [3]

Machine signal

• How it works: A sensor or the controller sends run, idle and down state and part counts; operators add the reason

• Best for: CNC, presses and lines where machine time is the constraint

• Software price: Evocon $189 to $219 a machine a month (Basic), up to $379 (Enterprise, which adds security controls and multi-factory management) [4]; Guidewheel from $25,000 a year, priced by machines, sites, term and hardware [5]

Most plants end up with barcode labor reporting everywhere plus machine signals on the few machines that set the pace. For machine monitoring products side by side, see best machine monitoring software.

What it costs at 5, 20 and 40 work centers (our estimate)

Year one, software plus hardware. Assumptions: two operators per work center (two shifts); each work center gets an iPad at $449 [1] in a rugged case at $99.99 [6]; barcode rows add a Bluetooth scanner at $199 [7] per work center and one label printer at $229.99 [8] per 10 work centers for material lot labels. Floor Wi-Fi, sensors, mounts, implementation and training time are not included.

Barcode, ERP charges $25 a floor user (Cetec)

• 5 work centers: $6,970

• 20 work centers: $27,420

• 40 work centers: $54,840

Barcode, floor reporting already in your ERP licence

• 5 work centers: $3,970

• 20 work centers: $15,420

• 40 work centers: $30,840

Tulip Essentials, one screen per work center

• 5 work centers: $14,745

• 20 work centers: $34,980

• 40 work centers: $69,960

Tulip Professional (adds HTTP and SQL connectors)

• 5 work centers: $32,745

• 20 work centers: $70,980

• 40 work centers: $141,960

Evocon Basic, 1-year term, one device per machine

• 5 work centers: $17,325

• 20 work centers: $69,300

• 40 work centers: $138,600

The arithmetic for 20 work centers: barcode is 20 x ($449 + $99.99 + $199) hardware, plus 2 printers, plus 40 users x $25 x 12 = $27,420. Tulip Essentials is 20 screens x $100 x 12 plus 20 tablets and cases; at 5 work centers you still pay the 10-screen minimum. Evocon is $219 plus a $24 IIoT device fee [4] a machine a month, with the tablet and case as the operator’s screen; Evocon prices sensors, cables and displays separately [4]. From year two the barcode route costs only the licences: $3,000, $12,000 or $24,000 a year.

To put a value on what the data finds, price your downtime with our downtime cost calculator.

If your ERP has no shop floor module

• Ask your ERP vendor first. Many sell it separately; Global Shop Solutions, for example, licenses shop floor screens with an upfront fee plus a quarterly cost [9].

• Use a station app that can post to the ERP. Tulip’s HTTP and SQL connectors come with Professional, not Essentials [3].

• No ERP at all: run the pilot on paper with the 12 codes below and our free machine downtime log, and choose the ERP before the scanners. For which shop ERPs include floor reporting, see our job shop ERP guide.

Starter downtime reason codes

Twelve codes a tired operator can pick in two seconds. Ban “other”: if it is needed, a code is missing.

Start by logging stops longer than five minutes.

Two formulas worth tracking

Labor efficiency = standard hours earned / actual hours worked. A job of 400 brackets has a standard of 0.5 hours setup plus 0.02 hours a part: 8.5 standard hours. Operators clocked 10.2 hours, so efficiency is 8.5 / 10.2 = 83%. Our rule of thumb: when a work center runs well under 85%, check the standards and whether setup is being logged as run time before blaming the floor.

Schedule attainment = operations completed by their scheduled date / operations scheduled. 46 of 52 on time is 88.5%. Our rule of thumb: under 90% week after week, the floor stops trusting the schedule.

For availability, performance, quality and OEE from the same data, see our OEE guide. Collection is one step of shop floor control, the loop of releasing, dispatching, collecting, comparing with plan and acting; for software that runs the whole loop, see shop floor management software.

A 4-week pilot plan for five work centers

1. Week 1: set up. Pick five work centers, including your bottleneck. Print travelers with operation barcodes. Load the 12 reason codes. Show each operator the scan at the machine, and tell them plainly what it is for: finding the waits for material, programs and inspection, not timing people. Ask them which codes are missing.

2. Week 2: run paper and scans side by side. Keep the paper traveler as backup this week only. A supervisor checks once a shift that every job has a start and an end. In a fabrication shop, scan the operation end at each department hand-off so WIP shows where it sits.

3. Week 3: drop paper and review daily. A 10-minute meeting at the same time every morning: yesterday’s plan versus actual by work center, the top three downtime reasons, and one action each. Show operators their own numbers.

4. Week 4: measure. Compare clocked hours with payroll hours; our rule of thumb is that a gap over 5% means scans are being missed. Count stops with no reason and fix the code list. Calculate labor efficiency and schedule attainment.

Expand when stops without a reason are rare and the morning review changes what the floor does that day.

Acting on the data: who follows up on a late job

1. At 6:30, Morsa sends the plant manager plan versus actual by work center, each late job and the reason for each miss.

2. When a stop has no reason, it asks the shift lead in Teams and files the answer against the stop.

3. When the reason is material, it checks the open PO and, under a rule the buyer approved, chases the supplier from the buyer’s mailbox.

4. When a job falls behind, it proposes a re-sequence to the scheduler and updates the ERP only on approval.

At J4S, a 120-person glass plant, Morsa gave each commitment an owner and a date and chased it to proof in the ERP; on-time completion went from about 30% to about 75% across about 900 commitments in 4 weeks (J4S story). Morsa works with whatever ERP you run, including JobBOSS2, Global Shop, ProShop, E2, Business Central and NetSuite. Book a pilot on one live problem.

What to do this week

1. Pick the five work centers, bottleneck included.

2. Print the 12 codes and post them at each machine.

3. Ask your ERP vendor what floor reporting costs on your licence.

4. Start the 4-week pilot on Monday.

Once you collect it, these records feed the morning meeting; this manufacturing KPI dashboard guide shows a worked day for a 100-person plant. Molding plants collect shot counts and cycle times per press; see plastics and injection molding software.

When the 12 codes are not enough, the full downtime reason code list shows where each one splits, adds press codes and shows how to keep Other under 5%.

Sources

1. Apple, Buy iPad: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad (read 8 November 2026)

2. Cetec ERP, Pricing: https://www.cetecerp.com/pricing (read 8 November 2026)

3. Tulip, Pricing: https://tulip.co/pricing/ (read 8 November 2026)

4. Evocon, Pricing: https://evocon.com/pricing/ (read 8 November 2026)

5. Guidewheel, Pricing: https://www.guidewheel.com/pricing (read 8 November 2026)

6. OtterBox, iPad (A16) and iPad (10th gen) Defender Series case: https://www.otterbox.com/products/ipad-a16-and-ipad-10th-gen-defender-series-case (read 8 November 2026)

7. Socket Mobile, SocketScan barcode scanners: https://www.socketmobile.com/readers-accessories/product-families/socketscan (read 8 November 2026)

8. Brother, QL-820NWBC label printer: https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ql820nwbc (read 8 November 2026)

9. Global Shop Solutions, Pricing: https://www.globalshopsolutions.com/pricing (read 8 November 2026)

10. Morsa, J4S customer story: https://morsa.ai/customers/j4s (read 8 November 2026)