What's new
What's new

Keeping track of ideas and improvements

conceptdevelopers

Cast Iron
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Location
Garland TX
I am the floor manager of an OEM manufacturing facility and FAA repair station. We have a machine shop, sheet metal shop, paint dept., welding and repair shop along with an AOG service. When I was in charge of just the solid modeling and programming for the machine shop and Sheetmetal shop a spiral note pad in my back pocket was good enough to keep notes to myself about issues that needed addressed or improved. Now that I am over all the operations that way of doing things is just to cumbersome and slow. I need a quicker and more effective way. Does anyone have suggestions of an app. or system I can use to quickly and easily record thoughts that I can collect then review when I have a chance to be back at my desk?
 
I am the floor manager of an OEM manufacturing facility and FAA repair station. We have a machine shop, sheet metal shop, paint dept., welding and repair shop along with an AOG service. When I was in charge of just the solid modeling and programming for the machine shop and Sheetmetal shop a spiral note pad in my back pocket was good enough to keep notes to myself about issues that needed addressed or improved. Now that I am over all the operations that way of doing things is just to cumbersome and slow. I need a quicker and more effective way. Does anyone have suggestions of an app. or system I can use to quickly and easily record thoughts that I can collect then review when I have a chance to be back at my desk?

I use a pretty fancy, slick app, it didn't cost a whole lot, I think it is called.... notepad? :D:willy_nilly:

I still use a little notepad in my back pocket. I've got a fancy little leather bound one for when I visit customers.

If I were in your shoes, I would just have an excel file on my phone that I could type in notes. That same file would be on my desktop so that I could review the notes later.
 
Evernote. There's a mobile app for Android and iPhone, and a desktop plugin that all syncs together. I use it all the time for to-do lists, setup notes, pictures, .PDF manuals, receipts, you name it.
 
I use a pretty fancy, slick app, it didn't cost a whole lot, I think it is called.... notepad? :D:willy_nilly:

I still use a little notepad in my back pocket. I've got a fancy little leather bound one for when I visit customers.

If I were in your shoes, I would just have an excel file on my phone that I could type in notes. That same file would be on my desktop so that I could review the notes later.

I think I've heard of that:nutter:, I was again hoping for something that was a little easier to use with some enhancements over notepad
 
I am the floor manager of an OEM manufacturing facility and FAA repair station. We have a machine shop, sheet metal shop, paint dept., welding and repair shop along with an AOG service. When I was in charge of just the solid modeling and programming for the machine shop and Sheetmetal shop a spiral note pad in my back pocket was good enough to keep notes to myself about issues that needed addressed or improved. Now that I am over all the operations that way of doing things is just to cumbersome and slow. I need a quicker and more effective way. Does anyone have suggestions of an app. or system I can use to quickly and easily record thoughts that I can collect then review when I have a chance to be back at my desk?

.
most use Excel, not only can you record problems, changes tried and results and record times and do math calculations you can also make charts and graphs. you can write on a small notebook with pencil or use a clipboard with paper and pencil and record later at a desktop computer
 
I have actual note pads all over the place and a clipboard when customers might call while I am driving. If they didn't eventually break I would still have one of those brick sized cell phones and a TV with vacuum tubes in it.
 
I use gmail on my phone and I keep different lists stored as drafts so I can continuously edit it.

I have one for

Material/Things to purchase
Tools to purchase
Job list
I have about 20 drafts.

I have them sent to my own email address in case I send it. I like using this option because I can store customer documents like a pdf file directly to the email notes so referencing things is fast.

I also have a field and shop email addresses for employees so when they go to a customers location to do something, they can load up the email and reference what was done before.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
My first serious thought on the subject was something like this:

https://www.dictation.philips.com/fileadmin/Products/dvt2710/pss/dvt2710_pss_en.pdf

Yep. Nothing is faster and easier to use than voice. If you have clerical support, even a simple voice recorder that goes to the secretary for transcribing would work. If not, the unit linked above might be an option. So much easier to do the prioritizing and organizing sitting at a desk than when in the midst of gathering the data.
 
Awesome, hope you like it.

Dualkit- Another nice feature Evernote has is to recognize handwriting. You can scribble notes on a phone call, then snap a picture of the page. If you search the name or some key word later the note will come up (assuming somewhat decent handwriting....).

DMF Tom-There is a table feature, but I've never used it so can't speak to usefulness. Can't imagine it's anywhere near as powerful as Excel though.

Number 2- Evernote can also save audio recordings, I saw the icon but never tried it until reading your suggestion a minute ago, might start using it.

Sorry to nerd out, I'm not really a techy person but this app has been a big help.
 
We keep a Word document with a list of our shop projects on it. New ideas might get jotted down on a notepad then transferred to the document. Try to focus on one or two at a time, otherwise you'll never get anywhere if you try to do 'em all at once. No matter how many times a new project might seem more pressing it's better to see what you've already started through.
 
I tried Evernote, but couldn't get into it.

While I still don't used these types of "note" apps all that much, OneNote seems to work well enough for me. It offers some pretty slick stuff on the PC side of things. You can copy/paste directly into OneNote, which comes in handy if you want to take a screen-shot and drop it into your notes, etc...
 
whatsapp is what we use to capture improvements ideas etc. I have tried a few other things like wunderlist note pads(PAPER), note pad and spread sheets and they never catch on.
 
We had a weekly hour and everyone was assigned to a team. Teams competed with one another. The ideas rolled in and were assigned to someone in each team. We fostered ideas being generated for cost reduction and/or cost avoidance.
 
I am the floor manager of an OEM manufacturing facility and FAA repair station. We have a machine shop, sheet metal shop, paint dept., welding and repair shop along with an AOG service. When I was in charge of just the solid modeling and programming for the machine shop and Sheetmetal shop a spiral note pad in my back pocket was good enough to keep notes to myself about issues that needed addressed or improved. Now that I am over all the operations that way of doing things is just to cumbersome and slow. I need a quicker and more effective way. Does anyone have suggestions of an app. or system I can use to quickly and easily record thoughts that I can collect then review when I have a chance to be back at my desk?

From experience I have noticed that when responsibilities become more and more on me then I am so busy that I can miss the things such as you describe. Plus there is a tendency to make light of anyone who takes the time to write down anything. Taking notes are good you are likely so much busier than you were before and are simply adjusting to the new demands. Eventually you will do what you must to record what you wish you just have to crunch it in. Any note taking or even using a pocket recorder (a micro) is very good practice. Recording anything in public which is seen usually draws criticism because the implication is you should be able to remember everything and need zero note taking. This comes from frustrated and hateful types which lurk all over the place.

To be fair I have seen fellow workers and bosses with a memory which seems photographic and so there are a few people who do not need notes. I usually offer to buy them drinks.
 








 
Back
Top