I hate travelers. I think they suck, sort of. In a small shop, what do they really tell you? Especially if you have a mass of shitty little jobs and you're pushing 5-10 a day with
just a few people. Just filling the damn things out will kill you, if you are filling them out manually.
Anyways, I/we went through several brazillion formats of travelers. Iso manager consultant insisted that a traveler should have enough information on it so that you could actually make the part without the print. That guy was an asshole. Next process stuff, pretty important from the office side, but in the shop, mostly relatively simple. I saw one guy take the damn traveler, every part had a 3 step procedure 1) get material, 2) make part 3) ship part. The people in the front of the building, they had to deal with the heat treats, grinding, coatings, shipping, packaging, buying the wrong material yet again, not buying the right material yet again, finally getting around to buying not enough of the wrong material 2 days before the job is due.
Anyways, we were doing short runs, lots of quicky stuff. I went to simply using the print. It already had the part # on it, already had the material on it (I'd add a note if it wasn't clearly spelled out), I'd put a due date on it, put a qty, and then the job #. The job # would get you to my file which had what we needed for the shop in it, and it would also get you to the BIG file in the front office, which usually weighed more than the parts.
We'd put our inspection dims right on the print. I'd print out a pile of them. One with each box or pallet of material for indentification, (sharpie and a receiving tag also). As the parts were moving around, a copy of this specially marked print went with each lot. A copy of the print also went on the clipboard at every machine that job should hit. When the job was ready to ship, gather up all the copies, stuff 'em in the folder and bring it all up front.
If it was a big job, with qty, I'd make actual inspections sheets that could hold piles of #'s.
It was just easier, less paper to deal with. Less crap to fill out.
Actually now that I'm a bit more familiar with quick books, put the job in QB's, you have to enter all the info to bill the damn thing anyway, you could get it to spit out a
reasonable traveler, due date, job #, part #, qty, fill in the last little bits, and you're 2 clicks away from creating an invoice, and you have a traveler that is almost complete.
Keep it simple, pertinent information only, blocks to fill out that you are actually going to use for data or tracking or whatever, no extra BS, unless it
is going to help you or your guys get the stuff out the door easier, traceability and accountability also, though its not that hard to initial a damn print, don't
need a form for that.
Having paper work just for the sake of having paperwork is stupid. Busy work is for 3rd graders and assholes in suits.