What's new
What's new

Shop Traveler.....

TPMInc

Plastic
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Location
East Coast
I just had my customer come see my shop and they asked me if I use shop travelers. I had to tell them no because I dont right now. I want to start using one but am having trouble finding a template online. Does anybody have a templete, or a copy of one that I can use to make one?
 
Travellers can be anything from just the part number that follows along and makes sure the pallet that its on is the right material to a detailed instruction of what occurs with the part each step with programs, tools, etc - sometimes also has hours taken each step for setup and runtimes, and can include outsourced coatings and operations.
 
We use travelers for every part that we make as well as parts that we send out for contract work. Here is an example of what ours look like using DBA software. It keeps the parts pretty well organized. So long as each station fills it out correctly!

Untitled.jpg
 

Attachments

  • TRAVELER.jpg
    TRAVELER.jpg
    20 KB · Views: 15,750
Last edited:
I did work for the NAVY and their requirements may be more than you want or need, but here's the idea..
ohh... and this was BC.... before wide use of compters... they just let you screw things up faster and more often...


Header.... contains PART NAME.... P/N........
PO Number............SHOP ORDER NUMBER.........
Quantity.............
MATERIAL................ Material SPEC..........
and a bunch of details that you decide........

Then the important stuff......HOW your going to make this gagit...

OPER No..........OPERATION...........................................Number of Pc...............First Pc Inspect
5......................Cut off 5 1/4......................................... 22
10...................Tur Lathe......Face and Turn Chucking collar 4.950 dia x 1.00 long
.........................drill 1 3/4
15....................CNC Lathe...hold on turned collar and...................etc etc




THis is a start.... it goes on to show the inspection record and WHO Signed the First Pc inspection record the is also part of the Traveler....this Traveler is in a manila folder along with the Print and EVERY OPERATION is listed as a line number.... go by increments of 5 so you can allways add one in case you need to...

Another thing.... I always printed this out and it TRAVELED WITH THE SKID of parts.... NO input to a pc, like I said....this was BC

You can get as fancy and complcated as you want....then you'l toss it out ads get simple, it works.

ohh,,, and another column is for SETUP Time and RUN time for each operation...
This was also the form I used to quote the job and the when we started making the thing each operations time was recorded.... THAT way I get to see how close I was at estimating...
As I said... cook up your own.... it's always easier that way...
 
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.
 
I have to agree with Bob on the shittiness of paper work for quick jobs and short runs, especially if the job is not going to repeat. Common sense should be used.

In our shop, we have medium volume production, and repeat work. We do not have any customer supplied drawings on the floor. Drawings are modified to show only the dimensions relevant to each operation. Process tolerances are included.

The process drawings are only as detailed as needed. I only include the dimensions that the operators can actually control. For lathe work, that is pretty much all of them. For the mills, I include things like hole location tolerance and thread info, but not the actual dimension of every hole. The operator is not going to go into the program and edit the hole locations if the true position is off.

Other than the dimensions, the sheet includes the fixture or jaw number, program number, and any setup info needed. There is also a separate routing document that travels with the job. The includes the lot number, part count, and tolerance plot sheet.

We are TS certified, and it is a royal pain. Every drawing revision requires us to modify no less than 10 internal documents, even if it is just to change the rev level of the part. Now take that times about 500 part numbers and you need a pretty big file cabinet...
 
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.
My guess is you do not have a Quality Management System in place.
 
Cut Maritime some slack. He was going to wait till his second post to put up the spam for his QMS... Now we'll never know who to avoid.

Maritime, may as well delete your account and start over; try to get a couple hundred helpful posts in over several years, then spam us with your software. That's what I'm doing, another 14 years and then I plan to become an ISO consultant and start talking about how important certification is. PM members won't suspect a thing...
 
Pretty funny how some people will take a bunch of time writing how bad travelers are when they could use that time to help make a good system or at least do something better. I will only say this: if you do a proper quote, based on machine, tool, labor, etc. that pulls everything out of a database, then the traveler will be pretty much "free". You quote, get the order, press the button and maybe just add a few things like PO #, due date, qty and then it "goes". If you have a really good system (projects data for all open orders), then it can tell you if you're short on capacity on your CNC lathe or whatever so you may need to plan a couple hours of overtime. The best way to do this is to make a custom database system, more development time but usually less cost than a complicated ERP. The other choice is to make your system work with an off-the-shelf ERP but that can be challenging. Creating a traveler should basically be the push of a button, I've made and seen it happen.

Good luck,
The Dude
 








 
Back
Top