Best way to track and plan task and projects in a dynamically changing manufacturing environment?

David Egle

Help!!! I have been using Smartsheet as a novice user for a year now. I know that it has great potential to track and plan tasks and projects across multiple users and departments. I work in a manufacturing environment where every day there are issues that come up with production machines and need to be planned and resolved. I also have long term projects that I am working on that get sidetracked with the "fire" of the day. I need a way to gather, catalog, plan and execute all of this from one single source across multiple users and departments. Has anyone done this? Any feedback or examples of how you tackled this would be greatly appreciated.

Purnima Gore

Hi David

I am running 8 projects plus other activities using Smartsheet.

I have also just set up a way of tackling issues that go through different stages.

The key to making this work is the report function and creating a template for projects and issues so that you can pull them into a single report and group them.

I even create highlight reports on the same plan and using categories, I can pull through the latest entries for all of the projects into a single place that is then automatically emailed to the Head of Service.

I use the notifications and the comments (almost like the journal) so that I remind myself of what is happening at any point in time.

If that helps, email me on purnima.gore@cierr.com and I can show you how I do that for my projects.

That may give you some ideas on how you can organise your projects.

Thanks

PG

Andrée Starå

Hi @David Egle

I hope you're well and safe!

I'd recommend exploring (if you don't already have it) an Intake process for projects that connect to a project template structure that you then can get an excellent portfolio overview on.

Also, I'd recommend an issue tracker solution that is either part of the project structure or separate.

There is so much that can be done, but it's different from one company to the next.

• Can you describe your process in more detail?
• What do you have in place today?
• Are you using the Resource Management features in Smarsheet?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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David Egle

Andree,

We are a manufacturing environment. We have many injection molding machines and robotic automation. Often we find that there are many issues that pop up over time that need to be tracked and followed through with until they are resolved. We also launch several new capital projects every year for new automation and injection mold machines with our suppliers outside of our company that we need to collaborate with. Today we use Microsoft Teams and Office 365, it's alright but has it's limitations for project and task tracking. I would like to have just one single place for the capital projects and daily task tracking with the resource management. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Dave