A sheet metal manufacturer with plants in the Bay Area and Los Angeles
Handwritten shift reports into production data
A manager photographs the paper report. AI reads it, matches each line to the catalog, and a person approves it.
- 3,720
- SKUs in the catalog it matches against
- 7
- production departments, each with its own form
What it replaced
At the end of each shift, workers filled in paper forms: date, hours, name, product, size, gauge, color, count, weight, coil number. Every department had its own form, with handwriting, abbreviations and check marks. Someone in the office then read each sheet and typed it into a spreadsheet. Double work, typos, and data too messy to work out labor per unit.
How it works
Photo, then read, then match, then check, then approve and export.
- PhotoThe manager picks the department and the date and taps one big camera button on the phone.
- ReadAI reads the sheet: date, employee, start and end time, products, sizes, quantities, units and notes.
- MatchEach line is matched to the product catalog by department, size, gauge, color and style. Unsure lines are highlighted.
- CheckThe photo sits next to an editable table. The manager zooms, fixes a value or picks the right SKU. Confirmed fixes make the next match better.
- Approve and exportApproved reports can be filtered by period, department, status and SKU, and exported to CSV or Excel.
A person stays in charge
- Nothing is saved as final until a manager approves it.
- Fields the AI is unsure about are highlighted, so the manager checks those, not every character.
- Every report keeps its history: who uploaded it, who changed what, when it was approved or reopened.
- The same photo can’t be uploaded twice.
- Every AI request is logged with its cost, so the monthly bill is visible.
What the plant gets
Paper, then retyping, becomes photo, then approval. The plant gets one database of production records to work out output, hours, labor per unit and labor cost by department and period.
Something at your plant still lives on paper or in three places?
Tell us on a short call. We'll say whether it's worth fixing and what it would take.