Fabrication Work Order Tracking Agent
Tracks fabrication work orders from release through completion across cutting, welding, and finishing stations, flagging delays before they cascade downstream.
Custom fabrication shops running dozens of concurrent work orders across cutting, welding, machining, and finishing stations often lose visibility into where any single order actually sits, relying on paper travelers or verbal shop-floor updates that lag reality by hours
A delay at one station quietly pushes back every downstream station and the final ship date, but nobody notices until the order is already late
This agent tracks each fabrication work order's progress across every routing station in real time, comparing actual station completion times against the planned routing schedule, and immediately flags orders falling behind pace
It projects the downstream impact of any delay on the committed ship date and surfaces the highest-priority at-risk orders to shop floor supervisors before the schedule slips further
The agent ingests work order routing data, station scan/completion events from the shop floor (barcode scans, MES station check-ins, or manual entries), and the planned routing schedule for each order. It continuously compares actual progress against planned pace per station, calculates a projected completion date for each order, and flags any order trending behind its committed ship date. Delay alerts include the specific station causing the holdup and the estimated downstream schedule impact, routed to shop supervisors for prioritization.
Work Order & Routing Data Ingestion
- Pull work order details, routing sequence, and planned station times
- Ingest station completion scans/check-ins from the shop floor
- Match completed operations to the planned routing schedule
- Identify orders with missing or delayed station updates
Pace & Delay Detection
- Compare actual station completion time against planned duration
- Calculate cumulative schedule variance per work order
- Flag orders trending behind their committed ship date
- Identify the specific station currently causing the delay
Downstream Impact Projection
- Project the revised completion date for each delayed order
- Identify other orders sharing the same bottleneck station
- Estimate cumulative schedule risk across affected orders
- Rank at-risk orders by customer priority and dollar value
Alerting & Reprioritization Support
- Alert shop supervisors to at-risk orders with root-cause station identified
- Recommend reprioritization or resource reallocation options
- Notify customer service of ship dates at meaningful risk
- Track resolution as orders recover pace or are rescheduled