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The board fills itself
Machines are connected via IoT box / OPC UA — KPIs like OEE, output, downtime and on-time delivery run live on the plant floor display and board, with no manual upkeep.
In production at leading manufacturers
The problem
Shop floor management is a powerful method — but it fails at the whiteboard
KPIs are copied by hand, are already stale by the time of the meeting, every plant does it differently, and nobody sees in real time why a line is down. The daily shop floor meeting discusses yesterday's numbers.
Yesterday's numbers
Manually maintained boards are already outdated at the meeting — decisions lag behind reality.
Every plant different
Without a shared data model, KPIs aren't comparable across lines and sites.
Downtime unclear
Nobody sees in real time why a line is down — causes are estimated, not measured.
Digital shop floor management only helps if the board fills itself automatically from real machine data — not if you maintain a digital whiteboard by hand.
Direct comparison
Whiteboard vs. digital shop floor management
How it works
How SYMESTIC runs your shop floor management
From whiteboard to living production control — in three steps.
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Problems visible instantly
Andon and alarm alerts in real time. Downtime is captured and classified automatically — an AI normalizes downtime reasons across all lines.
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Shift handover & actions, digital
Digital shift log with AI summary. Actions and owners are documented — comparable across shifts and plants.
Capabilities
Everything for the digital shop floor board — in one MES platform
Live KPIs, andon, shift log and downtime analysis run on real machine data — not on manual entry.
Product view — live board per plant. Real screenshots replace this rendering in production.
Live KPI boards & plant floor displays
OEE, output, downtime and on-time delivery in real time — per line, plant and shift.
Andon · alarm & event management
Problems escalate automatically to the right owners.
Digital shift log
Including an AI summary of every shift — nothing gets lost at handover.
Automatic downtime capture
Classification by the Six Big Losses — no handwritten tally sheets.
Action & CI tracking
Right in the board — connected to Lean / Continuous Improvement.
Multi-site standardization
On an ISA-95 data model — plants 1:1 comparable.
Cloud-native on Azure
No server, no maintenance window — EU hosting, updates included.
Real time on day one — proven in real plants
Two projects from automotive and metalworking — with connection, timeline and measurable results.
"With SYMESTIC we quickly turn our KPIs into meaningful dashboards."
Nils Rüdiger · Brita
Why SYMESTIC
More than a board tool — a complete MES platform
vs. Whiteboard / Excel
The board fills itself automatically in real time, instead of maintaining stale numbers by hand.
vs. pure shop-floor board tools
SYMESTIC is a full cloud-native MES platform — the board runs on real machine data (operating/machine data/OEE), incl. andon, shift log and multi-site.
vs. classic on-premise MES
Go-live in hours instead of months, no server, self-service multi-site scaling.
Shop floor software vs. MES?
Digital shop floor management is a use case of our MES platform. More about the MES platform →
Commercial
SaaS subscription, volume-based — unlimited users
Onboarding and updates included. Start with a potential check or take a 30-day trial — with no hard hurdle.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about shop floor software
What is a shop floor management system / shop floor software?
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Software that runs shop floor management digitally: live KPIs, andon and a shift log are auto-filled from machine data — instead of a manually maintained whiteboard.
How do you digitize shop floor management?
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Connect machines (with SYMESTIC via IoT box / OPC UA, without PLC changes), push KPIs automatically to boards and displays, add andon and a digital shift log. The first line is live in about 3 hours.
What's the difference from a digital whiteboard?
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A digital whiteboard is maintained by hand; SYMESTIC fills the board automatically with real machine data in real time.
Which KPIs does a digital shop floor board show?
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OEE, output, downtime including reasons, on-time delivery and scrap — live per line, plant and shift.
What does shop floor integration into our existing IT cost?
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SYMESTIC is cloud-native (no server), connection is by retrofit without PLC changes; the SaaS subscription is volume-based. Specific costs on the pricing page or on request.
Does it work with old machines?
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Yes — an IoT-box retrofit connects legacy machines too.
Can it be standardized across multiple plants?
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Yes — an ISA-95 data model makes KPIs 1:1 comparable across plants.
Does it include andon and shift handover?
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Yes: andon / alarm management and a digital shift log (incl. AI summary) are available live.
Shop floor software or MES — what do I need?
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Digital shop floor management is a use case of SYMESTIC's cloud-native MES platform (incl. operating data, machine data, OEE, quality).
How secure is the data?
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Hosting on Azure with EU data residency, German Azure regions on request; ISO 9001 and GDPR; ISO 27001 is under review.
What is shop floor management?
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Shop floor management is the set of routines — daily huddles, visual boards, KPI reviews — used to run production day to day and react quickly to problems. Software makes it work in real time: it replaces the manual whiteboard with live KPIs, andon alerts and a digital shift log that fill themselves from machine data.
Book a live demo
See your shop floor board live in action
In 30 minutes we'll show you how your digital shop floor management fills itself automatically with real-time data — using your own KPIs.
Book a live demo
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