Paper is fast and anyone can write on it. But it forgets, and it can't add up every cell. Here's what ShopBoard changes, and what it doesn't.
Free forever: 1 department, 2 cells, 1 user · No card
Paper has real strengths. A marker needs no login and no Wi-Fi. Anyone walking past can write the hour and read it from across the cell.
If you run one cell and someone updates that board every hour, keep it. The habit matters more than the tool. A screen won't save a huddle nobody shows up to.
The board gets wiped every morning. Ask how Quality ran in March and you get a guess.
The GM walks every board to find the reds. By the last one, the first has changed.
The same jam gets written up again. Nobody knows it's the fourth time this month, so it never gets a real fix.
A lead copies the board into a spreadsheet after the shift. Numbers get mistyped, and the trend shows up late.
| Whiteboard | ShopBoard | |
|---|---|---|
| Writing the hour | Marker on the grid | Click the hour and type the actual. A saved schedule fills in the plan. |
| Red, yellow or green | Whoever holds the marker decides | Worked out from target and actual. Every screen agrees. |
| Cost | Someone adds up the scrap bin | Fills in from the scrap logged against the cell |
| Last month | Wiped, unless someone took a photo | A month grid per letter, and a Monthly Report for any month you pick |
| Every cell at once | Walk to each board | Facility board: today's status for every cell, grouped by department |
| Repeat problems | Someone has to remember | A supervisor links the repeat and the count goes up |
| Wi-Fi or power down | Still works | Can't save new numbers |
Free covers 1 department, 2 cells and 1 user. Rolling up more cells than that needs a paid plan.
Click an hour that has started and type the actual. Save the hourly plan once and it fills in every day. Under 90% of plan turns the hour red. Cumulative Δ keeps the running gap.
You type Safety, Quality and Delivery. Cost fills in from scrap. The cards color themselves. The month grid colors every day. Click one to see its numbers, its hour-by-hour and its issues.
The facility board shows today's status for every cell, grouped by department. Each department header shows its worst cell for each letter. Open issues, 3Cs and A3s are counted at the top.
When you log an issue, Check Duplicates lists the open ones on the same cell and letter. A supervisor clicks Link and the count goes up. A problem that keeps coming back gets moved up by hand to a 3C, then an A3.
The trend charts and the Monthly Report read the same SQDC entries the board shows. Print any month or save it as PDF. Old spreadsheet data comes in by CSV import.
Staying on paper? Print the free templates. There's an hour-by-hour board and a 3C form, plus an A3 and an SQDC monthly board. No email needed. The hour-by-hour sheet even has the reason-code column ShopBoard lacks.
Free templates →For one cell and a supervisor who updates it every hour, yes. It strains on history, on seeing every cell at once and on counting repeats.
Yes. Every SQDC entry stays by cell and day. The Monthly Report covers any month you pick. Hour-by-hour history pages back one day at a time.
Yes. Put the cell's Wall view on a screen at the cell. Anyone there can tap or click an hour and type the actual.
Nothing. Free covers 1 department, 2 cells and 1 user. Every core module is included. The AI Lean Coach starts on Professional.
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A board that gets updated but doesn't change anything isn't daily management, it's decoration. Here are five signs the habit has become theater.
A sample board is there on your first login. Your own cell takes about 10 minutes.