Case Study · NORA · Next-shift Operations Real-time Awareness

What's running? Now the whole floor knows.

Coastline Precision Manufacturing replaced their "walk over and ask" job schedule with a shop-floor board the whole team can read at a glance. Built around whatever schedule system your planner already trusts — no new tool to learn, no workflow to change.

50-person job shop 2-minute refresh Built in 3 weeks
COASTLINE PRECISION · FLOOR BOARD Live Shop FloorInspection
19Active jobs
7Act now
1Approaching
11On track
10:43 EST
Machine Conflicts
CNC-MILL-01 ACR-1042-B, MTI-7755-A, GTC-2201-C, OPC-3318-A 4 jobs
CNC-LATHE-02 BNI-0044-D, ACR-1118-A, GTC-2240-B, MTI-7790-C 4 jobs
BRAKE-01 OPC-3318-A, BNI-0090-A, ACR-1042-B 3 jobs
CMM-01 MTI-7755-A, GTC-2201-C 2 jobs
Needs Attention 0 No flagged issues — all clear.
JS
John Smith
4
JOB-228882Flag
ACR-1042-B FPY 73%
Acme Robotics · due 06/29 · 240 pcs · 2d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-01
Last run: passed inspection
Prev run: passed inspection
APPROACHING
JOB-227589Flag
BNI-0090-A FPY 100%
Bayland Industrial · due 07/01 · 60 pcs · 4d
Runs on: BRAKE-01
Last run: passed inspection
ON TRACK
JOB-228140Flag
GTC-2240-B FPY 84%
Gateway Components · due 07/02 · 120 pcs · 5d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-02
ON TRACK
JOB-229040Flag
OPC-3318-A FPY 96%
Oceanside Products · due 07/02 · 320 pcs · 5d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-01, BRAKE-01
ON TRACK
MJ
Mike Johnson
5
JOB-228564Flag
MTI-7755-A FPY 57%
Medtech Industries · due 06/18 · 18 pcs · 5d late
Runs on: CNC-LATHE-02 · CMM REQ
Last run: passed inspection
Prev run: Surface finish out of spec
LATE · QC RESOLVED
JOB-228749Flag
GTC-2201-C FPY 90%
Gateway Components · due 06/25 · 400 pcs · TODAY
Runs on: CNC-MILL-01
⚠ CNC-MILL-01 also needed by ACR-1042-B, MTI-7755-A
DUE TODAY
JOB-228807Flag
ACR-1118-A FPY 100%
Acme Robotics · due 06/26 · 90 pcs · 1d
Runs on: CNC-LATHE-01
Tooling: Collet #4, Ra 32 surface finish
DUE TOMORROW
JOB-228899Flag
BNI-0044-D FPY 100%
Bayland Industrial · due 06/30 · 200 pcs · 3d
Runs on: CNC-LATHE-02, GRIND-01
ON TRACK
JOB-228799Flag
OPC-3450-A FPY 100%
Oceanside Products · due 07/02 · 24 pcs · 5d
ON TRACK
DW
David Wilson
2
JOB-228847Flag
MTI-7790-C FPY 17%
Medtech Industries · due 06/30 · 12 pcs · 3d
Runs on: EDM-W-01, CMM-01 · FULL INSPECTION
Tight tolerance ±0.0005"
ON TRACK
JOB-228601Flag
GTC-2188-A FPY 96%
Gateway Components · due 07/01 · 150 pcs · 4d
Runs on: GRIND-01
ON TRACK
RT
Robert Taylor
4
JOB-228912Flag
ACR-1219-A FPY 43%
Acme Robotics · due 06/25 · 80 pcs · TODAY
Runs on: CNC-MILL-03
Last run: 2 scrap of 80 · setup issue
DUE TODAY
JOB-228829Flag
OPC-3501-B FPY 100%
Oceanside Products · due 06/30 · 60 pcs · 3d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-03
ON TRACK
JOB-228906Flag
BNI-0166-A FPY 44%
Bayland Industrial · due 07/01 · 35 pcs · 4d
Runs on: CNC-LATHE-01
ON TRACK
JOB-228796Flag
GTC-2310-A FPY 80%
Gateway Components · due 07/01 · 220 pcs · 4d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-03
Prev run: Tool wear flagged
ON TRACK
CB
Chris Brown
4
JOB-228429Flag
MTI-7820-A FPY 82%
Medtech Industries · due 06/16 · 14 pcs · 7d late
Runs on: EDM-W-01 · FULL CMM
Held for machine PM — now resolved
LATE · MAINT RESOLVED
JOB-228666Flag
ACR-1340-B FPY 67%
Acme Robotics · due 06/26 · 28 pcs · 1d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-02
Prev run: Tool change mid-run
DUE TOMORROW
JOB-228682Flag
GTC-2425-A FPY 50%
Gateway Components · due 06/26 · 110 pcs · 1d
Runs on: CNC-MILL-02
DUE TOMORROW
JOB-228513Flag
BNI-0210-A FPY 90%
Bayland Industrial · due 06/30 · 70 pcs · 3d
Runs on: CNC-LATHE-02
⚠ CNC-LATHE-02 also needed by BNI-0044-D, ACR-1118-A, MTI-7790-C
ON TRACK
On track (3–5 days) Approaching (2 days) Due today / Past due Due tomorrow Late · Resolved
SHIFT 1 6:00 – 14:30 NORA v1.3last refresh 10:42:47 19 active7 act now11 on track
Click any Flag on the board to see what NORA captures
A note on the look

The visual is yours.

Coastline's board uses our default styling. Your version can match your brand colors, your equipment naming, your terminology, and your existing internal design system. The structure stays. The skin adapts to your shop.

The problem · The fix

From "let me go check" to one shared view

The schedule already existed. It was just locked inside the planner's office — invisible to everyone who actually does the work.

Before

Schedule lived in one head and one spreadsheet

By 9 AM most days, what was running on each machine and what the schedule said had drifted. Machinists came in asking "what's next?" The shop manager went to look. Then went to ask. Then came back.

  • "Where's job 1234?" took 10–15 minutes to answer accurately
  • Three or four trips to the office per day, per machinist
  • Quality holds tracked on sticky notes that fell off the toolbox
  • Machine PM windows lived in the shop manager's memory
  • Shift handoff was a 20-minute verbal recap, often lossy
After · NORA

A shop-floor board the whole team can read

A live visual dashboard, displayed wherever your team needs to see it — a wall-mounted TV at the main aisle, a control room screen, a tablet on a cart, or a browser tab on the shop manager's PC. Refreshes every two minutes from whatever your planner already maintains — Excel, Google Sheets, JobBoss, E2, SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle, SharePoint, or your custom database. Color-coded so urgency reads at a glance.

  • "Where's job 1234?" is a 5-second look at the board
  • Schedule changes reach the floor in under 2 minutes
  • Quality holds and machine PMs visible to the whole team
  • Shop manager decides priority; floor sees the decision instantly
  • Shift handoff is a glance at the board, not a debrief
A note on ERP systems

We don’t replace your ERP. We make it visible.

If you’re running SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle, JobBoss, E2, or any other ERP — you already paid for production data. You don’t need another system. You need that data on a screen the floor can actually see.

ERP screens are built for someone sitting at a desk. They’re not built to be read from 20 feet away, across a shop, by a machinist who can’t step away from a running spindle. They’re also pull, not push — someone has to log in, navigate to the right screen, refresh, and read. The floor doesn’t do that.

NORA reads from whatever your ERP already produces — the same data, the same source of truth — and puts the live state on a screen your team can read at a glance. Wall-mounted, desktop, tablet — wherever they need it. No new licenses. No new logins. No new training.

If you have an ERP
We read from it.
SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle, JobBoss, E2, custom — we connect to where your schedule already lives.
If you don’t
We can build that too.
Excel, Google Sheets, custom database — we’ll help you set up the source of truth before putting it on the board.
The outcome

The numbers that moved

Real changes from a 3-week build. No new ERP, no new training, no new spreadsheet to maintain.

15 min 5 sec
Time to answer "where's job X"
per look · all shifts
~25/wk 0
Machinist walks to the office
just to ask what's next
~20 min 2 min
Shift handoff time
board reads itself
What you actually get

Simple to install. Quiet to run.

No new system to learn. Nothing for your team to log into. The board just shows up on the wall and tells the truth.

Your existing data
Whatever your planner uses todayExcel, Google Sheets, JobBoss, E2, SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle, SharePoint, or your custom database — we read from where you already work.
Refresh
Every 2 minutes, automaticThe board stays current. No one has to remember to update it.
Display
Wherever your team needs to see itWall-mounted TV, control room screen, tablet, or desktop browser. Built to read from 20 feet away on a big screen, and clean enough to use at a desk.
Urgency colors
You set the rules. We enforce them.Green / Amber / Red — based on your due dates, your lead times, your priorities.
Department flags
Quality, Maintenance, PlanningEach department sees what's in their queue. The whole shop sees the same picture.
No new logins
The board reads itself. No accounts to manage.Your IT person doesn't need to set up users. The display just runs.
What we can add

Start with visibility. Grow into intelligence.

NORA out of the box gives you a live floor board. From there, we extend it to fit how your operation actually runs.

Setup vs. run time

Where shops bleed money. Track changeover and run time per machine and per job — see what's actually costing you, not what you quoted.

Quote vs. actual

Was the 8-hour quote really 14? Compare estimated and actual on every finished job. Stop losing money on the same parts twice.

Machine downtime tracking

Log reason codes in real time. Weekly Pareto by machine, cause, and shift — find the bottleneck before it costs you the next job.

Alerts when it matters

Shop manager gets pinged the moment a job goes red, a machine stalls, or first article fails inspection — phone, text, or email.

Check from anywhere

Read-only mobile view. Shop manager checks the floor from the office, the truck, or home — without calling the foreman.

Direct ERP read

Pull jobs straight from SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle, JobBoss, E2, or your custom system — cut out the manual planner step entirely.

See what your board could look like.

Send us a copy of the schedule your planner maintains today — in whatever form it lives in. We'll send back a sketch of your board, free of charge. No commitment, no sales pitch.

Quick build from $8K + $300/mo · Full build $15K + $500/mo · Hosting, support, & small adjustments included