How a channel letter shop runs its day
A channel letter or lightbox job never finishes at one bench. Someone measures the site, the designer draws, the customer approves; then the face and returns are cut on the CNC, the letter bodies go to paint, the LED modules and power supply are wired, and the workshop prepares the fixings. Pylons and facades add a steel frame. Finally the job is packed and the installation crew goes out.
The usual problem is scattered information: which revision was approved lives in a chat, the paint shop hears by phone that CNC is done, and a missing LED module turns up on the day of production. What illuminated sign production needs is one order everybody looks at, with each team seeing its own share.
A sign shop workflow out of the box
When you open an account, a sign shop's workflow is already there: Order entry, Design, Manager approval, Production chief, Production (CNC, Paint, Workshop and Electrical-LED in parallel), Packing, plus Purchasing and Field installation. You can change the stages, the departments and which role works where; add a laser cutting or welding department if you have one.
Each stage can carry a target time in hours and your own sub-statuses, such as “At chrome plating” or “Revision”. The order's flow view shows how long it spent at each stage and how far past its target it is.
CNC, paint and electrical work in parallel
If a department has to be added or dropped mid-production, the sub-flow can be edited; finished tasks stay as they are.
- 1
The production chief picks the departments
As the order enters production, you choose which departments it needs and mark one as responsible. Each department gets its own task.
- 2
Each team sees its own queue
The CNC operator, the painter and the electrician see only their own tasks and close only their own. The tasks run in parallel without waiting for one another.
- 3
The responsible department closes last
The responsible department cannot close its task until every other one is done, and it adds a new file, such as a photo of the finished work, when it does. When the last task closes the order moves to packing by itself.
No artwork reaches the shop floor unapproved
A wrong letter or a wrong size on a channel letter goes in the bin with its material. An order that entered design cannot move forward without a verified design file. You can send the customer an approval link by email and SMS; they approve or ask for changes without an account, and the decision is written to the order's history. While the customer decides, the stage timer and the due countdown pause.
Material shortages show up when the order is opened
When you enter what an order needs, the need is compared with stock: what the depot can cover becomes a material request, the shortfall becomes a purchase request. The composite panel comes off the shelf while the missing LED modules go to purchasing. Units convert between sheets, metres and pieces, and a goods receipt updates the stock itself.
Complete orders with product templates
Define separate product templates for channel letters, lightboxes or pylons: letter height, material, light colour, power supply, mounting surface and so on, with units and defaults. An order starts from a template and is not saved until the fields the template asks for are filled, so what reaches the CNC and the electrical bench is in the same place and the same shape on every order.
Installation is half the job
- Plan each installation with a date, address, site contact and crew; see it on a week or month calendar with a row per installer.
- The crew sees the day's jobs in the mobile app or a phone browser, calls the customer and opens directions.
- An installation cannot be closed without a photo, and an order that needs installation cannot be completed until it is done.
- A reminder goes out the day before an installation.