14. Shop floor hardware

Five surfaces are built for the floor rather than the office. None needs an install, a licence or a specific device: each is a URL you point a screen at.

Surface	URL	Device
Floor board	/workspace/floor-board	Wall TV or monitor
Operator station	/workspace/operator/printer, /packer, /qc	Tablet at the station
Barcode scan	/workspace/scan	Any device, ideally with a USB scanner
Time clock	/workspace/timeclock	Shared tablet or phone
Walk-in kiosk	/workspace/kiosk	iPad at the counter

The first four need a staff login. The kiosk deliberately does not.

The floor board

Four columns, dark theme, readable across a room. Above the columns: overdue, due today, and on the press. The page refreshes every 60 seconds and the clock updates every 30, so nobody has to touch it.

Setting it up:

1. Plug any small PC, streaming stick or spare tablet into the TV.
2. Open a browser, log in as a staff user, go to /workspace/floor-board.
3. Put the browser in full screen, and turn off the display's sleep and screensaver.
4. Turn off the device's auto-lock so the session stays up.

Overdue jobs get a red border and tint, which is the whole point: the board should make lateness visible from the far side of the shop without anyone asking.

Use a dedicated login for shared screens

Create a staff user such as "Floor board" with the viewer role for the wall TV. It cannot change anything if someone leans on the screen, and the audit log stays honest about who actually moved jobs.

Operator stations

Per-role boards, so a station only shows the work that belongs to it:

Station	URL	Shows
Printer	/workspace/operator/printer	Jobs to print
Packer	/workspace/operator/packer	Jobs to pack
QC	/workspace/operator/qc	Jobs to check

Mount a cheap tablet at each station, log in, bookmark the URL to the home screen. An operator sees their queue and nothing else, which is far less error-prone than everyone working from the full board.

Barcode scanning

The worksheet for each order carries a barcode of its order number. Scan it on /workspace/scan and the order advances to its next stage. That is the fastest way to keep the board honest while your hands are covered in ink: no dragging, no typing.

A USB barcode scanner that behaves as a keyboard is all the hardware you need. Focus the scan box and scan.

The same box reads SKU shelf labels, which is the second reason to print them:

• Order numbers always win.
• A code that matches no order is tried as a SKU. During an open counting session it records a count increment; otherwise it shows that SKU's stock with a link to adjust it.

One surface, two modes, so the floor only has to remember one page.

The time clock

Two buttons and an order number. Staff type or scan the order, tap Clock on, and tap Clock off when they move to something else.

Behaviour	Detail
One clock per person	Enforced in the database, so two taps on a shared tablet cannot open two clocks
Rate frozen at clock-on	A later pay rise never rewrites the cost of a job that already shipped
Stage recorded	The entry records the stage the job was at when the clock started
Managers can correct	Forgotten clock-offs are fixed in Time on jobs

Labour costing needs a labour rate on each user, set in team. Without it, hours book at zero.

The walk-in kiosk

An iPad at the counter that takes walk-in orders while you stay on the press. Four steps: pick a template, pick a garment, enter details, done. It creates a real order in your Artwork stage, priced, and resets itself 30 seconds later for the next customer.

Setting it up:

1. Mount an iPad in a counter stand. Any model from mini to Pro.
2. Open Safari at /workspace/kiosk and add it to the home screen so it runs without browser chrome.
3. Turn on Guided Access (Settings, Accessibility, Guided Access) so a customer cannot wander out of the page.
4. Set the iPad to never sleep and keep it on power.

There is no login wall, on purpose: it has to work unattended. It is rate limited, and the confirm step is limited more tightly, because it creates real orders. If your shop has a static IP, you can also allow-list the kiosk path at the network edge for another layer.

Full walkthrough in the walk-in kiosk.

Next

15. Go-live checklist