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How to Use ShopPulse on MES-Enabled Machines

Overview​

This guide shows operators how to use ShopPulse to manage jobs and submit labor tickets on MES-enabled machines. ShopPulse displays a real-time job queue — including jobs the operator set up, jobs matched automatically by APM, and the current state of each. Operators use ShopPulse to move the machine between setup and production, verify job matches, correct them when needed, and submit labor tickets when work is done.

⚠️ ERP Driven machines: If your machine's "Manage jobs in" setting is ERP Driven, job management and labor ticket submission happen in the ERP — not in ShopPulse. ShopPulse reflects the current job state in read-only mode; operators do not interact with the job queue or submit labor tickets from ShopPulse. See How ERP Driven Works on MES-Enabled Machines. The remaining content in this article applies to machines managed in ShopPulse.

For sign-in and general ShopPulse navigation, see Getting Started with ShopPulse.

Feature Availability​

RequirementDetails
Setup RequiredThe machine's ShopPulse device must be authorized by an account Manager or Executive. Operators log in using profiles configured in Settings → Operators.
MES PackageMust be active on the account, and MES must be enabled on your individual machine (your administrator handles this when enabling MES on the machine). If the job queue is not visible in ShopPulse, contact your administrator.

What You Can Fix, and When​

While a labor ticket is unsubmitted you can fix anything about it: change the job, split it, merge it with another, change the activity, or delete it.

The one exception is the ticket that is still running. It can be submitted or merged, but it can't be deleted, moved to another job on its own, or have its counts edited while the program is going. Stop the program first, or use Re-assign job to move the whole run.

Submitting is the moment that changes. It closes the ticket in your ERP and makes it read-only in ShopPulse — from there, corrections have to be made in the ERP.

How It Works​

The Tabs​

Total Jobs — the job queue: every job on the machine, its current state, and the work accrued against it. On machines that use program-based job selection this is the primary MES workflow view, and the tab is always present and cannot be hidden. Machines that run one job at a time don't show it — there is only ever one job, and Part Count is the main view.

Part Count — a focused view of the currently active job. Shows parts made, expected parts, order progress, estimated time remaining, and a Parts Goal visualization indicating whether you're ahead or behind pace. In Setup mode this tab becomes the setup view, showing setup elapsed and expected time instead of part counts.

Your machine may show additional tabs depending on how your company has configured it.

Two Machine Configurations​

Before anything else: how your machine behaves depends on its "Jobs selected by" setting, and the difference is significant enough that it's worth knowing which you're on. Your administrator sets it.

Single-job (Jobs selected by = Operator)Multi-job (Jobs selected by = Program)
How many jobs at onceOneSeveral concurrently
Choosing workStart job in the control barSelect jobs while in Setup mode
Labor ticket in your ERPOpens when you start the job; submitting closes itCreated when you submit
Moving between setup and productionHappens through the labor ticket — there is no mode controlEnter Setup / Enter Production in the control bar
Finishing setupSubmitting the setup ticket as Complete moves the machine into production and opens a production ticket on the same jobSubmitting the setup ticket as Complete queues the job as Ready for Production; production begins when you enter Production mode
Total Jobs tabNot shownAlways present, cannot be hidden
First Article InspectionAvailableNot available

Everything else in this article — job states, ticket states, submitting, splitting, merging, reassigning, pulling a job — works the same on both.

Setup Mode and Production Mode​

The machine is always in one of two modes:

  • Setup mode — where jobs get prepared. You choose which jobs you're setting up; automatic program matching is paused, because you are the one deciding what's being worked on. On machines that run multiple concurrent jobs, you can have several setups going at once, each accruing its own setup labor.
  • Production mode — where parts get made. APM watches the running program and matches it to a job automatically.

On a multi-job machine you move between them with the mode control in the control bar, and switching shows a short confirmation first. The two directions behave differently:

  • Entering Production requires you to deal with any open setup labor first — you'll be walked through submitting it.
  • Entering Setup does not require anything. Whatever was running in production stops cleanly and its labor ticket stays open and unsubmitted, so it can still be reviewed and submitted later. The running job parks as Paused with its parts intact. This is deliberate: the person setting the machine up isn't always the person who owns the production labor.

On a single-job machine there is no mode control. The machine follows the labor ticket: selecting a job with a setup activity puts it in Setup, and submitting that setup ticket as Complete moves it into production.

Job States​

Each card in the queue shows the job's current state:

StateWhat It MeansAnything to do?
In SetupYou're setting this job up. Setup labor is accruing.Do the setup, then submit the setup ticket.
Ready for ProductionSetup is finished and submitted, and the job is queued. Multi-job machines only.Nothing — it starts when you enter Production mode.
MatchedAPM identified this job with high confidence.Nothing. Work it and submit when you're ready.
SuggestedAPM found a likely job but isn't certain — often because several open work orders share the same part operation.You'll be asked to verify the job when you submit.
No Match FoundAPM couldn't identify what's running. The work is tracked as an Unknown Job so nothing is lost.Identify the job with Assign job, or discard the run with Ignore program if it wasn't production work.
ConfirmedSomeone has attested that this is the right job.Nothing. Finish the work and submit.
PausedThe job was running and got interrupted — usually because the machine went into Setup mode, or because setup was submitted as Incomplete. It stays on the machine and keeps its parts.Pick it back up with Resume Setup, or let production resume it.
BlockedThe job was closed in your ERP while it still had open labor tickets here, so those tickets can't be submitted.Either delete the stuck tickets or move them to a different job.

There is no Confirm button. A job becomes Confirmed when you do something that asserts it's the right one — submitting labor against it, or picking it as the destination of a reassignment, a split, or an Unknown Job resolution. Picking is confirming.

These are the states you'll encounter day to day. A card's label also reflects the machine's current mode. On a multi-job machine, a job that finished setup reads Ready for Production in Setup mode and Confirmed once the machine is in Production mode; a parked job reads Paused in Setup mode and shows its underlying match state in Production mode.

Ticket States​

StateWhat it meansEditable?Submittable?
DraftNot yet submitted, and nobody has attested to the jobYes — fully, including the jobYes
Confirmed (unsubmitted)Not yet submitted, but someone has attested to the jobYes — fully, including the jobYes
Closed (submitted)Submitted and closed in your ERPNoAlready submitted

Burden time accrues on unsubmitted tickets regardless of state — machine time is always tracked.

A single job can hold more than one unsubmitted ticket at a time, for example after a split or after a program restart.

For a full explanation of how APM matches jobs and assigns states, see Auto Production Monitoring (APM).

Where the Actions Live​

Job cards are for reading, not for acting. Tapping a card opens that job's Production run overview (referred to below simply as the run overview), and the actions live on the control bar there:

Submit all · Edit run · Pull job · Re-assign job — plus Assign job and Ignore program on an Unknown Job, and Resume Setup on a parked job while the machine is in Setup mode.

The run overview also lists the run's labor tickets. Selecting one or more of them brings up a second set of actions for those tickets specifically — change activity, move to another job, split, merge, or delete. Edit run acts on the whole run; ticket selection acts on the tickets you picked.

When an action isn't available it appears disabled with the reason attached, rather than disappearing — so you can tell the difference between "not allowed right now" and "not a thing."

How to Use It​

Signing In​

  1. Open ShopPulse on your machine's device and sign in. Sign-in behavior varies by account configuration — see Getting Started with ShopPulse for details.
  2. Your job queue loads, showing all jobs on your machine.

Setting Up a Job​

  1. On a multi-job machine, make sure it's in Setup mode — if it's in Production, use the mode control in the control bar and confirm. On a single-job machine there's nothing to switch.
  2. Tap Select jobs (Start job on a single-job machine) to open the job selection screen.
  3. Find the job — the next scheduled job for your machine is highlighted and pinned to the front, with the rest sorted by schedule. Turn off Scheduled jobs only to include work that hasn't been scheduled yet, or use search to look across all released production orders by order number, part name, operation number, or resource.
  4. Select the job. Setup labor starts accruing immediately, and the job appears in your queue as In Setup.

On a multi-job machine nothing has reached your ERP at this point. On a single-job machine, starting the job opens its labor ticket in your ERP — submitting is what closes it.

On machines that carry multiple concurrent jobs you can set up several at once. The header shows how many setups are active, and the machine's setup time is divided across whichever setups are running at any given moment — so a job you started earlier keeps the time it accrued alone.

Finishing Setup​

  1. Tap Submit work and fill in the form.
  2. Set the setup status to Complete.
  3. Submit.

What happens next depends on your machine:

  • Single-job machine — the setup ticket is closed out in your ERP, the machine moves into production, and a new production ticket opens on the same job. Submitting the completed setup ticket is the transition; there's nothing else to tap.
  • Multi-job machine — the setup ticket is closed out to your ERP and the job moves to Ready for Production. No production ticket is created yet — production starts when you enter Production mode.

If you're not finished, set the status to Incomplete instead. The setup ticket is submitted for the time you've spent, and the job parks as Paused — it stays on the machine, keeps its parts, and picks up where it left off when you use Resume Setup.

First Article Inspection: On a single-job machine with FAI enabled, submitting a setup ticket as Complete prompts you to send the first piece for inspection or skip. Approval commits the setup work and releases the job into production. See First Article Inspection for the full workflow.

Starting Production​

On a single-job machine this already happened — submitting your completed setup ticket moved the machine into production on the same job.

On a multi-job machine, use the mode control in the control bar to enter Production, and confirm. If any setup labor is still open, you'll be walked through submitting it first. Once the machine is in Production, APM takes over: as programs run, jobs are matched and labor tickets open automatically.

Working a Matched Job​

Nothing is required to accept a match. A Matched job is already accruing burden and parts against the right work order. Work it, and submit when you reach a natural stopping point.

Verifying a Suggested Match​

Suggested means APM found a likely job but couldn't be certain — commonly when several open work orders share the same part operation.

  1. Work the job normally. Suggested doesn't block anything — burden and parts accrue exactly as they would on a Matched job.
  2. When you start a submission, a Confirm match dialog appears first, showing the job and the running program.
  3. If it's right, confirm — and the submission form opens.
  4. If it's wrong, choose Select a different job and pick the correct one. The submission then continues against the job you picked.

Resolving an Unknown Job (No Match Found)​

When APM can't identify what's running, the work is still tracked — it becomes an Unknown Job with its own labor ticket, so the time and parts aren't lost. An Unknown Job persists as a card even after the program stops, and you can identify it at any point afterward.

  1. Tap the card to open the run overview. The job number and estimates read Unknown, and the program that ran is shown.
  2. Tap Assign job and pick the correct job. That both identifies the work and confirms the job.
  3. If the program wasn't production work at all, tap Ignore program instead. This discards the run and its labor ticket — it cannot be undone.

An Unknown Job's ticket can't be submitted until you've identified the job, since there's no work order to submit it against. If you try, you'll be sent to the job picker first.

Reassigning a Job​

You can change the job on any run that hasn't been submitted, whether it's draft or confirmed.

  1. Open the run overview.
  2. Tap Re-assign job and pick the correct job. Picking confirms it.

Browsing is scoped to jobs sharing the same part operation, which is almost always what you want. Search reaches every open job; if you pick something outside that scope you'll get a warning with the details and can proceed anyway.

If you pick a job that already has an open run on this machine, the two are merged — the run's time and parts move onto that job, with a confirmation step first. Merging requires that neither side has any submitted tickets.

Note: Once a ticket is submitted, its job is fixed. Re-assign job stays visible but is disabled, with an explanation. Corrections to submitted work have to be made in your ERP.

Splitting​

Split when time or parts on one run need to be divided — for example if two different jobs ran back to back without a program change, or if part of a run belongs to the next shift.

Splitting is available on anything not yet submitted. You can reach it from the submission form, from a single selected ticket, or from Edit run. If part of the run has already been submitted, split the individual unsubmitted ticket rather than the whole run.

  1. Open the split sheet.
  2. Choose where to split — by time, or by part count. The split point is pre-filled at the point where the run satisfies what the order still needs, which is usually the right answer.
  3. For a run split, pick the job for the second portion. Until you do, the new segment reads No job selected and you can't confirm.
  4. Review the two result cards, which update live as you adjust the split point, and confirm.

Both halves keep the run's activity. A split can divide time alone, so a run with no parts on it is still splittable — useful when you're correcting burden hours rather than moving parts.

Merging Labor Tickets​

Separate from merging runs, you can combine two or more unsubmitted labor tickets on the same job into one — useful when a run got fragmented by program restarts.

  1. In the run overview, select the tickets you want to combine.
  2. Tap Merge and confirm.

The earliest ticket survives and keeps its start time; parts, rejects and elapsed time are combined, and the merged ticket takes the latest end time. Nothing is submitted — you can still edit or split the result. Tickets must share the same job, machine, activity, program and operator to be mergeable.

Changing the Activity​

Activity is a property of the labor ticket, so you change it by selecting tickets rather than from the job card.

  1. Open the run overview and select one or more unsubmitted tickets.
  2. Tap Change activity and pick a different activity.

The picker only offers activities within the ticket's own mode, so this can never move work between Setup and Production. Moving between those is a machine mode change, not an activity change.

Pulling a Job Off the Machine​

Pull job is for when you're done working a job but it isn't finished. It takes the job off the machine and out of your queue, while leaving it as open work — it stays on the schedule, stays selectable, and can be matched again later. This is what distinguishes it from Complete, which finishes the job for good.

  1. Open the run overview and tap Pull job.
  2. If the job has unsubmitted labor, you'll be asked to submit it first — the confirmation reads Submit & pull, and you'll be taken through the submission form. Cancelling the form cancels the pull.
  3. Confirm.

Note: If you pull the job the machine is currently running, you'll get a warning first: because the program is still loaded, APM will match that job right back to the machine as soon as the next part is made. To take the job off and keep it off, stop the machine first — or, if the work is actually finished, mark it complete instead.

Submitting a Labor Ticket​

Submitting closes the ticket. On ERP-connected accounts it is closed out in your ERP; on accounts without a live ERP integration it closes in MachineMetrics only.

note

Submitting and closing labor tickets is also how operators sign out at end of shift on MES accounts. There is no automatic end-of-shift sign-out while MES is active — including on no-ERP / MES-only accounts.

  1. Tap Submit work. If exactly one job has unsubmitted work, its form opens directly; if several do, you'll get a review sheet first.
  2. Enter the total parts made. Reject counts are entered separately, and a reject reason is required for any rejects. Note that the total made figure includes rejects — only order progress excludes them.
  3. Choose the job status:
StatusWhat Happens
CompleteTicket is closed out to the ERP and the job leaves your queue. If good parts are below the required quantity, you'll be asked to confirm first.
IncompleteTicket is closed out to the ERP and a new ticket opens automatically so work continues on the same job.

Complete is only offered on a job's most recent unsubmitted ticket. Earlier tickets are limited to Incomplete, with a note pointing you at the current one.

Setup submissions behave differently, and this is the part most worth knowing:

SubmissionWhat Happens
Setup — Complete, single-job machineSetup ticket is closed out in the ERP, the machine moves into production, and a new production ticket opens on the same job.
Setup — Complete, multi-job machineSetup ticket is closed out to the ERP. The job moves to Ready for Production. No production ticket is created — production begins when you enter Production mode.
Setup — IncompleteSetup ticket is closed out to the ERP. No new ticket is created. The job parks as Paused and stays on the machine; Resume Setup starts a fresh setup ticket when you come back to it.

Submitting Several Jobs at Once​

  1. Tap Submit work with unsubmitted work on two or more jobs. The Unsubmitted work sheet opens, with one row per job showing its time range and parts made.
  2. Either tap a row to submit that job on its own, or select rows and use the action bar — which also offers Split (at one selection), Merge (at two or more), and Delete.
  3. Tap Submit all or Submit selected. You'll then get one submission form per job, in sequence.
  4. Fill in and submit each form. Any Unknown Jobs in the selection are resolved first, and any Suggested jobs show their Confirm match dialog before their form.

Important: Each form commits when you submit it. If you stop partway through — by closing a form or a dialog — everything you already submitted stays submitted. There is no undo for the batch, and the sheet reopens with whatever is left.

Viewing Submission History​

While a job is still active on your machine, you can see the tickets already submitted against it.

  1. Tap the job card to open the run overview.
  2. Previously submitted tickets are listed, including who submitted each one.

History is visible as long as at least one open ticket exists for that job on your machine. Once the job is marked Complete and leaves the queue, it's no longer accessible from ShopPulse. Submitted rows are read-only.

If a Job Shows as Blocked​

Blocked means your ERP closed the job while it still had open labor tickets here. Those tickets can't be submitted, because there's nothing in the ERP left to submit them to.

Two ways out, both available on the run overview: delete the stuck tickets, or change job to move them onto a different job. Submitting, pulling and resuming stay disabled until it's resolved. Note that the machine keeps running and time keeps counting — being blocked only stops the write-back.

Tips & Best Practices​

  • Don't be afraid to fix things. An unsubmitted ticket can still be changed however it needs to be. It's much better to correct a run than to leave bad data in it.
  • Resolve Unknown Jobs while you still remember what ran. They persist indefinitely and nothing is lost, but identifying the program is much easier the same shift.
  • Submit as Incomplete when handing off mid-run. A new ticket opens automatically so the next operator continues without losing continuity.
  • Use Pull job, not Complete, when you're stepping away from unfinished work. Complete takes the job off the schedule entirely. Pull leaves it as open work for whoever picks it up.
  • Stop the machine before pulling the job it's running. Otherwise APM will match it straight back.
  • When a Suggested match looks wrong, use search. The offered candidates are a filtered set; search reaches every open job.
  • Watch the Part Count tab for pacing. The pace indicator shows whether you're ahead or behind, so you can adjust before the end of the run.

FAQs & Troubleshooting​

  • Where is the Confirm button? There isn't one. Confirmation happens when you submit labor against a job or pick it as a destination. The only prompt you'll see is the verification dialog on a Suggested match.

  • Why is my job showing as Suggested instead of Matched? APM found a likely job but confidence didn't reach the high-confidence threshold. This often happens when several open work orders share the same part operation — the part number matches perfectly, but APM can't tell which order you're running. Verify it when you submit.

  • Can I change the job after it's Confirmed? Yes. Confirmation doesn't lock anything. You can reassign until the ticket is submitted.

  • I submitted a ticket by mistake. Can I undo it? No. Submitted tickets are closed in your ERP and are read-only in ShopPulse. Contact your ERP administrator to make corrections in the ERP.

  • I completed my setup but production didn't start. On a multi-job machine that's expected — Setup-Complete moves the job to Ready for Production and it waits there until you enter Production mode. On a single-job machine production should have started automatically on the same job; if it didn't, check whether the setup ticket actually submitted.

  • My job went to Paused and I didn't do anything. Something interrupted it — most often the machine going into Setup mode, or a setup ticket submitted as Incomplete. The job is still on the machine with its parts intact. Use Resume Setup to pick it back up.

  • A new ticket appeared in my queue that I didn't add. APM added it based on the program running on your machine. Check its state and carry on.

  • The machine is running but ShopPulse says "Waiting for Work." The job that program was running was marked Complete, so APM is on hold until something changes — a different program, a manual job selection, or the machine stopping and restarting. See Auto Production Monitoring (APM).

  • Why does it say "Waiting for Operator"? A job is running but nobody is signed in to the machine. Sign in to pick it up.

  • Can I split a ticket after it's been confirmed? Yes — splitting is available on anything not yet submitted. Once submitted, it isn't. If part of the run has already been submitted, split the individual unsubmitted ticket rather than the whole run.

  • Why is Merge unavailable on my selection? Labor tickets can only be merged when they share the same job, machine, activity, program and operator, and none has been submitted. Merging runs additionally requires that neither run has any submitted tickets.

Need Help?​

Contact your Solutions Delivery Manager or email support@machinemetrics.com.