What Is a Punch Source in Shop Floor Tracking?

A punch source records who or what created a production punch on the shop floor. It takes one of four values: Operator, meaning the operator recorded it at the kiosk; Supervisor, meaning a supervisor keyed it in, usually to fix a missed punch; an import value, meaning it arrived from an external system feed; and an automatic value, meaning the system generated it, such as a punch auto-closed at the end of a shift. The source is the provenance stamp on every recorded state segment, and it tells a reviewer how much to trust each actual and how to audit it.

This entry defines the punch source and shows how it behaves inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of planning terms, see the manufacturing glossary, and for the state segments that each carry a source, read what is a punch type in shop floor tracking.

How it works

Every production punch, a segment of setup, run, idle, or downtime, is created by someone or something, and the punch source captures that origin. It is a small field with a large purpose: it separates firsthand records from reconstructions and from system safety nets, so that later, when a number looks wrong, you know where it came from.

The Operator source is the firsthand case: the operator tapped Start or Stop at the terminal as the work happened. It is the most trustworthy record because it was captured live.

The Supervisor source is a correction. A shift lead keys in a punch the operator missed, or fixes one that was wrong. It is a reconstruction after the fact, and marking it as supervisor-sourced keeps the audit trail clear about who intervened.

The import source marks punches that came from an external system feed rather than the local floor. The automatic source marks punches the system generated on its own, the classic example being an auto-close of an open punch at shift end, so a forgotten stop does not leave a segment running forever.

Because each punch carries its source, a reviewer can scan a job's actuals and immediately see which were captured live, which a supervisor corrected, which were imported, and which the system filled in, and treat each accordingly.

A concrete example

An operator starts a run on a machine and taps Start at the kiosk. That punch carries an Operator source: a live, firsthand record of when the run began. During the shift the machine breaks down and the operator logs a downtime punch, also Operator-sourced, with a reason code explaining the stoppage.

At the end of the shift the operator forgets to tap Stop and goes home. To keep the open run from recording forever, the system auto-closes it at the shift boundary and stamps the close-out with an automatic source. The next morning the supervisor sees the system-sourced close and knows to check it. The run actually stopped fifteen minutes before shift end, so the supervisor adjusts the end time; the correction carries a Supervisor source and a record of the change. Reading the sources back, anyone can reconstruct exactly how each number came to be.

How EDGEBIC uses it

EDGEBIC stamps a source on every production punch: Operator for kiosk-recorded segments, Supervisor for supervisor-entered ones, an import value for external feeds, and an automatic value for system-generated punches such as an end-of-shift auto-close. The source travels with the punch, so the actuals a job accumulates carry their provenance rather than arriving as anonymous numbers.

That provenance underpins accountability on the floor. Supervisor corrections are visible as such, alongside the adjustment record that captures the old value, the new value, and the reason, so a review can see not just what a number is but how it got there. System auto-closes are flagged so they can be verified rather than trusted blindly, and imported punches are distinguishable from locally captured ones.

Because the schedule treats recorded actuals as immutable once captured, knowing their source is part of trusting the plan built around them. A record captured live by the operator anchors the schedule with more confidence than one the system filled in at midnight, and the source stamp is what lets a planner tell the difference. To see the segment types that each carry a source, read what is a punch type in shop floor tracking. For the terminal where operators create these punches, see what is a shop floor kiosk. For the labels on each entry in an operation's actuals history, read what is a logging history event type. And for the cause codes that ride alongside a pause, read what is a reason code in production tracking.