--- title: "Shop Floor Display Software for CNC Shops | Real-Time TV Dashboard - OpenSpindle" description: "Put a live production board on every screen in your shop. OpenSpindle Shop Floor Display gives your crew real-time job status, run progress, and machine assignments on any TV or monitor." canonical: https://openspindle.com/features/shop-floor-display --- # Put the Whole Shop on One Screen Live job status, production runs, and machine assignments. Visible to everyone on the floor, updated in real time on any TV or monitor. ## Why Flying Blind on Your Floor Costs You Shops without a live floor display waste hours every week on status updates, miss handoffs between stations, and make decisions without the full picture. - **Status chasing eats hours every day:** Floor crews rely on verbal check-ins, morning meetings, or tracking down the manager to know what they should work on next. - **Timecard kiosks burn production time:** Workers waste paid minutes lining up at a shared kiosk to punch in and out for breaks, lunch, and end of shift. - **Clipboards and travelers slow every handoff:** Jobs pass between stages on paper travelers. The next station only finds out a job is ready when the paper shows up. - **No one has the full picture:** Managers leave their desk to check floor status. There is no single view of what is actually happening across the whole operation. "I bought a 65-inch TV for the shop thinking I'd put something useful on it. It showed a slideshow of the company logo for two years." -- Owner, 10-person fabrication shop ## Shop Floor Display in 30 Seconds From any browser to any screen, the whole shop is one view away. 1. **Connect any screen:** Open the display in any browser on any TV, monitor, tablet, or laptop in the shop. No proprietary hardware required. 2. **Choose your view:** Grid view shows job cards by machine or station. List view shows a prioritized queue. Configure what fields and stages are visible per screen. 3. **Status updates in real time:** As jobs move through production run stages, the display updates automatically. No manual refresh. 4. **Floor crew signals from the display:** Workers can mark a job as paused, flag a material problem, or signal stage completion directly from the display without leaving their station. ## What This Gets You - **Every worker knows what is next without asking:** The display is the floor's single source of truth. Priorities, stages, and assignments are always visible. - **Handoffs between stations happen on their own:** When one stage completes, the next station sees it immediately on their screen. Work stops sitting unnoticed between steps. - **Bottlenecks have a name and a face:** When work stalls, everyone in the shop can see where and with whom. - **Managers see the whole floor from anywhere:** The same display works on a phone, a laptop in the office, or a 65-inch TV on the floor. ## Everything Included Core functions and shop workflows, purpose-built for CNC and fabrication floor visibility. - **TV grid view:** Full-screen display showing jobs grouped by machine, station, or stage with color-coded status and live progress. - **Live status sync:** Job and run status updates appear on the display the moment they change in the system. No polling, no refresh. - **Multi-screen support:** Run different display configurations on different screens around the shop simultaneously. - **Custom display layouts:** Choose which fields, stages, and columns are visible on each screen. - **Worker interaction:** Floor crew can update job status, log a pause, and signal stage completions directly from the display. **Shop workflows covered:** - Machine-centered display: One screen per machine showing only the jobs queued for that router, saw, or finishing station. - Manager overview display: A single screen at the front of the shop showing all active jobs across all stations at once. - Worker queue at a station: A tablet or small monitor at a workstation shows the worker exactly what is next in their queue. ## Works With Shop Floor Display connects seamlessly to the rest of your OpenSpindle workflow. - [Production Runs](https://openspindle.com/features/production-runs.md): The display draws its live data directly from active production runs and updates as stage status changes. - [Team Management](https://openspindle.com/features/team.md): Assign workers to stations and their queue appears on the relevant display automatically. - [Scheduling](https://openspindle.com/features/scheduling.md): The scheduled job order feeds into the display so the floor sees work in the same priority the schedule set. ## Ready to Give Your Floor Crew a Live View? Join shops using OpenSpindle to run a floor where everyone knows what's happening without asking. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What hardware do I need for the OpenSpindle shop floor display? Any screen with a browser. A standard TV connected to a laptop, Chromebook, Amazon Fire Stick, or a smart TV browser all work. OpenSpindle does not require proprietary hardware, special software installation, or a license per screen. If it can open a browser and connect to the internet, it can run the shop floor display. ### Can I run different displays on different screens around the shop? Yes. You can configure multiple display views and run each on a different screen simultaneously. One screen might show the CNC router queue, another shows the finishing station backlog, and a third gives the manager a full-shop overview. Each screen shows only what that station or role needs to see. ### Do floor workers need a full OpenSpindle account to interact with the display? Workers are set up as team members in OpenSpindle and access their station view from there. The level of access depends on whether they are only viewing status or also updating job progress and logging completions. Operator accounts are quick to create and do not require email addresses or self-registration. ### How does the shop floor display update when job status changes? Status updates are pushed in real time the moment an operator takes an action on a tablet or the system registers a stage change. There is no manual refresh, no polling delay, and no separate step to publish the update. The board on the wall reflects reality within seconds of anything changing on the floor. ### Can workers signal problems or pause a job directly from the floor display? Yes. Floor crew can mark a job as paused, flag a material problem, log a machine issue, or signal stage completion directly from the display without leaving their station or finding a manager. Each action timestamps and records who made it, creating a live log of what happened and when across the shift. ### What is the difference between the shop floor display and the production runs display? Production runs is the system that tracks part counts and operation stages for batch work. The shop floor display is the visual layer that puts that data, along with project jobs, machine assignments, and priorities, on a screen in a format your crew can read at a glance from across the shop. They work together: the runs module drives the data, the floor display surfaces it. ### How does the shop floor display help reduce morning meeting time? When every worker can see their queue, the current priorities, and active job status on a screen at their station, the morning meeting becomes optional rather than required. Most shops using the display find that start-of-shift coordination happens in under five minutes or stops being a formal meeting at all because the board already communicates what used to be said verbally. ### Can a manager view the shop floor display remotely? Yes. The same display that runs on a shop TV also works on a manager's phone, laptop in the office, or any other connected device. You can check real-time floor status from anywhere without calling the shop or walking the floor. For owners who travel between job sites or work remotely, this provides continuous visibility without requiring someone to relay updates. ### How does the floor display improve handoffs between stations? When one operation stage completes, the next station sees it appear in their queue on the display immediately. Work stops sitting unnoticed between steps waiting for someone to walk over with a paper traveler or shout across the floor. The time between one station finishing and the next one starting drops because the handoff happens automatically through the display. ### How long does it take to set up the shop floor display? Most shops have the first display running on a TV the same day they set up their account. You open the display URL in any browser, connect it to your shop's active runs or project queue, and point the screen at the wall. Configuring what each screen shows, such as which machines or stages are visible, takes a few minutes per display. No IT involvement is required.