Colored Shipping Magnets: Show Pulled, Picked, Waiting, No Material, and Credit Hold Jobs

What is a Colored Shipping Magnets?

Why it works

The magnets convert job status from private knowledge into a shared, reusable signal for shipping decisions.

• Knowledge reuse: Production control and shipping can read the same board instead of re-asking where each job stands.
• Added value: The shipping scheduler can plan around real job conditions, including ready work and blocked work.
• Mistake-proofing: Standard color meanings reduce the chance of treating a held, waiting, or no-material job as ready.
• Better handoff: Status carries forward from production scheduling into shipping planning without relying only on memory or conversation.

Evidence: The transcript says the production control manager schedules jobs and passes them to the shipping scheduler, each magnet refers to a different job in shipping, and the colors have meanings, including yellow for pulled and green for picked.

How to create this idea

1. 1
   List decision statuses

   Write the shipping statuses that change what people should do. Use pulled, picked, no material, waiting, and credit hold if those match your process.

2. 2
   Assign one color

   Give each status one color and do not reuse that color for another meaning. Keep the color list short enough to remember.

3. 3
   Make job magnets

   Create one magnet for each shipping job. Put enough job identification on the magnet so the scheduler knows which order or job it represents.

4. 4
   Post the legend

   Put the color key directly on the production board. A person should be able to understand the board without asking another person what a color means.

5. 5
   Update at handoffs

   Change the magnet when production control hands the job to shipping and whenever the job becomes pulled, picked, waiting, short material, or credit hold.

6. 6
   Use it for planning

   Review the board during shipping scheduling. Treat unclear colors or stale magnets as defects in the status system.