Tips for Using Tablets in the Shop, Part One [Tekla Blog]

By Ricky Horton

Electronic drawings are not new, nor are tablets. However, many fabricators are hesitant to integrate them into the shop.

How many of you have ever experienced this scenario? It’s a cold winter day. You just got into work, haven’t had enough coffee yet, and you sit down at your computer. Sure enough, you received an email overnight concerning revised drawings! Panic sets in and questions start to fly through your mind. “Are those drawings in the shop?” “Are we fabricating yet?” “How many copies of those drawings are in the shop?” Wouldn’t you know it, they are in the shop already.

The lack of coffee prevents your brain from processing fast enough, but the plan begins to formulate. A quick call to the shop supervisor sends him on a mad dash to find all the drawings in the shop. Next, print the revised drawings. Of course, you always have trouble printing when you are in a hurry. And does it seem like it is printing slower today? Finally, we get our drawings.

We head to the shop where we join up with the shop supervisor who is trying to locate the last drawing. It isn’t at the worktable where the piece is being fabricated. Did it blow off under a rack somewhere? After tearing the shop apart, it is finally located in the fabricator’s toolbox (who happened to be out sick that day). All the drawings are finally replaced, and you get to go back and get another injection of coffee!

Sound familiar? This is a scenario played out in fabrication shops around the world and is one of the reasons fabricators move to implement tablets into their processes.

Read on for several considerations when thinking about the implementation of tablets.  (On the Tekla Blog)

• Learn more about Tekla solutions for fabricators.