Process traveler template
Fill the route before the part leaves the bench
A process traveler template is the blank you fill once per job: header identity, then a sequence of operations with a station, a spec, and whether inspection holds the work. This page is about filling it, not decorating it.
Lab ops and fab ops use the same skeleton
A machine shop writes mill, tap, inspect. A small lab writes mix, degas, cure, measure. The skeleton does not change: who the job is, what the article is, what happens next, who signs. If your template only works for a mill, it is not a process traveler. It is a mill traveler pretending to be general.
Number steps so you can insert work
Use 10, 20, 30 — not 1, 2, 3. When the first article fails and you add a polish or a re-mix, that becomes 25 without rewriting the packet. Leave the original steps. Strike a skipped step; do not pretend it never existed.
What belongs on each line
- Operation name is a verb a tired tech understands at 22:00.
- Work center is a place: hood 3, HAAS, oven A, CMM. Not “as needed.”
- Spec is the number that step owns. “Per print” is allowed when the print is named and revved in the header.
- Inspection Y means the job sits. N means the operator signs and the tote moves.
- Notes are one sentence: leave stock, record lot, do not chase a tight hole.
The printed layout lives on the shop traveler template. How the packet moves is on what a process traveler is. Print a watermarked sample from the form or a CSV.