How to set up barcode WIP tracking in a small manufacturing shop

Barcode WIP tracking sounds like an ERP project, but in a small manufacturing shop it can start with a very basic workflow. I worked in a place where jobs moved from cutting to welding to paint to packout on paper travelers. The paper was fine until a traveler got dirty, sat on the wrong cart, or someone forgot to write the time. Then the office had to walk the floor asking where the job really w…