Every Monday morning, someone in your factory builds the weekly production report from a blank Excel sheet. They pull ERP numbers and guess whether the overdue CAPA or the aging WIP job belongs in it. Two hours later, nobody's sure the report says what it should.

What you need is to know which 12 numbers matter and track them in the same format every week. This checklist lists them.

Section 1: Production performance

Data Point 1

Output vs Target

Planned output vs actual output vs variance. If negative, give a one-sentence reason. A CNC shop that planned 3,200 parts and shipped 2,850 needs to say why (M/C 04 down 14 hours) before the customer asks.

Data Point 2

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)

OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality. World-class benchmark: 85%. It tells you whether the loss is a machine, speed, or quality problem.

Data Point 3

Downtime: Planned vs Unplanned

Planned downtime vs unplanned, top cause, and whether a downtime report was raised. Unplanned downtime above 5% of planned time is a warning sign.

Section 2: Quality metrics

Data Point 4

Rejection Rate

Total parts made, rejected internally, and customer returns, tracked separately. Target: zero customer complaints a week.

Data Point 5

NCR Count and Status

NCRs opened, closed, open, and overdue. Anything past 14 days almost always becomes a customer escalation.

Data Point 6

CAPA Status

CAPAs open, due this week, and verified effective. "Implemented but not verified" still counts as open.

Section 3: Inventory & WIP

Data Point 7

WIP Carry-Forward

Jobs in progress, and which ones are aging past 7 days. WIP stuck over 10 days usually hides a bottleneck.

Data Point 8

Material Shortages

Jobs on hold for missing material, and expected arrival. If this section is never empty, look at your PO lead time.

Data Point 9

Aging Jobs

Jobs stuck on the floor past your threshold, the reason, and who's acting on it by when.

Section 4: People & capacity

Data Point 10

Headcount vs Required

Required headcount vs actual, and any critical skill gaps (e.g. only one operator certified for M/C 09).

Data Point 11

Overtime This Week

OT hours worked and where. Recurring OT on the same machine is a capacity problem, not a workload spike.

Data Point 12

Upcoming Leave

Planned leave next week, flagged for any critical operator, with a backup plan confirmed.

Section 5: Forward look

Delivery commitments at risk, planned maintenance or tooling changes, new jobs needing FAI, and any machine at risk of unplanned downtime. Raise these now, before they hit the customer.

The AI prompt

Paste your filled checklist into this prompt. It generates a 150 to 200 word executive summary in 30 seconds. You still review it and own the numbers.

AI Prompt: Weekly Production Narrative
You are a production reporting specialist for a contract manufacturing company. Write a clear, professional weekly production summary based on the data below. Format: - 3 paragraphs: Performance | Risks & Issues | Next Week Outlook - Each paragraph: max 4 sentences - Tone: direct and factual. No corporate fluff. - Highlight any metric that is below target or overdue - Do not add data that is not in my input Data: [PASTE YOUR FILLED CHECKLIST DATA HERE]

Run this every Friday. By week four it takes under 30 minutes, and your reports will read better than most of what your management has seen.

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