Rolling Knurl out at a factory
Factories typically have 100–500 assets and 5–20 maintenance staff. The bottleneck on adoption is usually the asset list, not the software. Knurl's import flow is built for this: upload a CSV, print stickers, your team is scanning by lunch.
Day 1 — Set up & import
- Owner signs up at app.knurl.work/signup.
- Pick the plan: Team for ≤200 assets, Operations for the full toolkit (PM + parts + analytics + vendors + API).
- Export the existing asset list from your current system (Excel, MMS, ERP module). Map columns to:
name,category,location,serial_number,criticality. - Upload the CSV: Assets → Import CSV. Validation runs row-by-row. Fix any rejected rows and re-upload.
Day 2 — Sticker the floor
Print QR labels: Assets → select all → Print queue. Default template prints on standard 50×30mm vinyl. Place where the operator/technician will see them — control panel doors, machine nameplates, junction boxes.
Tip: for cluttered shop floors, print bigger (75×50mm) and stick at eye height. On Portfolio plan and above you can design custom templates.
Day 3 — Invite the team
- Maintenance manager — admin.
- Shift supervisors — manager.
- Mechanics / electricians / instrumentation techs — technician.
- Production supervisors who report breakdowns — manager (so they can both report and triage).
Unlimited users on Team and above. Add everyone — there's no per-seat tax.
End of Week 1 — Reactive work fully in Knurl
By end of Week 1 every breakdown should be a Knurl work order:
- Operator hits the panel → scans the QR → reports the issue with photo.
- Supervisor triages → assigns to the right technician.
- Technician fixes → photo of the repair → marks complete.
- Supervisor reviews and approves.
That's the whole loop. No paper work orders, no WhatsApp groups for tracking who's doing what. Field guide →
Week 2 — Preventive maintenance
Add PM schedules for the critical assets first:
- Production machines — daily/weekly inspections, monthly greasing, quarterly major service.
- Compressors, chillers, dust collectors — quarterly.
- Forklifts, scissor lifts — daily checks (statutory in most countries).
- HVAC, sprinkler, electrical panels — annual.
Two trigger types: time-based and meter-based (runtime hours, cycle counts). Meter-based is the difference between guessing and knowing — bring it in for anything with a counter.
Month 1 — The operations toolkit
- Spare parts inventory. Bring in your storeroom. Stock levels drop automatically when techs consume parts on work orders.
- Vendors and purchase orders. Your OEM service contracts, your local subcons. Raise POs when stock dips below reorder point.
- Reports: MTTR by line / by asset category, planned vs unplanned ratio, reassignment rate. (Operations plan.)
- API + webhooks: if you have an ERP or MES, wire it. API reference (sign in required).
Month 2+ — Advanced layers
- IoT sensors — Enterprise. Push vibration / temperature readings; auto-fire work orders on threshold breach.
- Predictive maintenance — Enterprise. Failure pattern detection scores assets by their reactive history; suggests PM intervals.
- ERP integration — Enterprise. Sync assets, vendors, and WO costs with SAP / Oracle / Dynamics.
What factory teams ask us most
What about machine downtime — do you track that?
Yes. Every WO has a started-at / completed-at timestamp; the difference is the time the asset was unavailable. MTTR and availability are computed automatically; export by line for OEE-style reporting.
Can technicians work offline in the basement / inside a tank?
Yes. Full offline mode. Queues photos and actions; syncs when signal returns. Designed for this exact scenario.
Multi-site factories?
Portfolio (up to 5 sites) or Enterprise (unlimited). Each factory is a facility; cross-site rollup for the corporate maintenance VP, per-site for plant managers.
What about statutory compliance docs?
Photo proof + the append-only event log gives you the audit trail. Export CSVs for safety audits; the full ZIP export works for whole-facility evidence dumps.