In many manufacturing support operations, there is a "hidden tax" on every hour worked. It’s the time spent manually routing emails, re-typing defect data into spreadsheets, and chasing down team members for status updates.
When your support team is buried in legacy processes, they aren't just slow—they are prone to errors that lead to scrapped materials, missed shipments, and frustrated customers. Manufacturing support automation is the key to reclaiming that time and focusing your human talent on high-value problem solving.
Automation isn't just about "sending an email." For manufacturers, it’s about ensuring the right data reaches the right person at the precise moment it’s needed.
Instead of a manager spending an hour every morning "triaging" a shared inbox, Issuetrak’s assignment engine uses pre-set logic to do the heavy lifting.
The Automation: If a ticket is tagged with "Line 4" and "Mechanical Failure," it is automatically routed to the lead technician for that specific line. This removes the manual handoff and gets the right eyes on the problem instantly.
While strict regulatory compliance is a different beast, every manufacturer has Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Automation ensures these steps aren't skipped.
The Automation: When a specific issue type is logged (e.g., "Equipment Maintenance"), Issuetrak can automatically generate a checklist of sub-tasks. The ticket cannot be closed until every internal check—such as safety verification or supervisor sign-off—is completed.
Manual follow-up is the ultimate productivity killer. Issuetrak uses "Business Rules" to monitor your data 24/7 so your managers don't have to.
The Automation: If a high priority "Shipping Discrepancy" hasn't been acknowledged within 4 hours, the system automatically notifies the Department Head. This moves the burden of "checking in" from the human to the software.
As a global leader in medical technology, Stryker manages a massive volume of internal and operational requests - and encountered all the setbacks that come with manual overhead.
Quality Distribution, a major asset-based storage and delivery business, previously managed quality control and shipping issues across 8 to 9 different spreadsheets. This manual system offered zero visibility and required constant manual updates.
The Result: By implementing Issuetrak, they replaced those disconnected spreadsheets with a centralized, automated system. They achieved immediate accountability through automated issue assignments and established a scalable process that grows with their business.
Transitioning away from manual work doesn't have to happen overnight. Most successful manufacturing teams follow this 3-step automation roadmap:
Automate Intake: Replace "Support@" emails with a structured web form to capture required data (like SKU or Batch ID) from the start.
Automate Routing: Identify your three most common issue types and set up auto-assignment rules for them.
Automate Reporting: Set up a weekly "Trend Report" to be emailed to stakeholders automatically, eliminating the need to manually compile data for Friday meetings.
Every minute your team spends on manual data entry is a minute lost to improving your operational output. Upgrading to a modern manufacturing support software isn't just a technical change—it’s a financial one.
Ready to see how much manual work you can eliminate?
Download our resource: The Modern Support Checklist to audit your current manual bottlenecks.
See it in action: Schedule a 15-minute demo and we’ll show you how to build a sample automated workflow tailored to your team.