Cards: Bullet & Yellow
Eryxon Flow is an MES for high-mix manufacturing. It borrows a couple of ideas from QRM (Quick Response Manufacturing) — mainly its focus on flow — but it does not implement POLCA: there are no card loops and no paired-cell authorization. We keep the few things that help on a busy floor and leave the rest.
One of those things is a pair of cards you can put on a part or job: the Bullet Card and the Yellow Card. That’s the whole set. There is no free-form priority number and no generic “rush” flag.
Bullet Card — priority
Section titled “Bullet Card — priority”A Bullet Card marks a part or job as priority. Today it sorts that part to the top of the parts list and highlights it (a badge, a coloured row) wherever its work appears, so planners and operators can spot it at a glance.
Use it sparingly — its value comes from being rare. If many jobs carry one, the signal stops meaning anything. That’s a guideline for the planner, not a limit the app enforces.
Yellow Card — on hold, frees the slot
Section titled “Yellow Card — on hold, frees the slot”A Yellow Card puts work on hold (waiting on material, an answer, a tool, an inspection). A yellow-carded operation is set aside in the queue and, the part that matters for flow, drops out of the capacity views and the cell’s load count — so parking it frees the slot and other work keeps moving.
Take the card off and the work returns to normal.
How we apply this
Section titled “How we apply this”A few decisions about how the cards work in day-to-day use.
Who applies them. Team leaders (admins) apply and remove the cards — putting a part on top, or parking one is a planning call. The controls live in the admin panels and in the shared-terminal kanban, which is where team leaders work alongside the floor. Operators run the queues and see the cards’ effect. This is the convention, not a hard lock: the app guides, it doesn’t gate.
Taking a Yellow Card off. Removing the card returns the operation to its normal place in the queue. It sorts by its sequence again, the same as before it was parked — it doesn’t jump to the front or drop to the back. The hold simply ends and the work rejoins the flow where it belongs.
How many Bullet Cards. One is ideal, two at most. That’s planner guidance, not a cap the app enforces — the value of the card comes from being rare, and that’s a judgement the planner keeps, not a rule the software imposes.