Lay Out Your Shop Floor
The board tells you what is happening in each bay. The shop floor tells you where — a drawing of your actual building, with each bay in the place it really stands, colouring itself as the day runs.
You draw it once. After that it is a live view anyone can read, including from across the workshop on a screen on the wall.
Who can do this: anyone who can add or edit bays — Location Managers, Org Admins and Account Owners. Everyone can view it.
The layout is a picture, not a plan. Moving a bay on the drawing changes where it appears, never what work goes to it. That is still the bay’s role, capabilities and equipment.
Drawing the layout
Open the Bays screen and choose Set up shop floor
Once a layout exists the same button reads Edit shop floor.
Pick a zone on the left
Your bays are listed grouped by zone, with a count of how many are placed. A zone you have not started shows Not placed yet.
Drag a bay onto the grid
Each bay takes two squares — the length of a car. Drag a single bay by its chip, or drag a whole zone by its name to place the group in one movement and keep its shape.
While dragging, a green outline means it fits and a red one means it does not. Press R to rotate before you drop.
Set which way the car drives in
Each placed bay carries a small wedge on one edge. That is the entry side. R cycles it through all four directions, so a bay entered from the alley reads differently from one entered from the forecourt.
Add more floors if you need them
Use Add a new, empty floor for a basement, a mezzanine or a separate building. Rename a floor by clicking its tab, and duplicate one when two floors are laid out alike.
Choose Save layout
A bay stands on exactly one floor. If you place a bay that is already on another floor, it moves rather than appearing twice — the drawing can never show the same bay in two places.
If you would rather not drag
Every placement can be done without a mouse. Press the hand button beside a bay or zone, and the outline appears in the middle of the grid. The arrow keys move it, R rotates it, Enter puts it down and Esc cancels.
Making room
If a bay will not fit where you want it but a small shuffle would clear the space, BayWise offers the shuffle rather than refusing: Move Bay 4, Bay 5? Accept and they slide over; decline and nothing moves.
If there is genuinely no room, it says so — No room there — try another spot — and nothing is disturbed.
Reading the floor live
On the board, the view control offers Shop floor alongside Cards, Bays and Techs. It draws the same footprint you laid out and colours every bay by what is happening in it right now.
| Colour | Means |
|---|---|
| Green | Vacant — nothing in the bay |
| Amber | Occupied — a car is in there and the work is on track |
| Red | Running late — a car is in there and the work has overrun its promise |
| Grey, crossed through | Out of service — under maintenance or switched off |
A small car sits on every occupied bay, so occupancy reads from a distance even if the colour does not.
The floor refreshes on the same rhythm as the rest of the board, and only while you are looking at it.
Putting it on a wall
Choose Full screen and the layout fills the display, sized to fit without scrolling. With more than one floor it cycles through them automatically, roughly every thirty seconds, showing which floor is up and how long until the next.
This is what makes it worth drawing: a screen in the service reception showing the real building, where the red bays are, and which bays are free.
When bays change
The drawing holds positions and nothing else, so it keeps up on its own.
| What you change | What happens to the layout |
|---|---|
| Rename a bay | The new name appears; position unchanged |
| Change what a bay does, so it lands in another zone | It regroups under the new zone; position unchanged |
| Take a bay out of service | It turns grey and crossed through |
| Delete a bay | It disappears from the drawing. Every other bay stays exactly where it was |
| Add a bay | Its card on the Bays screen is marked Not on the shop floor until you place it |
Common questions
Do I have to draw a layout? No. Everything else about the board works without one, and the Shop floor view simply tells you none has been drawn yet.
Does it have to be accurate? It should be roughly true to the building — that is the whole value. It does not need to be a surveyor’s drawing.
Does the layout affect scheduling? No. It changes nothing about which bay gets which car.
Can two people edit it at once? They can, but the last person to save wins and the other’s changes are lost. Treat it as a setup task one person does, not something edited during a busy morning.
What if I delete a floor by mistake? You are asked to confirm first. Once saved it is gone, and the bays that were on it go back to being unplaced — nothing about the bays themselves is lost.
Can a bay sit on two floors? No. One bay, one place.