Power-cut queue board
Keep your fabrication bays productive and safe during power cuts with our printable Power-cut Queue Board. Plan and track work steps, tool use, and safe restarts in every shift.
What the power-cut queue board is and who fills it in
The Power-cut Queue Board is a practical shopfloor tool designed to help fabrication teams keep track of jobs, tool allocation and safety checks during and after a power cut. It is a large, wipeable sheet or sturdy card that hangs in a visible place in each bay or near the main board. The board is filled in by the shift foreman, team leader or bay operator, depending on your workshop routine.
Its main purpose is to prevent confusion and idle time when the lights go off and come back on. By setting down the current job order, tool status, and restart checks, your team avoids missed steps and unsafe restarts. It is most useful for bays with shared welders, grinders or layout tables, and where more than one person rotates through the space each week.
What to fill in and how to use each field
The sheet is simple to use and stays with the bay during shifts. Each field is filled in with a marker, then wiped off when the next cycle starts. Fill in each line as work changes or when power drops. The main fields are:
- Current job or part number
- Operator or team on shift
- Tool in use (welder, grinder, rail, jig, etc)
- Safe stop check (yes/no, e.g. clamps off, leads safe)
- Restart check (earth bond, guards back, PPE on)
- Unfinished steps to flag for restart
- Signature or initials
How to use the board across the month
Teams use the queue board as part of daily work, especially where power cuts, municipal faults or cable-theft outages interrupt jobs mid-step. Each power-down, the team logs the job status and safe shutdown, then restarts tasks in order when power returns.
Supervisors can check boards during toolbox talks, bay audits or handovers to see if safety checks were followed and which tasks need immediate attention. Over the month, keeping the board up to date helps with tracking downtime, planning work queues and proving to auditors that safe restart processes are followed under General Safety Regulation 9. Request the latest printable PDF through our contact form.
Related on the floor
Request the PDF pack from Contact form.
Talk to FabMaster Workshop
Tell us about your bay and we'll come back with a practical kit list, or book a visit to our Sunnyrock fab floor in Germiston.