How to Manage Shift Handovers in Additive Manufacturing
A reliable additive manufacturing shift handover gives the incoming team an accurate account of active work, unresolved issues and the actions they now own. Prepare the job records before the shift ends, review outstanding items together and let the incoming operator check the information against current conditions before taking responsibility.
That sounds straightforward until a build runs through the night, several parts leave the same machine for different operations, or an inspection question remains unanswered when the day shift goes home. “The printer is running” tells the next operator very little about those situations.
The handover needs enough detail for someone else to continue the work without reconstructing the previous shift from messages, paperwork and memory. This guide explains what to include, how to conduct the exchange and how to keep the record useful as production moves on.
Why AM shift handovers need more than machine status
Machine status is one part of production status. A printer may be running normally while a different job waits for an inspection result, a material decision or clarification about its next operation. Equally, a completed build may still require cooling, removal, post-processing and checks under the applicable procedures.
AM also creates relationships that a general shift summary can miss. One build can contain parts for several orders. Those parts may subsequently follow different routes, with different inspection requirements and delivery dates. A single note against the machine cannot describe every outstanding action.
The useful unit of a handover is therefore the work someone is taking over: a build, job, part, process step or unresolved issue. Machine information belongs alongside that work, with enough detail to establish what the next operator needs to do.
This fits the broader relationship between information and execution described in Data, Software and Workflow in Additive Manufacturing: A Practical Guide. For a handover, the immediate concern is whether the incoming person can understand the current situation and continue under the appropriate controls.
What the incoming shift needs to know
Start with the jobs and activities that remain active. Identify the relevant build, order or part, its location and its current production stage. Include when the information was last checked, especially where a dashboard, written note and physical situation could differ.
Then describe anything that changes what the next shift can do. That might include an outstanding inspection, an equipment restriction, a material shortage or a recorded quality hold. Give the reference to the controlled record so the operator can check its scope and current status.
Observations need careful wording. Record what was seen, when it happened and which job it concerns. If nobody has established the cause, leave that clear rather than passing an assumption to the next shift as a confirmed diagnosis.
For each unresolved item, identify the next action and responsible person or duty role. Where timing matters, include the agreed review time or trigger. “Quality knows about it” leaves more room for uncertainty than a named contact, the relevant record and a clear follow-up action.
Keep this information connected to the applicable instructions. The handover should point to the approved procedure for the work being performed; copying instructions into a separate shift log creates another document to maintain.
How to prepare, conduct and verify a handover
The Health and Safety Executive's shift-handover guidance describes three elements: preparation by outgoing personnel, an exchange between outgoing and incoming personnel, and cross-checking by those assuming responsibility. It recommends face-to-face, two-way communication supported by verbal and written information.
Apply those principles to the AM work in progress, using the site's established procedures and allowing time for questions.
Prepare the production record
Update completed activities and outstanding issues during the shift, while the details are available. Before handing over, check that the active job records reflect the current situation and that linked documents or issue references are accessible to the incoming team.
Put particular attention on exceptions. Routine progress already recorded in the system may need little discussion. An unresolved observation, conflicting status or activity interrupted halfway through deserves an explicit review.
Review the outstanding work together
Use the record to guide the conversation. Explain what remains open, what the next action depends on and who is expected to follow up. Review physical work locations where this helps establish which parts, containers or equipment the record describes.
The incoming operator should have the opportunity to question unclear wording and confirm their understanding. A signature or checkbox is weak evidence of a useful exchange if the person still cannot explain what they are taking over.
Cross-check before continuing
Compare the handover with current job information and conditions. If a job is described as ready for inspection but the parts are still awaiting another operation, resolve that discrepancy through the appropriate process.
Record who accepted responsibility and any questions that remain open. A handover can transfer responsibility for following up an unresolved issue, but it does not itself authorise a process change, equipment restart or release from a quality hold.
An additive manufacturing shift-handover checklist
Use this table as a starting point and adapt it to your processes. It is an editorial checklist, not an official HSE form or a substitute for controlled operating procedures. Repeat the relevant entries for each active job or unresolved item.
Handover item | Information to include |
Work reference | Build, job, order or part identifier; machine or work location where relevant. |
Current stage | Operation in progress or completed; time the status was checked. |
Equipment and work restrictions | Relevant recorded faults, maintenance status or restrictions, with their references. |
Quality and material status | Applicable holds, pending results or material constraints; reference to the governing record. |
Observations | What was observed, when and where; supporting evidence and any unresolved interpretation. |
Next action | The specific check, task or follow-up needed, including dependencies. |
Responsibility and timing | Named person or duty role; agreed deadline, review time or event trigger. |
Incoming review | Who reviewed the information, when, and any discrepancy requiring follow-up. |
Keep the checklist brief enough to use consistently. Link to existing records for detail rather than copying every machine log, certificate and instruction into it. The handover should make important information easier to find without creating a competing production history.
Two examples of handovers across AM production
The following scenarios are illustrative, rather than customer case studies.
A build continues into the next shift
A metal AM build is still running at the end of the day shift. Earlier, an operator recorded an unusual machine message and raised it for review under the site's procedure. No conclusion has yet been recorded.
A note saying “build running; message checked” could imply that the matter is closed. The handover should instead identify the build and message, link to the observation and explain the outstanding review. It should also make the current authorised operating status clear through the applicable records.
The incoming operator then knows what has been established, what remains uncertain and whom to contact. Any response to another message follows the approved procedure; the handover does not invent a new instruction for dealing with it.
Parts from one build await different operations
A polymer build contains parts for two customer orders. After removal and the required cleaning steps, one group awaits dimensional inspection. The second group requires a finishing operation before inspection.
Recording the entire build as “complete” obscures those different routes. The handover should identify each group, its location, completed operations and next step. If the finishing work cannot begin until a query is resolved, that dependency also needs an owner.
This is where part and job information becomes more useful than a machine summary. The incoming team can organise the next activities without assuming that every component from the build has reached the same stage.
How connected workflow records support the handover
A shared log can support a small operation if people maintain it consistently and connect entries to the right work. As jobs and process steps multiply, the team needs a dependable way to find status, observations and outstanding actions without searching several places.
Workflow software can help by keeping production information associated with the activity it describes. Authentise FlowsAM brings production tracking, machine visibility, part-level quality capture and reporting into a connected workflow platform. These capabilities can provide information for a handover, alongside the team's agreed communication process.
The practical Authentise perspective is to connect the handover to the work already being managed. An operator should be able to move from a handover item to the relevant job and its supporting evidence. That relationship matters more than producing an elaborate shift report that becomes outdated as soon as production moves on.
The conversation still has a role. A dashboard can show recorded status, but people need to discuss ambiguity, confirm responsibility and recognise when the information does not match what they find.
How to check whether your handover process is working
Review a few recent handovers with the operators who used them. Ask whether they could find the correct work, identify outstanding actions and establish who owned the follow-up. Look for repeated clarification requests, stale entries and tasks that remained open because responsibility was unclear.
Measure those problems consistently before and after changing the process. Useful local measures might include unresolved items without an owner, discrepancies found by the incoming shift and time spent locating referenced information. Agree definitions so the results reflect the process rather than different reporting habits.
Start with the next shift change. Choose one active build and one job awaiting a downstream operation, and test whether the checklist gives the incoming team enough information to take over. Refine it with their feedback. If the difficulty is finding production information across separate records, explore Authentise FlowsAM to see how connected workflows can support that exchange.
