Paperless tablet automation apparatus and method

A system for use in tracking a plurality of manufacturing related jobs assigned to a plurality of operators and to track approval of the plurality of jobs by at least one supervisor, the system comprising:

• a server computer including a storage device including information related to each of the plurality of jobs each having at least one step, the information for at least a first job assigned to at least a first operator including at least one step description associated with the at least one step of the first job, wherein upon completion of a step of the at least one step, approval of a supervisor is required prior to completion of the first job;
• and
• a plurality of portable computing devices, each of the plurality of portable computing devices being configured to be carried by an operator of the plurality of operators, each of the plurality of portable computing devices having a processor unit, a memory device, a display screen, and an input/output device, the plurality of portable computing devices configured to communicate with the server computer through a network, a first portable computing device of the plurality of portable computing devices being assigned to the first operator and configured to retrieve the at least one step description related to at least the first job from the server computer, the first portable computing device being configured to be carried by the first operator to a location for performing a portion of the at least one step description of the first job, at least one of the portable computing devices further configured to execute an approval routine whereby the supervisor acknowledges approval of the completion of the step of the first job by providing to the at least one of the portable computing devices a unique identifier associated with the supervisor;
• wherein the first portable computing device is further configured to receive step data associated with the first job from the operator and to provide the step data to the server computer, and wherein the first job is the manufacturing of a part and the step data includes a display of a schematic image of the part with dimensional data for the part.