Abstract: A system for monitoring production operations includes an operator box located at a workstation and having a plurality of manual input devices configured for manual activation by an operator, a corresponding plurality of status indicators, each status indicator being configured to provide an indication of the operational status of the workstation, and a communications port configured to facilitate communication between the operator box and a network. The system also includes a computing device coupled to network to receive data from a machine controller coupled to the network and data from the operator box, and to store that data in a database of records reflecting historical performance of the system.