By process
Factory Management Software for the People Answerable for the Plant
A plant head is asked one question in several forms: is the factory doing what it said it would, and if not, where. Answering it today means assembling information from six people. It should mean opening one screen.
Who this is for
- Plant heads and factory managers running daily operations across departments
- Owners with more than one unit and no comparable view across them
- Factories where production, maintenance and quality data live separately
- Plants where problems are escalated in the morning meeting rather than when they occur
The problem
What a plant head cannot currently see
- 01
Today, while today can still be changed
Output, downtime and rejections are known tomorrow. Every correction is therefore applied a day late, to a situation that has already moved.
- 02
The real reason a line is behind
Behind plan is visible. Behind because of material, or manpower, or a machine, or a pending quality decision is not — and those need four different responses.
- 03
Where material and jobs are stalled
Ageing WIP sits between stages without anyone owning it. It is usually the single largest recoverable delay in a plant.
- 04
Maintenance against production
Breakdowns and preventive maintenance are recorded separately from output, so the cost of deferred maintenance never appears next to the production it affected.
- 05
Manpower against output
Attendance and deployment are tracked for payroll rather than for productivity, so output per shift and per line cannot be compared fairly.
- 06
One unit against another
With separate registers per plant, comparing units is a manual exercise — and without comparability, best practice does not travel.
How the system works
What a plant-level system brings together
Production against plan, by line and shift
Recorded on the floor as it happens, with reason codes on shortfalls so the number arrives with its explanation.
Material position and shortages
Stock, reservations, shortages against released orders and material lying with processors — in the same view as production.
Manpower and deployment
Who was present, where they were deployed, and output per shift and line, so productivity comparisons are fair.
Maintenance, breakdown and downtime
Preventive schedules, breakdown history and downtime by cause, placed next to the production those events affected.
Quality and rejection control
In-process and final inspection, rejection and rework rates by line, machine and operator, with dispatch gated on clearance.
Dispatch and delivery commitments
What is ready, what is committed this week, and which commitments are genuinely at risk.
Exception alerts instead of reports
Conditions that warrant attention — a line under plan, a stalled job, an overdue approval, a machine repeatedly stopping — pushed when they happen.
Automation
What stops being somebody's job
When this happens
The system does this
A line falls below plan by a set margin
The plant head is alerted within the shift
A job sits at a stage beyond its threshold
It appears on the stalled-work list with an owner
A machine crosses its downtime threshold
Maintenance is notified and the pattern is flagged
Preventive maintenance falls due
It is raised, assigned and escalated if skipped
Rejection rate exceeds its limit
Quality and production are notified together
A committed dispatch date becomes at risk
Sales is told before the customer notices
None of these need a person to remember them. That is the whole point.
Management visibility
What management can see once this runs
- Today's output against plan, by line, shift and machine
- Downtime ranked by cause, with repeat offenders identified
- Ageing WIP and stalled jobs, with owners
- Material shortages against released production orders
- Rejection and rework by line, machine and operator
- Manpower deployed against output per shift
- Commitments at risk this week, with the reason
- Unit-to-unit comparison on identical definitions
In practice
Situations this is usually bought for
A morning meeting that starts from facts
Yesterday's output, downtime causes, rejections and stalled jobs are already on screen, so the meeting is spent on decisions.
Acting within the shift
An alert when a line drifts below plan, while the shift can still recover, rather than a report the next day.
Deferred maintenance made visible
Skipped preventive maintenance sits next to the downtime and rejection it later caused, which changes how the next deferral gets decided.
Comparing two plants fairly
Identical metric definitions at both units, so a genuine difference in performance is distinguishable from a difference in counting.
Before / after
What changes
Before
After
Yesterday's plant performance, tomorrow
Today's performance, today
Behind plan, reason unknown
Behind plan, with the cause attached
Maintenance and production reported separately
Downtime placed against the output it cost
Units compared by hand
Units compared on one definition
How it works
From operational chaos to a connected business system
- 01
Understand
We sit with each department and learn the process as it is actually run — including the workarounds, the informal exceptions and the things people do because the official way does not work. This is where most of the value of the project is decided.
You getA written map of your current processes, departments and bottlenecks
1–2 weeks
- 02
Map
We trace how information moves between people, departments and systems: where it is created, where it is re-entered, where it is lost, and where a decision waits on something nobody can see. The re-entry points are almost always the expensive ones.
You getAn information flow map, with every handoff and duplication marked
1–2 weeks
- 03
Design
We design the target workflow — owners, rules, gates, automations and the screens each role needs — and agree it with the people who will live in it. We also agree what we are deliberately not building yet, and say so plainly.
You getA workflow design, screen list and phased build plan with scope you have signed off
2–3 weeks
- 04
Build
We build in phases, so one department is genuinely using something early rather than waiting for a full system. Each phase is delivered, tested with real data and put into use before the next begins — which is also how the awkward details get found while they are still cheap.
You getWorking software in real use, phase by phase, with integrations and reports
Phased, typically 4–12 weeks per phase
- 05
Optimize
After go-live we look at what is actually being used, which alerts are being acted on and which are being ignored, where people are still keeping a parallel sheet, and what the data now reveals that nobody could see before. Then we improve it.
You getUsage review, workflow refinements, new reports and ongoing support
Ongoing
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Still unsure whether your processes are a fit? Walk us through one of them.
Book an Operations Automation ConsultationIs this different from an ERP?
In focus, yes. An ERP is organised around transactions and the ledger. Factory management software is organised around the plant's operating day — output, material, manpower, maintenance, quality and commitments. In most companies it sits alongside the ERP and feeds it, rather than replacing it.
Can it cover more than one plant?
Yes, and that is often the reason it gets built. Each unit operates independently while management reads one comparable picture, with the same metric definitions applied everywhere so differences are real.
Do we need to include maintenance and manpower from the start?
No, and usually you should not. Production and material first, because they carry the most value and prove the approach. Maintenance and manpower are natural second-phase additions once the floor is reliably recording work.
How do alerts avoid becoming noise?
By having thresholds, owners and an off switch. An alert that fires constantly gets ignored, so we tune thresholds with you after go-live and review which alerts are actually being acted on. An alert nobody acts on should be deleted, not tolerated.
Will this tell us our cost per unit?
It will give you the operational basis for it — job-wise consumption, yield, rejection, downtime and manpower. Full costing also needs overhead allocation rules from your finance team, which we build to your definitions rather than assuming a standard method.
Keep reading
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Next step
Your business has a process. Let's turn it into a system.
From manual workflows and disconnected departments to connected operations, automated processes and real-time visibility.