Solution 03
Manufacturing Software Built From the Shop Floor Upwards
A factory does not lose control in the office. It loses control between the plan and the line, between the line and the store, and between what was produced and what was recorded. We build manufacturing systems that close those gaps where they actually open.
Who this is for
- Factories planning production in Excel and recording output on paper
- Plants where the daily production report is compiled the following morning
- Manufacturers who cannot state today's WIP without asking each department
- Companies with job work, multi-stage processing or lot-level traceability needs
The problem
The gaps that cost a plant its visibility
- 01
The plan and the floor diverge quietly
A plan is issued on Monday. By Wednesday the sequence has changed for good operational reasons, and nobody has updated the plan. Everything downstream — material, dispatch commitments, customer promises — is now working from fiction.
- 02
Production is recorded after the fact
Output is written on a sheet and entered the next day. For a full shift, nobody can answer what was produced, so decisions get made on recollection.
- 03
Consumption is a monthly calculation
Material issued is known in total but not per job, so actual consumption against standard is a month-end exercise. By the time a yield problem shows up in a report, it has been running for weeks.
- 04
Rejections have no route
Rejected material is set aside physically but not systemically. It sits as stock, gets counted, sometimes gets used, and the true rejection rate is never known.
- 05
Traceability is a manual reconstruction
A customer complaint about a specific delivery starts a search through registers and files. It takes days, and the answer is an argument rather than a record.
How the system works
What we build for a manufacturing operation
Production planning that stays current
A plan that can be re-sequenced by the people who actually re-sequence it, with the downstream effects on material and commitments recalculated rather than ignored.
Work orders and job cards for the line
Shop-floor screens designed for a shared tablet: what to run, on which machine, how much, and a way to record output and downtime in seconds rather than minutes.
Material issue against a job
Issues booked to a specific job or work order, so consumption, yield and loss are known per job, per shift, per machine — as it happens, not at month end.
In-process and final quality
Inspection triggered by production completion, with parameters recorded against the lot. Failed material is blocked from dispatch until a disposition — rework, scrap, concession — is recorded by someone with the authority to record it.
Job work and subcontracting
Material sent out, expected back, actually received, with yield and loss reconciled per challan. Outside processing measured on the same terms as inside processing.
Lot and batch genealogy
Forward and backward traceability: what went into this lot, where this lot went, and what else shares its inputs — answered from the record rather than reconstructed.
Dispatch gated on quality and stock
Only material that exists and has passed inspection can be packed and dispatched, which removes an entire category of dispute before it starts.
Automation
What stops being somebody's job
When this happens
The system does this
A production order is released
Material requirements and shortages are calculated
A shift records output
WIP, stock and order status update immediately
Production on a job completes
Quality inspection is created and assigned
A lot fails inspection
It is blocked from dispatch pending a recorded disposition
Consumption exceeds standard by a set margin
The exception is raised the same day
Job-work material is overdue from a processor
Purchase and production are both notified
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 today's plan, by line and shift
- WIP by stage, with ageing — what has been sitting too long
- Actual versus standard consumption per job, not per month
- Rejection and rework rates by process, machine and operator
- Job-work material lying with each processor, and for how long
- Which orders are genuinely at risk of missing their committed date
In practice
Situations this is usually bought for
Daily production reporting that is ready at shift end
Because output is recorded on the line as it happens, the production report exists when the shift ends instead of being compiled the next morning.
Shortage caught before the line stops
Releasing a production order checks material against stock and open purchase orders, and raises the shortage while there is still time to act on it.
Rejection that cannot quietly become stock
Failed material is moved to a blocked state that reporting can see. Rejection rates become a real number rather than an estimate.
A traceability question answered in minutes
A customer names a delivery and a date. The system returns the lots, the machines, the shifts, the inspection records and every other delivery that shares the same input lot.
Before / after
What changes
Before
After
Yesterday's production known tomorrow
This shift's production known at shift end
Consumption reconciled monthly
Consumption and yield known per job
Traceability reconstructed from registers
Traceability answered from the record
Rejections absorbed into stock
Rejections visible, routed and measured
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 ConsultationDo we need machine integration or IoT sensors for this to work?
Not to begin with, and for most plants not at all. The large gains come from recording work at the point it happens on a simple screen. If specific machines can supply counts or downtime signals we will use them, but making the whole project depend on machine integration is a common way to make it never finish.
Our supervisors are not comfortable with computers. Will this work?
It works when the shop-floor screen asks for almost nothing. A job-card screen should be a handful of large fields with the machine, job and shift already filled in. We design these separately from the office screens and test them with the people who will actually use them.
Can this replace our existing ERP?
Sometimes, but it is usually better not to. Keep the ERP for accounting and statutory work, and put the manufacturing layer where the ERP is weak — shop floor, job costing, quality, job work. We integrate the two so stock and production flow into the ledger automatically.
How do you handle multiple plants or units?
Multi-plant is designed in: separate stock and production per unit, shared item and process masters, inter-unit transfers recorded as movements, and consolidated management reporting across units.
What about job work and outside processing?
It is treated as a first-class part of the process, not an afterthought — material issued against a challan, expected return quantity, actual received, yield and loss per processor, and ageing on everything still outside.
Keep reading
Related solutions and industries
Manufacturing Workflow Automation
Automate manufacturing workflows across sales, production, material, quality and dispatch — so an order moves through the plant without being pushed.
Production Management System
A production management system tracking plan against actual output, WIP by stage, job-wise consumption, rejections and rework — updated as work happens.
Factory Management Software
Factory management software bringing production, material, manpower, maintenance, quality and dispatch into one plant-level view with alerts.
Manufacturing
Production, purchase, inventory, quality, dispatch and management workflows in one connected system.
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.