Manufacturing software
Manufacturing software for the gap between spreadsheets and ERP
There is a large gap between a business running on spreadsheets and a business that can justify an ERP implementation. Most of the manufacturers we speak to are in it: too big for the sheet, and looking at six-figure quotes for systems built for companies ten times their size.
- Between sheets and ERP
- Built to your process
- Fixed price, quoted first
The gap that nobody sells into
A twenty to eighty person manufacturer has genuinely outgrown spreadsheets. Stock is wrong often enough to matter, nobody can say with confidence what stage a job is at without walking the floor, and the reporting that would answer either question takes somebody a day to assemble.
The market's answer is an ERP system, and for a business of that size the quotes are frequently more than the problem is worth, with an implementation measured in quarters and a consultant living on site. Plenty of firms start one, and a meaningful share of those projects are quietly abandoned or end up used for a fraction of what was bought.
The alternative that rarely gets offered is building the two or three things that actually hurt. Stock accuracy, job tracking, and a dashboard that tells the floor what to make next. That is a fraction of the cost, it can be running in weeks, and it leaves your accounts package and your existing systems where they are.
How we scope and price that is set out under custom software development.
What usually gets built first
One of these, done properly, rather than all of them done adequately.
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Stock that is actually right
Counted where it moves rather than reconciled monthly, usually with scanning at goods in, issue to job and dispatch. Stock accuracy is the single most common request and the one that pays back fastest.
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Job and works order tracking
Where every job is, what stage it is at and what is holding it up, visible without walking the floor. This is what turns the daily production meeting from an investigation into a review.
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Shop floor dashboards
A screen on the wall showing what to make next, what is behind and what is due out today. Unglamorous, cheap to build, and it changes behaviour faster than any report emailed to a manager.
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Connecting what you already run
Often the answer is not new software at all. If the accounts package, the CAD system and the stock sheet each hold a piece of the picture, joining them is cheaper than replacing any of them.
Where an ERP genuinely is the right answer
We are not arguing that ERP is always wrong. For a business with complex multi-level bills of materials, real MRP requirements, multiple sites and genuine planning complexity, a proper system is the right investment and building an equivalent would be foolish.
The test is whether the complexity is real or aspirational. A lot of ERP purchases are made on the basis of what the business might need in five years, and the cost of that optimism is paid immediately in implementation and licence fees while the actual problem, stock being wrong, goes unfixed for another eighteen months.
We will say plainly when we think an ERP is warranted. We would rather do that than take on a build that turns into a bad imitation of one.
The full comparison of options is in off-the-shelf against custom software.
Built for a shop floor, not a desk
Software used on a production floor has different constraints from software used at a desk. It gets operated with gloves on, on a terminal bolted to a wall, by somebody who has thirty seconds. If entering a job movement takes more than a few taps, it will be done at the end of the shift from memory, which is worse than not doing it.
So the interfaces are large, the workflows are short, and scanning is used wherever typing could be. That is a design decision made early and it is the difference between data you can trust and data somebody reconstructed.
- Large targets, short workflows, gloves in mind
- Scanning rather than typing wherever possible
- Works on the network you actually have on the floor
Start with the number nobody trusts
In most manufacturing businesses there is one figure everybody quietly disbelieves, and it is usually stock. That is where to begin, because it is measurable and the improvement is obvious to everyone.
The free review maps how it moves now and where the accuracy is lost, and gives you a written plan and a fixed quote to act on.
Get in touch
Talk to us about manufacturing software
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
We are too small for ERP. What are the options?
Build the two or three things that actually hurt, usually stock accuracy, job tracking and a floor dashboard, and leave your accounts package and existing systems where they are. That is a fraction of an ERP implementation and can be running in weeks rather than quarters.
How much does manufacturing workflow software cost?
A focused first system covering one area properly typically lands in the low tens of thousands or below depending on scope, with a fixed price agreed before work starts. That is a different order of magnitude from an ERP implementation and it is deliberately narrower.
Will it work on the shop floor?
It has to be designed for that from the start: large targets, short workflows, scanning instead of typing, and usable with gloves on a wall-mounted terminal. Software that is fiddly on the floor gets filled in from memory at the end of a shift, which produces data nobody should trust.
Can it connect to our accounts or CAD system?
Usually, and often that connection is the whole project. Where the pieces of the picture already exist in separate systems, joining them is cheaper than replacing any of them.
When is an ERP genuinely the right choice?
When you have complex multi-level bills of materials, real MRP requirements, multiple sites or genuine planning complexity. If the complexity is real, buy the system. If it is aspirational, fix the stock figure first and revisit in two years.
Do you work with manufacturers already?
We support manufacturing and engineering businesses across the Mansfield and A38 corridor on the IT side. On the software side we would rather point you at TradeyHub, a job management platform we built and still run, as evidence of the approach than claim sector-specific proof we do not have.
