What we build
The Shop Floor System.
$12,000, fixed. Four weeks. One workflow tool, deployed on a server, your team trained on it, and three months of support included. Pick the workflow:
-
Production scheduling and WIP
Jobs, machines and due dates live in a workbook, and status comes from walking the floor. The schedule moves to a board the whole shop can see, operators mark steps done from a tablet, and the office can tell which jobs are running late before the customer asks.
-
Job tracking
A job’s drawings, changes, notes and dates end up spread across email, paper and somebody’s memory. The tool keeps all of it in one place, from the first call to delivery.
-
Quoting
Quotes come out of a spreadsheet that one person really understands, and nobody else can check how a number was reached. The tool keeps your pricing rules and shows the reasoning behind every quote, so more than one person can produce a quote and someone else can check it.
Only need quoting? The Quote Tool is $7,500. After the included period, support is optional at $300–$800 a month.
How it works
How a project goes.
-
A free 30-minute call.
Tell us what goes wrong and how it’s handled today. If the job looks worth doing, we usually ask to spend an hour at your shop watching the work. If an off-the-shelf product already does it, we’ll tell you.
-
A written quote within 48 hours.
It says what will be built, what it costs, when it will be done and how we’ll both know it’s finished, with the payback worked out from your own numbers. The price changes only if you change the scope.
-
Four weeks of building.
Your real data goes in before the end, so testing happens on actual jobs. Then it goes live, your team gets two training sessions and a short written guide, and three months of support follow.
The guarantee. You see a working version in week 2. If it isn’t on track, stop there and pay only the first half.
Payment is half on signing and half on acceptance. We take on two projects a month.
An example
What a Shop Floor System looks like.
-
The problem
A job shop schedules its work in an Excel workbook of jobs, machines and due dates. Status on the floor comes from walking around, and when sales asks when an order will ship, the answer is a guess.
-
What gets built
A web app for the office and the shop floor, with logins and roles, that runs in any browser, including a tablet at a machine. Jobs come in once from the spreadsheet. A schedule board shows jobs by machine and week and warns when a machine is overloaded. Operators tap start, done or problem on each step, and a late-risk view shows which jobs will miss their dates and why. A weekly schedule PDF or a CSV export goes to the rest of the business.
-
What it doesn’t include
Replacing an ERP or accounting system, live two-way integrations, phone apps and a second workflow such as quoting. Those are quoted separately if you want them later.
-
Why it pays
Five hours a week of a scheduler’s time, at $30–35 an hour, is about $8,000–9,000 a year. On hours alone that pays back $12,000 in about a year and a half, and each late order it prevents shortens that.
The alternatives
What else you could do.
-
Hire an agency.
A custom build from a software agency typically runs $40,000–80,000 and takes months.
-
Hire a developer.
A developer on staff costs over $100,000 a year, for work that one tool and some support can cover.
-
Rent subscription software.
You pay every month for a product built around someone else’s shop, and change how you work to fit it.
-
Keep the spreadsheet.
It costs hours every week and, now and then, a late order. On the call we put a number on yours.
Proof
Systems we build and run.
-
A cabinetry design-to-production system in daily use at an Ohio shop.
It takes a job from the design through shop drawings, cut lists and cost, all from the same data. When it stops, the shop stops, so keeping software running for a business that depends on it is work we already do every day.
-
Our own development platform.
Code hosting, code review and automated testing and deployment, built and run in-house. Putting changes out without breaking anything is routine work here, several times a week.
-
Hosting and backups that are tested.
Our systems run on servers we manage, and we run restore drills, so we know the backups actually restore before anyone needs them to.
What’s included
What’s included.
-
You own what’s yours.
Your data and everything built for your business are yours. The tools underneath come with a permanent licence. No licence fees and no lock-in.
-
You talk to the person building it.
Whoever quotes the job also builds it and puts it on a server, so answers don’t pass through an account manager.
-
Deployment is part of the job.
The job finishes when the tool is running on a server, the passwords are in your hands and there are notes on how to keep it running.
-
Explanations you can use.
You should understand what was built and why, in plain language. Software nobody at your company understands is software you pay someone to touch for as long as you own it.
Questions
Common questions.
-
Do you use AI?
Yes, for much of the building and testing. An experienced developer decides what gets built, reviews the code and answers for everything that ships.
-
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Send yours before the call if you would rather talk freely on it.
-
What happens if you stop working on it?
Your data and everything built for your business are yours, with a permanent licence to the tools underneath. It can run on accounts in your name, and it comes with notes on how it fits together. Any competent developer can pick it up.
-
What does it cost after the three months?
Support and hosting is optional, at $300–$800 a month depending on the tool and how many people use it. Without a plan, you host it yourself and changes are quoted one at a time.
-
What if I don’t know exactly what I want yet?
That is the normal way this starts. Describe the part of the week that goes badly, and working out what to build is done on the call and the visit, before any price is attached.
-
Do you only work near Dayton?
We focus on the Dayton area, because an hour at your shop is the best way to quote the job. Work further away is possible and is done mostly remotely.
Tell us what’s costing you hours.
Thirty minutes, free. Describe the workflow and how it’s handled today. You’ll get a straight answer on whether a tool would pay for itself, and if it would, a written quote within 48 hours.