Custom Software Development for Manufacturing
Production management, quality control, and shop floor systems built for your specific manufacturing processes, not generic templates that ignore how your plant actually operates.
Manufacturing operations generate more data than almost any other industry, yet most manufacturers make critical production decisions based on spreadsheets, whiteboards, and tribal knowledge. The gap between what ERP systems track at the financial level and what actually happens on the shop floor is filled by manual processes, paper travelers, and institutional knowledge that walks out the door when experienced operators retire.
The software market offers two extremes: enterprise MES and ERP platforms like SAP, Oracle, and Siemens Opcenter that cost millions and take years to implement, or lightweight tools like Katana, Fishbowl, and MRPeasy that handle basic inventory and order management but cannot accommodate the complexity of real manufacturing operations. Manufacturers in the $5M to $100M range are stuck between solutions that are too expensive and solutions that are too simple.
Scale Labs builds custom manufacturing software for producers across Washington State and the Pacific Northwest. We connect to your existing equipment, ERP, and quality systems to create the production visibility, quality management, and operational intelligence tools that your team needs to make better decisions faster. Whether you run a job shop, a batch process, or a continuous production line, we build software that matches how your plant actually operates.
Common Challenges in manufacturing
Paper-Based Shop Floor Processes
Work orders printed on paper, quality checks recorded in binders, and production counts tracked on whiteboards. By the time this data makes it into your ERP, it is hours or days old. Real-time visibility into production status is impossible when your shop floor runs on paper.
Disconnected Quality Management
Quality data lives in inspection reports, CMM output files, and spreadsheets that are disconnected from production records. Tracing a quality issue back to specific raw materials, operators, or machine parameters requires manual detective work across multiple systems.
Equipment Downtime and Maintenance Gaps
Reactive maintenance driven by breakdowns rather than data. Your CMMS tracks work orders but does not connect to actual equipment data, so preventive maintenance schedules are based on calendar time rather than actual operating conditions and wear patterns.
Production Planning That Does Not Reflect Reality
Your ERP generates production schedules based on theoretical capacity and standard times, but actual production depends on machine availability, material status, and operator skill. The gap between the plan and reality grows wider as complexity increases.
Why Generic Manufacturing Software Falls Short
Enterprise platforms like SAP and Oracle were designed for the largest manufacturers in the world. Their manufacturing modules are powerful but require extensive configuration, customization, and ongoing IT support that puts them out of reach for most mid-market manufacturers. A typical SAP implementation takes 12 to 24 months and costs several million dollars before delivering any production floor value.
On the other end, tools like Katana, MRPeasy, and Fishbowl Manufacturing handle basic bill-of-materials management, work order tracking, and inventory control. They work well for simple make-to-stock operations, but they cannot accommodate the complexity of job shops with custom routing, multi-stage batch processes with quality holds, or production environments where equipment data needs to drive scheduling decisions.
The gap is particularly acute for manufacturers with specific regulatory requirements. Medical device manufacturers need FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant electronic records. Food manufacturers need HACCP and FSMA compliance tracking. Aerospace suppliers need AS9100 quality documentation. Generic manufacturing software treats these as edge cases rather than core requirements.
What Custom Manufacturing Software Looks Like
Custom manufacturing software bridges the gap between your ERP's financial view of production and what actually happens on the shop floor. A manufacturing execution system built for your specific processes captures production data in real time: quantities produced, machine parameters, quality measurements, and operator activities. This data feeds back into your ERP and quality systems automatically, eliminating the lag and errors that come from manual data entry.
For a job shop, custom software might mean a dynamic scheduling system that accounts for actual machine availability, material status, and job priorities in real time, adjusting the schedule as conditions change rather than producing a static plan that is obsolete by mid-morning. For a batch process manufacturer, it might mean a recipe management and batch tracking system that enforces process parameters, captures critical-to-quality data at each step, and generates the batch records that regulatory compliance demands.
Real-Time Production Dashboards
Live OEE, throughput, and quality metrics displayed on shop floor monitors and accessible from any device. See production status, machine utilization, and quality trends as they happen rather than in yesterday's report.
Full Production Traceability
Trace any finished product back through every production step, raw material lot, operator, and machine parameter. Meet customer and regulatory traceability requirements without manual record assembly.
Operator-Friendly Shop Floor Interfaces
Touchscreen interfaces designed for the shop floor environment: large buttons, clear displays, and minimal data entry. Operators scan barcodes, confirm quantities, and record quality checks without leaving their workstations.
How We Build Manufacturing Software
Manufacturing software projects start on the production floor. We walk your processes from raw material receiving through finished goods shipping, documenting the actual flow of materials, information, and decisions at each step. We map the gap between what your ERP thinks is happening and what your operators know is actually happening, because that gap is where the highest-value improvements live.
Equipment integration is often a critical component. We connect to PLCs, SCADA systems, and CNC controllers to capture machine data directly: cycle counts, operating parameters, alarm conditions, and production quantities. This data eliminates manual counting, enables real-time OEE calculation, and provides the foundation for predictive maintenance. We support standard industrial protocols including OPC UA, Modbus, and MQTT, as well as proprietary interfaces for specific equipment brands.
We build for the reality of shop floor environments: systems need to be reliable during three-shift operations, interfaces need to work with gloved hands and in noisy environments, and the software cannot slow down production. Our systems are designed with local processing capability so a network interruption does not stop the line, with data syncing automatically when connectivity is restored.
ROI for Manufacturing Technology
Manufacturing improvements compound across every unit produced. A 5 percent improvement in OEE on a production line running two shifts represents the equivalent of adding a full shift of capacity without hiring additional operators or buying new equipment. For a mid-market manufacturer, that translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional throughput capacity.
Quality improvements have similarly outsized impact. Automated quality data collection and real-time SPC monitoring catch process drift before it produces scrap. Manufacturers implementing custom quality systems typically see scrap rates decrease by 20 to 40 percent. Full traceability also reduces the scope and cost of quality escapes: when you can trace an issue to a specific material lot or production run, recalls become targeted rather than plant-wide.
What We Build for manufacturing
Custom Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
Real-time production tracking that captures quantities, cycle times, quality data, and operator activities at each workstation. Integrates with your equipment and ERP to provide the production visibility your shop floor currently lacks.
Quality Management and Traceability Platform
End-to-end quality tracking from incoming material inspection through in-process checks and final testing. SPC charting, non-conformance management, CAPA tracking, and full lot traceability. Built to meet the specific regulatory requirements of your industry.
Dynamic Production Scheduling System
Scheduling that accounts for real-time machine availability, material status, operator skills, and job priorities. Automatically reschedules when conditions change and provides realistic delivery date estimates based on actual shop floor capacity.
Equipment Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
Direct connection to production equipment for real-time monitoring of operating parameters, performance metrics, and alarm conditions. Transition from calendar-based preventive maintenance to condition-based maintenance that reduces both downtime and maintenance costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can custom software integrate with our existing ERP system?
How do you connect to our production equipment?
How long does it take to implement custom manufacturing software?
Does custom software handle regulatory compliance for our industry?
Ready to Bring Your Shop Floor Into the Digital Age?
Tell us about the production visibility gap, quality tracking challenge, or scheduling problem that is limiting your manufacturing operation. We will design a system that fits your processes.