Systems that run manufacturing and engineering businesses
Small manufacturers and engineering firms run on systems that started as a database for one job and became the factory. Solve With Software takes those systems over and modernises them in stages, so the office keeps the screens it knows while the shop floor, the stores and the customers get live information, and AI reads the supplier paperwork and enquiry packs that someone types in today. The pages below describe the kinds of system we see, in both their generations, and what modernising each brings.
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Where these systems run
Machine shops, fabricators and assemblers across the UK run on systems like these, from the Midlands and the North to the estates around Ipswich, Colchester, Braintree and Bury St Edmunds nearer home. Most make to order for a handful of larger customers who audit them every year, and the system at the centre usually began in Microsoft Access or Excel and has been extended by the same one or two people ever since.
Colchester is our base, and the factory can be anywhere in the UK. The work is done remotely, with on-site visits across Essex, Suffolk and London when the system needs them; the regional page covers the local side.
Old Guard or New Legacy: two ways the same factory system was built
The Old Guard started between the early 2000s and about 2013, often as a Microsoft Access database the production manager or the quality manager built, sometimes with a Visual Basic 6 or Delphi program on the shop-floor terminals and an Excel workbook for the quotes. The homegrown MRP and the quality and traceability system usually began this way, and the terminals by the machines have run the same program since.
The New Legacy is the same system built from about 2016 by a freelancer or a small agency as a browser system with a tablet app, or in Power Apps or Zoho Creator by an engineer who wanted rid of the workbook. Since 2023 some have been attempted in an AI builder and stalled halfway. Newer, and just as hard to change.
Many manufacturers this size keep the accounts, and sometimes the stock, in a bought package, with the homegrown system beside it for the BOMs, the works orders or the quotes. The join between the two is usually where the work starts.
What modernising them usually brings
The shop floor gets a screen: the works order on a tablet at the machine, time booked where the work happens, job status the office can see without walking round. The stores get barcodes and a stock figure that is right. The auditor gets traceability on one record instead of three. And the whole thing comes off the one Access file, onto a supported database with a real backup, while the office screens keep working until each is replaced. Once the system is safe to change, AI takes the retyping off the desk as well: the supplier acknowledgement read onto the purchase order, the enquiry pack drafted into a quote, the mill certificate read in at goods-in. It can also answer the questions the reports never covered, such as which works orders are waiting on a late delivery. Each system page works out the time that gives back at its own volumes.
Systems in manufacturing and engineering
One page per kind of system: the Old Guard version, the New Legacy version, what modernising it brings and where AI helps.
The homegrown MRP system that runs your factory
- The Old Guard
- Begun between 2003 and 2012 in Microsoft Access by the production manager or a contractor, on the office server beside the Sage accounts.
- The New Legacy
- Built between 2016 and 2022 by a freelancer or small agency in PHP or .NET Core, or on Zoho Creator, with a goods-in tablet and a shortages dashboard.
- Where AI helps
- AI starts on supplier acknowledgements, drafting the changes onto the purchase order: typically one to two hours a week back for the buyer.
The quoting and works order system that runs your job shop
- The Old Guard
- An Excel quoting workbook from around 2005 and an Access or .NET Framework works order program from about 2013, on the office PCs and server.
- The New Legacy
- Quoting in a browser, built between 2016 and 2022 by an agency or freelancer in PHP or .NET Core with an Ionic tablet app, or on Power Apps.
- Where AI helps
- The enquiry pack drafted into quote lines for the estimator to check: typically three to six hours a week back at 40 quotes a week.
The shop-floor system your operators clock on to
- The Old Guard
- Written between 2000 and 2010 in VB6 or Delphi by a contractor, on PCs in steel cabinets by the machines, writing to a SQL Server shared with the office.
- The New Legacy
- Tablets on arms, built between 2016 and 2022 by an agency in React, Angular or Node with a React Native or Ionic app, or in Power Apps.
- Where AI helps
- Every shift's bookings checked for the ones that do not add up, so the morning spent hunting before payroll typically becomes minutes a shift.
The quality system your accreditation audit runs on
- The Old Guard
- Written around 2010 by the quality manager in Microsoft Access, with SSRS certificates on a report server and the calibration register in Excel.
- The New Legacy
- A certificate portal built between 2016 and 2022 by a freelancer or agency in PHP or .NET Core, or on Zoho Creator or Power Apps.
- Where AI helps
- Mill certificates read into the batch record at goods-in for the inspector to confirm, typically two to four hours a week back.
Questions
What people ask before they book.
Does the factory have to stop while the system is modernised?
No. The old system keeps running and stays the fallback, and each new piece is added beside it: a booking screen on two machines first, the stores scanning into the same stock records the office screens read. A screen is retired when nobody opens it any more, and not before.
Our BOMs, rates and booking rules are twenty years of decisions. Do they survive?
They are the reason to modernise rather than replace. The assessment reads them out of the database, the forms and the spreadsheets beside them, and writes them down with the people who use them, so they go into the new pieces as they are. The history moves with the data, revisions and all.
Our biggest customer audits us every year. Will modernising get in the way of it?
The first stage changes nothing the auditor sees. The data goes onto a supported database with a tested backup, the screens and the certificates carry on as they are, and the visible changes are paced around the audit dates. Traceability on one record usually comes later, and it is the stage that makes the next audit shorter.
Is AI any use on a system like ours, or is that for bigger manufacturers?
It is useful at this size, in the paperwork around the system rather than in the planning or the BOMs. It reads what already arrives in writing, the supplier acknowledgement, the customer's schedule, the enquiry pack, the mill certificate, and drafts the entry for someone to check rather than type, or flags a booking or a quote that does not match what the floor did last time. For the buyer and the estimator, that is most of the typing they do before the real work starts. It comes after the first stage, once the system is safe to change, and the assessment maps where it would pay back on the system as it stands.
What does it cost, and how soon does something work?
The assessment is from £395 + VAT, sized on a free one-hour consultation, with an exact price before you commit, and produces a report with costed options and a fixed price for each. The first stage is sized so something is working in about six weeks. The report is yours. Take it to us, another developer, or nobody.
Start with a free consultation
An hour on your system, online or by phone. From there we size the assessment, from £395 + VAT, and give you an exact price before you commit.
Want the numbers first? See how pricing works.
Written by Marc Allington, founder. .