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Custom Software for Custom Manufacturers

Every order different, every BOM shifting - we build for exactly that, with the risk on our side.

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The Problems Every High-Mix Shop Knows

Sound familiar?

If you're running a custom shop, you'll recognize most of these - every one links to the full story:

You're guessing your margins

Which jobs made money last quarter? If the answer takes three systems and a spreadsheet, the data was never captured - setup time, rework, machine hours all vanish into "overhead".

You can't improve what
you can't see ￫
"Did the Anderson job make money?" should be the easiest question in the building - instead, someone opens the quoting spreadsheet, someone checks invoices, and three days later you get a number nobody fully trusts. The data isn't buried; it was never captured. One system where every stage carries a number - materials, labor, setup, rework - turns that question into a glance. And then the interesting part starts: which product types eat double the quoted setup time, which customers' "small changes" erase the margin on every order.

Your team uses half the ERP

Quoting went back to spreadsheets, scheduling to the whiteboard. That's not resistance to change - it's software built for a factory that runs the same widget all day.

Why generic ERP fails
high-mix shops ￫
Nobody went back to spreadsheets because they love spreadsheets - they went back because the ERP couldn't handle a day where three jobs change priority before lunch. "Fully configurable" turns out to mean visual tweaks while the workflow stays theirs: full of required steps you don't need, missing the ones you do. Handing mass-production software to a custom manufacturer is handing a tailor a cookie cutter. Software that fits starts from how you actually quote, schedule, and produce - and builds around that.

Errors surface at the part, not the desk

Wrong BOM in a signed contract. Wrong revision on the floor. Stock allocated twice. More checklists won't fix what the system makes easy to get wrong.

Prevent mistakes instead of
catching them ￫
What did your last BOM mistake actually cost - the rework, the customer call, the delivery slip, the quote you didn't win afterward? As long as the operation runs on manual entry, errors aren't a question of if - only when, and how much. More checklists won't help: manual processes get more fragile under pressure, not less. The fix is structural - data entered once, BOMs that can't be saved incomplete, drawings that can't reach the floor without the right revision, stock that can't be allocated twice.

Three systems, three different answers

Your ERP says one thing, the floor says another, accounts a third. And more integrations won't fix it - connecting incomplete views doesn't create a complete one.

The single source of truth
properly built ￫
Every workaround was built for a real problem at a real moment - and each one added another gap between what's happening and what you can see. The instinctive fix, connecting the tools you have, disappoints: five incomplete views don't add up to a complete one, and every integration is one more seam where versions drift. One system, data entered once, the same answer for everyone. Your workarounds weren't wrong - they deserved to be built properly.

The operation runs on three people's memory

Pricing logic, setup rules, customer exceptions - years of know-how with no policy, no backup, no redundancy. You can't insure it. You can encode it.

Knowledge that stays
when people don't ￫
Your most profitable products are quoted from a spreadsheet nobody else dares to touch - pricing logic, setup rules, customer exceptions, built over years and sitting in three people's heads. When one of them retires or leaves, the thing that held the operation together goes too, and no training binder brings it back. Encoding does: pricing logic into the quoting tool, your best operator's setup as the default. New hires get productive in days - and the knowledge stays even when the person doesn't.

The old system is failing, but switching feels riskier

It isn't - you've been writing the new system's spec for years, in workarounds and sticky notes. And the migration risk can be capped in the contract.

Your old system is the spec ￫
Every workaround, complaint, and sticky note is the specification for the system that replaces the old one - your team has been writing it for years. The fears are fair: lost data, a broken migration, a team that revolts. Each has a mechanism: migrations scripted and rehearsed before the real go-live, phased transitions with old and new systems synchronized, and a contract that caps the downside. The real risk is another year of workarounds multiplying - and the people who hold it all together moving on.

The deal

The deal, in one paragraph

Fixed price with flexible scope - if a change doesn't increase complexity, the price doesn't move. You pay for business value, not hours. First testable version in 2–3 weeks. Two weeks of testing at the end, with a walkaway option if it's not right. Full refund if we miss the agreed specification. Free bug fixing forever. And you own the source code and IP outright.

Solutions

One system, built module by module

We don't sell a suite and ask you to configure it.
We build the modules your operation needs:
- around your products, your routing, your rules -
and they share one source of truth from day one.

Start where it hurts most:

Quoting & BOM calculator

Precise quotes in minutes
not hours

Quoting & BOM calculator

Precise quotes in minutes
not hours

A few clicks produce a precise price - product logic generates the right BOM for the variations you actually sell. Quotes in minutes; new staff quoting on day one.

Every quote gets rebuilt from scratch - specs from emails, costs from supplier history, pricing rules from your estimator's memory - and half of them never become orders. A tool that knows your products changes the economics: a few clicks generate the right BOM and a precise price, new staff quote confidently on day one, and the response lands fast enough to win the jobs you should win. Not a 10% improvement - a different way of working.

Design files management

The wrong drawing never reaches the floor

Design files management

The wrong drawing never reaches the floor

One click opens the definitive latest drawing straight in CAD; every version logged against its job. The wrong revision never reaches the floor again.

"final_v4_FINAL_fixed.dwg" just went to the floor - you hope it's the right one. You don't lose that bet on the screen; you lose it at the part, after the material and machine time are already spent. Instead: one click opens the definitive latest revision straight in CAD, and every save is logged against its job. Plus a full audit trail, and a number nobody has today - how long design actually takes per order.

Machine scheduling

Same machines, same team, more throughput

Machine scheduling

Same machines, same team, more throughput

An algorithm tests thousands of job sequences and proposes the one with the least changeover time - your scheduler reviews and approves. In one plant: downtime down 10–20%.

An injection molding owner asked for "a tool to make planning easier" - he was picturing a digital whiteboard. We built an algorithm that plans for him instead: it tests thousands of job sequences to minimize changeovers, with full manual override - control stays with the operator. Weekly planning went from hours to minutes, and downtime fell 10–20%. And anyone on the team can answer whether a rush order fits this week - in seconds, during the call.

Stock allocation

"In stock" isn't "available"

Stock allocation

"In stock" isn't "available"

"In stock" isn't "available." See what's here, what's reserved, what's on the way - on a timeline - so material can't be committed twice.

The shelf says 200 - but 120 is reserved for confirmed orders, 50 arrives next week, and the rush job you just took needs 80. Can you start? Availability is three numbers on a timeline: what's here, what's committed, what's on the way. Confirm an order and its material reserves itself; take a rush job and see instantly whether it fits. And purchasing learns about shortfalls the moment an order creates one - not when the floor stops.

Customer portal

No more email archaeology

Customer portal

No more email archaeology

Specs, approvals, revisions, and live order status in one shared view. No more email archaeology - and no more "where is my order?" calls.

Every custom order generates dozens of communications spread across inboxes, drives, and memory - and when the customer says "that's not what we agreed," the proof is three days of email archaeology away. A portal gives both sides one shared view: specs, revisions, approvals, live order status, invoices. Questions answer themselves before they're asked, disputes end in one click with a timestamped record, and nothing goes missing when someone's on holiday.

Supplier portal

No retyping, no chasing, both sides

Supplier portal

No retyping, no chasing, both sides

POs sent automatically, confirmed with a click, delays flagged the moment they're known. Your availability numbers become real.

You typed the order into your system, then into an email, and your supplier typed it into theirs - same data, three places, two chances to get it wrong. Then the confirmation hides in a thirty-reply thread while production waits for a straight answer about Thursday. The portal replaces the loop: POs sent automatically, confirmed with a click, delays flagged the moment they're known. Your suppliers will prefer it - it deletes work from both sides - and your "on the way" numbers finally become real.

Proof from the floor:

A complete manufacturing platform, delivered in weeks

A complete manufacturing platform, delivered in weeks

Read the case study

For SAMEX, a cutting-equipment manufacturer selling to 65 countries, we unified quoting, purchasing, production planning, and warehouse into one system: 30% fewer production delays, 40% better component visibility, 50% faster core processes.

The scheduling algorithm that beat the whiteboard

The scheduling algorithm that beat the whiteboard

The full story

An injection molding owner asked for "a tool to make planning easier." We built an algorithm that plans for him - with full manual override. Weekly planning went from hours to minutes; machine downtime fell 10–20%.

Systems that outlive the industry's rewrite cycle

Systems that outlive the industry's rewrite cycle

Read the case study

One of our platforms has run for over 13 years without a major rework, growing to three times its original size. Your system should be an asset that compounds - not a project that repeats.

A founder who started at the lathe

A founder who started at the lathe

Hear it in the questions we ask

Solarte's founder earned a CNC machine technician diploma - hands-on, in the metalwork shop - before he ever wrote business software. That's why our systems speak shop floor, not just SQL.

Start with numbers, not a sales pitch

The Operations Efficiency Map - free, one hour

We walk your full order lifecycle - ten stages, from enquiry to delivery - and for each relevant stage we calculate together what better software would actually save you: quoting hours, changeover time, error costs, chasing, re-keying. You leave with concrete figures for your own operation, whether we ever work together or not.

Let's talk
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FAQ

Questions from manufacturers

ERP, MES, WMS - which one is this?

Whichever parts your operation needs. Those labels describe modules, not destinies: quoting, scheduling, warehouse, production tracking. We build the ones that pay for themselves in your shop, on one shared data foundation - so you get the coverage of a suite without the 60% you'd never use.

Can it connect to our machines?

Yes - we've built hardware-integrated systems throughout our history, from shop-floor data capture to equipment monitoring. Where machines can talk, the system listens: statuses, counts, and times flow in without anyone typing them.

Our operators aren't computer people. Will they use it?

That's a design requirement, not an obstacle. Interfaces are built per role - a tablet at the machine shows an operator exactly what they need and nothing else, and anyone who knows the work can use it with minimal training. Data gets entered where work happens, not copied from paper at the end of a shift.

Do you replace our accounting software?

Usually not - accounting tools do their job well. We integrate with what works and replace what doesn't, so invoices, orders, and costs flow between systems without re-keying.

Do we need a full system, or can we start small?

Start small - most clients do. One module where it hurts most (quoting and design files are common first steps), delivering value in weeks. Because every module shares the same data foundation, each addition compounds instead of creating another silo.

How disruptive is the switchover?

Planned around your operations, not ours. Data migration is scripted and rehearsed before the real go-live; for complex operations we run phased transitions, department by department, with old and new systems synchronized. Your business doesn't stop while the system changes.
How migration actually works ￫

You know your shop.
Now put numbers on it.

Get your free Operations Efficiency Map
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