Software for manufacturers, from the floor to the office.
Poka-yoke for the office.
Quoting, purchasing, planning, quality, and the handoffs between them. I replace the spreadsheets and retyping that slow a plant down with tools people actually use, and I stay accountable for them long after launch.
You poka-yoke the cell. Your office runs on the honor system.
Every manufacturer mistake-proofs the floor, with fixtures that only fit one way and sensors that stop the line before a bad part moves on.
Then you walk into the office. Quotes get built from last year's spreadsheet. Certs get retyped. An engineering release depends on someone remembering to check.
It isn't that people aren't careful. The office workflow was never designed the way the cell was, with the mistake made hard to make. Designing it that way is my job.
Four things, in plant language
Most small manufacturers have been burned by custom software. It usually wasn't because it was custom. It was because nobody was accountable for it after launch. I build the other kind.
Hours back
People spend real time copying between systems, chasing paper, and rebuilding the same report every week. That's time they aren't shipping.
“Your people key the same job data into three places. I make that once.”
Decisions on time
You already have the data. It's in the ERP, on the floor, and in someone's workbook, but not anywhere you can act on it while it still matters.
“You know your margin on a job. The question is whether you know it in time to do something about it.”
Mistake-proofing
Required steps, approvals, and checks built into the workflow, so an error is hard to make instead of being caught downstream.
Poka-yoke for quoting, purchasing, and engineering release.
Blockers made visible
Anyone can flag what's holding up a job and assign it to a person or team. It stays in front of whoever can clear it until it's cleared.
“What's this job waiting on?” stops needing a meeting.
The expensive problems live in the gap
Automation integrators know PLCs and cells, but they don't build business software. Web shops build business software but have never stood next to a press. I've done both.
The floor
- Production-cell automation: presses, molding, ovens, conveyors
- Machine vision and motion control
- Working alongside the engineers who build the machines
The gap
- The traveler that gets rekeyed
- Machine data the office never sees
- A schedule the floor doesn't trust
- Quality records built from a clipboard hours after the fact
The office
- Customer POs, job planning, purchasing
- Quality planning, CAPA, material review
- Approvals, change management, supplier pricing
A decade running one manufacturer's office systems
For more than ten years I built and maintained the business applications at a high-mix, low-volume, traceability-heavy electronics manufacturer in Grand Rapids. The work moved the company off a sprawl of shared spreadsheets and onto controlled applications its people actually used.
- Customer POs, manufacturing plans, quality control planning, readiness reviews, supplier quoting, CAPA, material review, BOM change management, and purchasing, all on one suite
- A blockers dashboard: anyone can raise what's holding up a job, assign it, and track it until it's cleared
- A who/what/when audit trail on every application
- Single sign-on across the suite, federated with Microsoft Entra ID
- Each new application cost less to build than the one before it, because each one built on the last
- Hired and mentored an in-house developer to independent delivery
Small first step. Fixed prices. Still there in year five.
Discovery
A fixed-fee, two-week look at where the time goes. I spend time on site with the people doing the work, then give you a written, ranked list of what to fix first. The fee is credited toward the first build if you go ahead.
First build
One workflow, built end to end, at a fixed scope and price. It goes into production and gets used. We pick the one with the clearest before-and-after, not the biggest.
Stewardship
Ongoing improvements and one person accountable for it continuing to work. Most custom software gets more expensive every year. Mine gets cheaper to change, because each year builds on the last one.
- If a package does 90% of what you need, I'll tell you to buy it, and I'll help you choose one.
- You own the code and the repository from day one.
- Documentation and a written handoff plan are part of the work, not an upsell.
- Ordinary, widely known technology, so any competent developer could pick it up.
- Fixed prices on defined outcomes, not open-ended hourly billing.
- It has to be faster than the workaround. Otherwise people go back to the spreadsheet.
Hi, I'm David Wieringa.
I'm a computer engineer (Michigan State) and I've been building software for about thirty years. The last two decades have been in West Michigan manufacturing. First I automated production cells at Innotec in Zeeland. Then I spent more than ten years building and running the office systems of a Grand Rapids electronics manufacturer.
I've been the one person who knew how everything worked. That's a fragile arrangement for any company, so I don't build that dependency into my clients. Everything I build is documented, owned by you, and designed so someone else could pick it up.
Userwise Solutions is my practice, based in Grand Rapids. I work directly with owners, operations leaders, and CFOs at privately held manufacturers.
What's running on a spreadsheet that shouldn't be?
Tell me about it. The first conversation is just a conversation. If what you need is a package rather than me, I'll say so.
- Emailhello [at] userwise.com
- Phone(616) 805-9473
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/davidwieringa
- Based inGrand Rapids, Michigan