Fixology builds bespoke manufacturing software that sits alongside your ERP: estimating tools, works order and schedule boards, tablet and barcode capture at each work centre, and batch traceability through to the certificate of conformity. A system covering estimating, works orders and shop floor capture typically takes 14 to 20 weeks, released in stages so estimators use their module while the shop floor features are built. Sage 200 or Business Central stays in place as the system of record, and you own the code from day one.
The spreadsheet that runs the factory
In most small and mid-sized UK factories there is one spreadsheet everybody depends on. It might be the estimating workbook built ten years ago, the production schedule on the office wall screen, or the stock sheet for raw material. It works because one person understands it, and it becomes a risk the day that person is on holiday.
The ERP or MRP system, whether that is Sage 200, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One, Epicor, SYSPRO or a lighter tool such as MRPeasy or Katana, usually handles orders, stock and accounts well enough. The gaps are almost always at the edges: estimating, scheduling and capturing what actually happened on the shop floor. That is where bespoke manufacturing software does its best work.
Estimating that captures how your estimators work
For a jobbing shop or subcontract machinist, the estimate decides whether a job is worth winning. A good estimating tool pulls material data from your stock system, applies set-up and cycle times per operation from your routings, adds outside processing such as plating, heat treatment or powder coating, and handles quantity breaks before anything goes to the customer.
Packaged ERP estimating modules tend to assume a standard routing. If your estimators work from drawings, nest sheet parts, or take cycle times from CAM, a bespoke estimating engine that mirrors their method is often the single most valuable thing you can build. It also records the reasoning behind each estimate, so you can compare estimated hours with actual hours once the job is finished and refine your standards with real evidence. When an experienced estimator is approaching retirement, that tool is how their knowledge stays in the business.
Shop floor data capture and live job status
Paper job cards tell you what happened last week. A tablet or a barcode scanner at each work centre tells you what is happening now. Operators clock on and off operations, record quantities made and scrapped, and flag problems with a photo. Supervisors see a live board of every works order, and the office can give a customer a real delivery date rather than a guess.
The data adds up quickly. With a few months of real cycle times you can measure OEE per machine, spot the operations you consistently underestimate, and schedule from what the shop actually achieves. We keep the operator screens simple: big buttons, works order numbers scanned rather than typed, and nothing that needs a keyboard in a dusty cell.
Production scheduling without the wall chart
Scheduling is where generic software most often disappoints. A finite capacity planner has to know that the five-axis machine is the bottleneck, that a powder coating batch waits for a full oven, and that one customer's call-offs always arrive on a Friday. Packaged schedulers can model some of this, but they need a lot of configuration and somebody who understands them.
A bespoke schedule board can be much simpler: works orders as cards, work centres as lanes, real capacity from shop floor bookings, and warnings when a promised date no longer fits. We would not try to automate every decision on day one. A planner who can see the whole picture and move jobs with confidence gets most of the benefit, and optimisation can follow once you trust the data underneath it.
Traceability, quality and customer requirements
Aerospace, automotive, medical and food customers increasingly expect full batch traceability: which material certificate, which heat number, which operator and which machine went into each part. Many manufacturers hold ISO 9001, and some work to AS9100 or IATF 16949, which all expect controlled records of non-conformances and corrective actions. Food producers face BRCGS audits and allergen controls with the same demand for records.
Software makes that a by-product of normal work. When goods in scans a material cert against a batch, and the shop floor booking links that batch to a works order, the certificate of conformity can be produced automatically at dispatch. When an audit asks for the history of a part, it is a search, not an afternoon in the archive.
Machines, CAD and building around your ERP
Replacing an ERP is one of the riskiest projects a manufacturer can take on, and it is rarely necessary to fix the problems people describe to us. A better route is usually to keep the ERP as the system of record for orders, stock and accounts, and connect focused tools to it through API integrations. Business Central and Sage 200 both support this well, and we agree which system owns each piece of data so nothing drifts.
The same approach reaches further down. Newer CNC controls and PLCs can expose cycle data through OPC UA or MTConnect, and part data can flow in from SolidWorks PDM or your nesting software rather than being retyped. Machine connections run on a separated network segment, so the shop floor is never exposed to the internet.
Where the ERP truly is the problem, perhaps an unsupported package or an Access database built by a former employee, we look at modernising the legacy system in stages. When a firm genuinely needs a single system built around an unusual process, our bespoke ERP development page explains how we approach it.
Example: a 60-person sheet metal subcontractor
A hypothetical example. A fabricator with 60 staff runs Sage 200 for accounts and stock, estimates from a large Excel workbook, and tracks jobs on paper travellers. Lead times are given from memory and the estimator is two years from retirement.
Phase one is an estimating engine that captures the estimator's method, with nesting data imported from the laser software and outside processing from preferred suppliers. Phase two adds works orders created from accepted orders, tablets at the press brakes and welding bays, and estimated against actual hours on every finished job. Sage 200 stays in place, receiving orders and despatches automatically.
Why manufacturers choose Fixology
We set out to be the UK's leading bespoke manufacturing software company, and that standard starts on the shop floor. Our discovery phase includes time at the machines, with the planners and with goods in, and produces a written specification and a phased plan. The build then runs in two-week sprints with a working demo on a test link, and shop floor features go live on one cell before the whole factory, with a period of parallel running alongside your paperwork.
A senior UK team writes and tests the code, which sits in your own repository from day one, with hosting in your name in UK or EU regions. After launch we support the system and keep improving it as your processes change. If an Access database or old package is part of the picture, our guide to replacing legacy software shows how we move data across without stopping production.