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Practical guides on manufacturing operations, written by people who have run plants. No vendor hedging. If we think something is true, we say it.
Traveler, Batch Record, Device History Record
Six industries, six words, one artifact. What each term means, which standard asks for it, and the five properties that decide whether the record holds up in front of an auditor.
Read the guideDo You Need an MES to Get Traceability?
No. It requires three things: an identity for the unit, a routing the work follows, and capture at the point of work. The two routes to all three, and what each asks you to settle first.
Read the guideHow Do You Prove Which Revision the Operator Used?
Doing document control correctly destroys the evidence of what was at the station last March. Why that gap is structural rather than sloppy, four half-measures, and what closes it.
Read the guideFrom a Whiteboard to Work Instructions in Under a Week
Every arrow on the board is a routing step. Every circled QA is a hold. The six-step method, and why the work is days rather than months.
Read the guideHow Long Should an MES Implementation Take?
The industry average is 12 to 18 months. Six structural reasons that has nothing to do with your operation's complexity, and five questions to ask any vendor before you sign.
Read the guideWhat Are Digital Work Instructions in Manufacturing?
Four document types manufacturers confuse, five things paper fundamentally cannot do, and how to know whether your operation actually needs this yet.
Read the guideOperator-Centered Design in Manufacturing
Most MES interfaces are built by engineers for engineers. Operators reject them, and the standard response is more training. Here is what a screen built for the person doing the work actually looks like.
Read the guideLegacy MES Modernization
Your upgrade quote buys a hardened backend and the same screens. Rip and replace throws away a decade of genealogy and compliance history. There is a third option.
Read the guideNobody Wants to Rip Out Their MES
A rip-and-replace throws away the one thing that took a decade to earn: trust in the record. Why the exit keeps coming up, and how to fix the experience without the cutover.
Read the guideDesign for the Person Wearing the Gloves
Information density should be inversely proportional to how well things are going. Three screens from the same station, and what a welder wearing a headset in a loud plant taught us about what to leave out.
Read the guideThe Enshittification of Manufacturing Software
Your MES costs more every year and does less. Manufacturers carry the highest switching costs in enterprise software, which is exactly why, and the only cure that touches the cause.
Read the guideAlso worth reading
The Forge Methodology. The deployment system behind every ForgeOS engagement. Four principles that make speed safe.