Manufacturing
Manufacturing Software Development
We connect the shop floor to the office. MES and ERP integration, machine data, quality tracking and Dynamics 365 for manufacturers who are tired of running production on whiteboards and spreadsheets.
What gets in the way
- ERP and floor out of sync
- Paper-based quality records
- Machine data you can't use
- Scheduling by spreadsheet
What we build
- Shop floor apps
- MES and ERP integration
- Machine and IoT data
- Quality management tools
At a glance
Manufacturing software development connects the shop floor to the ERP, so production counts, scrap, labor and quality results are recorded as they happen instead of re-keyed later. Small and mid-sized manufacturers running on whiteboards and spreadsheets need it most. Tag4 Technology Solutions builds tablet apps, machine data collection and quality tools, and integrates them with Dynamics 365 or an existing MES.
Updated
- Who we build for
- Small and mid-sized manufacturers, including regulated plants
- What we build
- Shop floor apps, MES and ERP integration, machine data, quality tools
- Compliance we design to
- ISO 9001 records, ISO 13485, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, IATF 16949
- Common integrations
- Dynamics 365, SAP Business One, OPC UA, MQTT, Azure IoT
- Related services
- Business Central, Finance & Operations, data engineering, Power Platform
Walk through most plants and you'll find the real system of record is a whiteboard, a clipboard or a shared Excel file. The ERP knows what was ordered and what was shipped. It has little idea what happened in between. Supervisors re-enter production counts at the end of a shift, scrap gets estimated rather than recorded, and planners build schedules on inventory numbers they don't fully trust.
Manufacturing software development is mostly about closing that gap. We build and integrate the pieces that connect the floor to the business: work order apps on tablets at each station, quality inspection checklists that record results with photos, machine data collection through OPC UA or MQTT, and integrations that push actual labor, material and scrap back into Dynamics 365 Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain Management. When an off-the-shelf MES fits, we integrate it. When it doesn't, we build a lighter one around how your plant actually runs.
A warning from experience: don't start with a plant-wide IoT project. Start with one line and one question, like why changeovers take 40 minutes on Line 3. Get clean data for that, show the answer to the people running the line, then expand. Projects that try to instrument everything at once tend to produce dashboards nobody opens.
The problems
What gets in the way
ERP and floor out of sync
Production, scrap and labor are entered hours or days late, so costing is wrong and inventory counts need constant correction.
Paper-based quality records
Inspection sheets, nonconformance reports and certificates of analysis live in binders. Pulling records for a customer audit or a recall takes days.
Machine data you can't use
PLCs and newer machines produce data, but it stays on the machine or in a vendor tool. Nobody can compare OEE across lines.
Scheduling by spreadsheet
Planners juggle orders, capacity and material availability in Excel. One late shipment from a supplier and the whole week gets rebuilt by hand.
Aging custom systems
Many plants depend on an Access database or an old VB app written by someone who left. It works, but nobody can change it safely.
What we build
Manufacturing software we deliver
Shop floor apps
Tablet apps for work orders, time tracking, material consumption and downtime reasons, built for gloves, noise and spotty Wi-Fi.
MES and ERP integration
Two-way sync between your MES or floor apps and Dynamics 365, SAP Business One or other ERPs for work orders, BOMs, routings and actuals.
Machine and IoT data
Data collection from PLCs and sensors through OPC UA, MQTT or edge gateways into Azure IoT or a time-series database, with OEE and downtime reporting.
Quality management tools
Digital inspection plans, SPC charts, nonconformance and CAPA workflows, and lot traceability from raw material to shipped order.
Dynamics 365 for manufacturing
Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain Management setup for production orders, MRP, costing and warehouse management, configured to your process.
FAQ
Manufacturing software: common questions
Do we need a full MES?
Not always. A full MES makes sense for complex, regulated or high-volume operations. Many small and mid-sized plants get most of the value from a few focused floor apps connected to their ERP, at a much lower cost and with faster adoption.
Can you connect to our older machines?
Usually, yes. Newer equipment often supports OPC UA or MQTT directly. Older machines can be read through PLC protocols, retrofit sensors or edge gateways. We survey your equipment first and tell you which machines are worth connecting.
Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain Management?
For most manufacturers under a few hundred employees with one or two plants, Business Central is the better fit. It's faster to implement and easier to run. Finance and Supply Chain Management earns its cost with multiple entities, complex process manufacturing or advanced planning needs.
Will this work for a regulated plant?
Yes. For FDA-regulated or medical device work, we design electronic records with audit trails, e-signatures and validation documentation to support 21 CFR Part 11. Your quality team still owns validation, and we give them what they need to do it.
Related services
How we usually help
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Cloud ERP rollouts and migrations from QuickBooks, Sage, NAV and GP, with AL extensions where you need them.
Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Finance and Supply Chain Management implementations, AX upgrades and X++ development for complex operations.
Data Engineering
Pipelines, warehouses and lakehouses on Snowflake, Databricks or Fabric, modeled with dbt and monitored.
Power Platform
Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Copilot Studio and Dataverse, with the governance to keep them maintainable.
Have a project in mind?
Tell us what you are trying to build. An engineer reads every message and replies personally. No sales sequences, no pressure.