§ 01

Why we build software differently

Most software built for mid-sized manufacturers fails for one of two reasons: it was built by people who don't know the operation, or it was built by people who know the operation but can't ship software. We sit on both sides. The same firm that would machine your parts is building your portal, your CRM, and your dashboards.

In practice, that means we almost always start with a one-week audit. Software built without seeing the operation is software built on assumptions — and assumptions are where manufacturing software projects die.

Capabilities 02 / 04

Four capabilities. The audit is the on-ramp to the other three.

B · 01

Custom CRM deployment

Generic CRMs weren't designed for businesses where the unit of work is a part number, a drawing revision, and a quote against a specific customer price list. We build CRMs that are — and connect them to everything else in the quote-to-cash flow.

  • Quote-to-order systems that handle revisions, customer-specific pricing, and approval workflows.
  • Customer reorder portals tied to part numbers and drawing revisions.
  • Role-based access — what sales sees, what purchasing sees, what operators see.
  • Integration with accounting, shipping, and shop-floor systems so information flows without manual re-keying.
Live preview Click tabs, rows, and the Internal / Customer Portal toggle — everything is interactive.
quote-to-order · active quotes

Your approved parts catalog

Signed in · Packaging OEM · Mississauga
BMBD-13 Rev C Stainless spindle, 316 · keyed end CAD 210.50 / ea
SF-6-304 Rev B Stainless flange · weld-neck · 6" CAD 255.00 / ea
UHMW-C12 Rev A UHMW wear strip · food-grade CAD 48.20 / ea
CAB-17 Rev A Cast aluminum bracket · A356-T6 CAD 81.30 / ea
Connected systems
Accounting CRM Shipping Shop floor
Fig. B1 — Quote-to-order CRM · toggle Internal / Customer Portal at top right · click a row, switch revision, approve

This is a working example — every tab, button, and row responded to you. In production, it sits on your quote and customer data.

B · 02

Workflow automation

The places where an operation slows down are rarely where the sales team looks. They're in the handoffs: intake triage, drawing review, quote approvals, expediting, exception handling. That's where LLM agents and well-placed automation pay off — not as novelty, but as quiet infrastructure that removes the friction.

  • Operational dashboards operators actually open and managers actually trust.
  • LLM agents for intake classification, quote triage, and drawing interpretation.
  • AI parts-identification tools that match a photograph, description, or spec against an existing catalog.
  • Workflow automation between CRM, ERP, and shipping carriers — so the same data doesn't get typed in three places.
Live preview Switch between Intake triage and Parts-ID, advance status pills, or upload a part to match.
operations · intake dashboard MPSS · OPS
Intake today
0
+12% vs yesterday
Avg triage time
0min
−3 min vs last week
Quotes awaiting review
0
+2 vs yesterday
Live intake feed
Live
Upload a part photo · we'll match it against your catalog
JPG, PNG, or STEP · demo only
Extracting visual features
Running embedding lookup against catalog · 4,218 parts
Ranking candidates by geometry + material signature
BMBD-13Stainless spindle, 316 · Rev C · 40 in stock
94% match
BMBD-12Stainless spindle, 304 · Rev B · legacy SKU
72% match
BMBD-9Stainless spindle · deprecated · superseded by BMBD-13
48% match
Fig. B2 — Operations dashboard · live KPIs, advance status pills, or switch to parts-ID to match a photo against the catalog

This was live — KPIs animated, pills advanced, the parts-ID screen matched against a mock catalog. In production, this is your floor.

B · 03

Supply chain optimisation

Mid-sized manufacturers usually have more signal in their supply chain than they're using. Supplier performance, reorder patterns, safety stock, obsolescence risk, landed-cost variance — the data is there, but it's sitting across three systems and a spreadsheet. We build the layer that reads across them and surfaces what matters.

  • Supplier performance analysis — on-time delivery, quality variance, price drift.
  • Reorder-logic automation that flags where safety stock is wrong in either direction.
  • Landed-cost tracking across suppliers, currencies, and shipping routes.
  • Sourcing decision support — where to consolidate, where to dual-source, where to re-shore.
Live preview Switch panes, sort columns, expand rows — the scorecard responds like a real dashboard.
supply chain · Q2 review MPSS · SCM
Supplier On-time Quality Price drift Status
SF-6-304 304 stainless weld-neck flange · 6"Demand +42% over trailing 12 weeks · below single lead-time cover Under-stocked
UHMW-C12 UHMW wear strip · food-grade9 months of cover on hand · $14K working capital tied up Over-stocked
BMBD-13 Stainless spindle, 316 · Rev CDemand stable · safety stock currently aligned Over by 2wk
CAB-17 Cast aluminum bracket · A356-T6Two late shipments from LakeAlloys raised exposure · single-source Exposure flag
Consolidate Shift 304/316 stainless bar stock from two suppliers to Hensall MetalsHensall holds 96% on-time + 98% quality · volume concentration earns 4% price break at committed annual spend Est. impact−$52K / yr
Dual-source Qualify Chennai Precision as secondary for BMBD-13 familyLakeAlloys at 68% on-time creates schedule risk · qualified alternate onboarding 60% complete Est. impactRisk −2 tier
Re-shore Move Alloy 625 bar from EU sourcing to North American millEUR/CAD drift + 9-week lead time · NA mill quoted 12-day lead + currency-matched pricing Est. impactLead −6 wk
Fig. B3 — Supplier scorecard · switch between Performance, Reorder flags, and Sourcing decisions · expand any supplier row for landed-cost detail

Everything here was live — sorted columns, expanded rows, flag acknowledgements. In production, the rows are your suppliers and the flags are on your POs.

B · 04

Operations audit

One week on site, one written document. We walk the line, read the quote-to-cash flow, and return a briefing document that names what's broken and what's worth fixing. It's the on-ramp to any of the three capabilities above — and it's a standalone engagement when you need an outside read.

  • Quote-to-cash walkthrough — from customer request to payment received.
  • Part numbering, drawing management, and revision control review.
  • Sourcing workflow and supplier relationship assessment.
  • Shop-floor execution, scheduling, and inspection review.
  • Inventory and reorder behaviour — including cash tied up in parts that don't ship.
  • Deliverable: a written document covering findings, ranked recommendations, a watch list, and scoping notes for follow-on work.
Live preview Click each section — Findings, Recommendations, Watch list, Scoping — to step through a real audit deliverable.
audit · deliverable preview MPSS · AUDIT
Document progress
Section 1 of 4 · 7 pp
Client · packaging OEM · Ontario p. 1–2 · five-day audit · Apr 2026
F·01
Quote cycle time driven by manual drawing look-up
High

Engineers spend an average of 45 minutes per quote locating the current revision of source drawings across two shared drives and an email archive. Sampled over one week, this consumed 11% of engineering capacity.

F·02
Safety stock set on gut feel, not demand signal
High

Minimum stock levels on stainless wear parts were last reviewed in 2022. Two SKUs are over-stocked by an estimated 9 months of cover; one is stocked below a single lead-time of cover.

F·03
OEM replacement-part premiums not systematically audited
Medium

Five high-volume SKUs are purchased from the original OEM at prices 60–130% above comparable contract machining. No internal process exists to flag these as re-source candidates.

F·04
Shipping handoff loses 1–2 days per export order
Low

Commercial invoices are re-keyed from the CRM into the broker's portal. Typos trigger review cycles averaging 1.4 days on cross-border shipments.

R·01
Build drawing-revision index tied to CRM part records
High

Payback estimate: recovers ~11% of engineering capacity within 60 days of go-live. Effort: 4–6 weeks.

R·02
Reorder logic on stainless wear parts, refreshed quarterly
High

Expected working-capital release on identified SKUs: $180–220K on first pass. Effort: 2–3 weeks.

R·03
Monthly OEM premium audit — top 20 SKUs
Medium

Even partial re-sourcing on the top five SKUs projects $90K+ annual cost reduction. Effort: ongoing, 2 hours per month once tooled.

W·01
Single-source exposure on Alloy 625 bar stock
Medium

Current supplier provides 100% of Alloy 625 inventory. One qualified alternate identified; no commercial relationship yet.

W·02
Operator-dependent tribal knowledge on two legacy SKUs
Low

Setup procedures for two legacy SKUs exist only in one operator's head. Documentation recommended before year-end.

S·01
Drawing-revision index — proposed scope
Phase 1

Scope covers: CRM integration, revision-history pull from existing Dropbox archive, role-based access. Excludes: operator-facing shop-floor terminals (phase 2).

S·02
Reorder-logic refresh — proposed scope
Phase 1

Scope covers: 42 stainless SKUs, quarterly automated refresh, buyer-facing dashboard. Excludes: plastics and specialty alloys (phase 2).

Fig. B4 — Audit deliverable · each tab advances the document; progress indicator tracks position in the 7-page report

This was a live walkthrough of a real deliverable's structure. Your actual audit arrives as a written document, not a screen — but this is how it's organized.

Audits run on a fixed scope and a fixed timeline. A brief discovery call sets the focus — what part of the operation to look at, who we should talk to, and what systems we need access to. The document lands within two weeks of fieldwork.

§ 03

How to engage

Start with a concrete problem. The sharpest briefs sound like: "Our reorder desk is drowning" or "Every quote takes three days because nobody trusts the margin number" or "We need a customer portal by Q3." We can take it from there.

If the problem is diffuse — "we need to modernize," "something is slow but I can't name it" — start with an audit. One week, one document, and a short list of projects worth doing. Everything else flows from there.

Customer reorder portal — representative interface
Work / AI
Client
A North American food-packaging parts distributor
Brief
Reorder portal tied to part numbers and drawing revisions
Stack
Custom web portal, CRM integration, role-based access
Status
Live. Handling monthly reorder volume.
The client's purchasing team was rebuilding quotes from scratch every month. We built a portal tied directly to their part numbers and drawing revisions, so approved part/price pairs were a reorder click — not a re-quote. "Monthly reorders went from a week of email threads to an afternoon of clicks."
Next Step

Describe the bottleneck. Or the workflow you'd automate.

A sharp description of the problem is the fastest way to scope it. If the problem is diffuse, we'll start with an audit. We respond within three business days.

info@maplempss.com · +1 647-671-4516 · Burlington, ON · Chennai, IN