Manufacturing

Software that puts output, quality and cost in one view: shop floor, ERP and quality records connected, with early-warning analytics that catch a defect pattern before the bad batch ships.

Quality, output and cost live in shop-floor systems, ERP and quality records that are almost never seen together. By the time a defect pattern shows up in a monthly report, the bad batch has already shipped.

Connecting shop floor, ERP and quality data

In most plants the numbers that decide whether a job made money live in three places that never get read together: production and scheduling on the shop floor, costs and inventory in the ERP, and quality records in a binder or a separate quality system. By the time a non-conformance shows up in a monthly report, the defect pattern has already shipped and the BOM and traceability records needed to trace it back are scattered. Off-the-shelf tools each own one of those silos and have no incentive to talk to the others.

Custom integration is where this gets fixed. We connect MES, ERP and quality data into dashboards that put output, OEE, downtime and non-conformance side by side, so a leader sees the job and its quality at the same moment. Our custom business systems and software development work is built for the parts of the process the ERP was never going to handle, and if you are weighing the options, our buy, build or integrate guide walks through when each makes sense.

  • Production and job scheduling that reflects the way the floor actually sequences work.
  • Quality records and NCR logging tied to the job, the batch and the operator.
  • OEE, downtime and output tracking pulled from the line rather than reconstructed from memory.

Operators and supervisors need this in front of them on the floor, not in a report they never open, so we build the web application and shop-floor data capture that show live job and quality status at the station. When the plant’s current tools can’t keep up with the floor, we often start with an idea to prototype build on one line, prove it, then extend across the floor.

Shop floor to ERP integration, SCADA and defect detection

The data has to come off the equipment cleanly for any of this to hold. We pull SCADA and PLC signals, line counters and CMMS maintenance history into one model, then connect it back to the ERP through proper API integration so shop-floor reality and the financial system agree. We tend to integrate before recommending a replacement, and have written about ERP integration before replacement and API integration for growing businesses for teams making that call.

On top of connected data we add early-warning analytics on quality, downtime and OEE so a drift or a recurring fault surfaces while you can still act on it. Where the defect is visual, we build sensor and AI and applied AI for computer-vision defect detection on the line, catching the fault before the batch is packed rather than after a customer finds it. Before automating anything, we map the manual process first so we automate the work that is actually there, not an idealised version of it.

We are based in Toowoomba and work with manufacturers across regional Queensland, but the same MES, ERP and quality integration runs for plants Australia-wide and overseas. The standards and the systems are common to the trade wherever the factory sits.

Queensland’s making things, not just digging them up

Manufacturing in this state runs well beyond Brisbane. The Australia TradeCoast precinct and Ipswich anchor the south-east, while Toowoomba and the wider Darling Downs turn out food products and ag machinery built for the paddock, not a catalogue. Gladstone runs heavy processing and aluminium, Mackay manufactures mining equipment for the basins to its west, and Townsville carries the northern load. Food processing and METS manufacturing are genuinely strong in regional Queensland, and both live or die on traceability and uptime that a binder cannot deliver.

A food plant working to HACCP and a customer audit, and an ag-machinery fabricator chasing OEE across welding and assembly, hit the same wall from opposite directions: production, cost and quality data sitting in systems that never get read together. We connect those with custom business systems and integration that put the job and its non-conformance on one screen, so a defect pattern shows up before the batch ships rather than after a customer finds it.

Building for Gladstone, Mackay or the Downs gives us the trade context, not a ceiling. The same MES, ERP and quality integration runs for manufacturers across Queensland, Australia and overseas, because the standards on a factory floor travel.

Common challenges

Margins are thin and the pressure is structural. The Australian Industry Group describes a sector that fell into recession through 2024, which makes rework and wasted time expensive in a way they were not a decade ago. MES, ERP and quality data still sit in separate systems, defect and downtime patterns are spotted too late, and maintenance stays reactive because nobody can see asset history next to output. Ageing operational technology also leaves manufacturing among the most ransomware-targeted sectors in the country, on the ACSC’s reporting.

How Rangefront helps

We integrate shop floor, ERP and quality data into dashboards leaders actually trust, add early-warning analytics on quality and downtime, and build custom systems for the workflows your ERP was never going to cover.

Common questions

Yes. Production, quality and cost data usually live in separate systems that never get seen together. We integrate shop floor, ERP and quality records into dashboards leaders actually trust, so output and non-conformance show up side by side instead of in a monthly report.

Yes. Once the data is connected we add early-warning analytics on quality, downtime and OEE, so a defect or failure pattern surfaces while you can still act on it. The aim is fewer surprises and less reactive maintenance, not a science project.

That is most of what we do. We build custom systems for the workflows your ERP was never going to handle, then connect them back so you are not re-keying or running the real process in a spreadsheet beside the official one.

Yes. We are based in Toowoomba and work with manufacturers across regional Queensland, but we deliver for manufacturing businesses Australia-wide. Built in Toowoomba, useful anywhere.