For small & mid-size manufacturers
We build custom back-office systems that eliminate repetitive paperwork and turn scattered ERP data into clear operational visibility — for shops that are too small for enterprise software and too big for spreadsheets.
Small and mid-size manufacturers lose 10 to 30 hours a week to manual quote handling, vendor PO chasing, document filing, and report-pulling that should run by themselves. Most of this work gets quietly absorbed by your office manager, your operations person, or you.
The real cost isn't the hours — it's what those people aren't doing instead.
Right-sized solutions built on top of the systems you already run. No enterprise sales process, no six-month implementation, no recurring license fees that grow every time you hire someone.
Repetitive document and process work, eliminated.
Quote setup, vendor RFQs, customer PO handling, invoice validation, job close-outs — the dozens of small repetitive tasks that drain your back office. We document the work, measure the time, automate the steps, and quote based on the actual savings. Most projects pay for themselves within 6 to 12 months.
Your data, turned into decisions.
Manufacturers are buried in ERP data and starved of useful information. We turn one into the other — daily briefs that tell you what changed overnight, trend analysis that surfaces problems before they hit the P&L, profitability monitoring at the job and customer level, and the KPIs that actually drive decisions. You start each morning knowing what needs attention.
Specific problems, specific solutions.
Internal tools, integrations between systems, document processors, tribal-knowledge capture, inspection report generators, dimension converters — the one-off needs that don't fit any standard product. Scoped, fixed-price, delivered in weeks not months.
Every engagement starts with a paid scope and ends with documented, working software you own. No hourly meters running, no open-ended retainers, no vendor lock-in.
We start with a paid scoping engagement. You document the processes you want fixed and measure the actual time spent. We review, identify what's automatable, and deliver a written scope with fixed pricing.
Fixed price, fixed timeline, fixed scope. Most projects deliver in 4 to 8 weeks. You see progress weekly. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
Most builds combine tools running in your environment with more complex pieces hosted on infrastructure we manage. We coordinate with your IT team or provider to get the necessary access, install everything, train your team, and handle the technical pieces you don't want to think about.
Every build includes a 12-month care plan covering hosting, monitoring, bug fixes, and small adjustments across the whole system. After the first year, you choose between continued full-service maintenance or a lower-cost pay-as-you-go option that keeps your automation running but lets you handle issues as they come up.
Linked Operations is a one-person practice founded on 20+ years in manufacturing, including more than a decade owning and operating a machine shop. The work here comes directly from that experience — these are the systems we wished we'd had, built for the shops that need them now.
We work with a small number of manufacturers at a time, focused on solving real operational problems with practical, right-sized tools. No enterprise sales process, no SaaS lock-in, no consultant theatrics. Just clear scope, fixed prices, and work that runs after we leave.
If you've got a back-office process that's eating hours every week, or ERP data that should be telling you more than it is, send a note. First call is free and runs about 30 minutes — we'll figure out together whether there's a fit.