Capabilities & solutions overview
The industrial operations platform.
One system for maintenance, production, quality, inventory, purchasing, planning, sales, finance, HR, safety, and team coordination.
Executive summary
One system for the whole operation
SPANNER is a single platform for running the operational side of a manufacturing or industrial business. It brings maintenance, production, quality, inventory, purchasing, planning, sales, HR, finance, safety, and team coordination into one real-time system — replacing the patchwork of paper forms, spreadsheets, radios, and disconnected point tools that most plants run on today.
It was built on the factory floor, for the factory floor. An operator raises a machine-down alert from a phone in seconds. A technician is notified instantly, locks into the job, and documents the repair as they work. The downtime flows automatically into the OEE calculation. A supervisor signs off with one tap, and the manager watches it all on a live dashboard. The same platform then handles the work orders, spare parts, purchase orders, quality inspections, training records, payroll hours, and accounting entries that surround that one repair.
The result is fewer systems, less paperwork, faster response, and a complete, searchable record of everything that happens in the plant — from a single login, on any device.
The problem
What a disconnected plant costs
Most plants coordinate their day through a mix of analog and disconnected tools. The cost shows up everywhere:
- No single source of truth — managers walk the floor each morning asking what happened overnight, then re-key numbers into spreadsheets.
- Slow, invisible response — breakdowns are reported by shouting or radio; nobody can measure how long response actually takes.
- Paperwork that goes missing — handwritten forms are incomplete, illegible, or never filed — and there is no audit trail of when things happened.
- Manual, error-prone reporting — OEE, downtime, and KPI numbers are rebuilt by hand in Excel, often with formulas nobody else can verify.
- Siloed information — maintenance, quality, inventory, purchasing, and finance each live in their own tool — or in no tool at all.
SPANNER replaces all of that with one connected, real-time system that the whole plant works from.
Why SPANNER
Built for the floor — and everything connects
Built for the floor, not adapted to it
Generic CMMS and project tools are office software pointed at a factory. SPANNER is the opposite — every screen is designed to be usable standing at a machine, on a phone, with dirty hands, in a noisy room.
- Speed where it matters — an operator can raise an alert in under fifteen seconds; a technician goes from notification to “responding” in one tap.
- Accountability by design — a four-timestamp incident lifecycle, automatic responder identity, and a job lock make documentation automatic rather than optional.
- Real-time everywhere — status changes and alerts appear instantly for every connected user — no refreshing, no chasing.
One platform instead of ten
SPANNER spans the work that normally requires a CMMS, an MES/OEE tool, a quality system, an inventory system, a purchasing tool, an MRP planner, an HR/time system, and an accounting package — under one login, with one set of users and permissions, and one shared record.
- Adopt at your pace — modules such as Financials are opt-in per company, so you can start with maintenance and grow into a full operations suite.
- Everything connects — a resolved incident feeds OEE; a work order consumes parts from inventory; an inspection failure opens a corrective action. Data is entered once.
At a glance
The platform, module by module
SPANNER is organized into focused modules. A company turns on the ones it needs; access to each is controlled per role and per user.
| Module | What it does |
|---|---|
| Incidents & Alerts | Real-time machine-down alerts, responder lock, four-stage lifecycle, and automatic downtime capture. |
| Maintenance | Assets and machines, work orders, PM schedules, improvements (kaizen), service certifications, and manuals. |
| PM Forms | Build or upload checklist forms, fill them on any device, sign off, and keep a downloadable record. |
| Production & OEE | Per-shift production entry, automatic OEE, dashboards, and bill-of-materials. |
| Quality | Defects, inspections, CAPA, specifications, SPC, certificates, calibration, holds, and sanitation. |
| Inventory | Multi-warehouse stock with moving-average valuation and a full ledger, an inventory-health overview, and a configurable Daily Recon spreadsheet. |
| Purchasing | Purchase orders with real document numbers, receiving, and supplier records. |
| Planning (MRP) | Material requirements planning across demand, stock, and supply. |
| Sales & Fleet | Customers and sales orders, plus a fleet register with maintenance-downtime and fuel tracking. |
| Financials | Double-entry general ledger, statements, A/R and A/P aging, tax codes, multi-currency, and period close — with automated posting and live gross margin. |
| HR | Employee records, leave and approvals, and employee scheduling. |
| Time Clock | QR-based clock in/out, automatic overtime, timesheets, and payroll-ready reports. |
| Training & Safety | Per-department training records, skill ratings, a training library, and review sign-off. |
| Emergency | Response protocols, live checklists, contacts, muster check-ins, and after-action reports. |
| Projects & Tasks | Projects with sections, assignable tasks, priorities, due dates, and board views. |
| Chat | Built-in team messaging. |
| Reports & Documents | Every module exports to CSV, Excel, Word, and PDF, with an in-app document viewer. |
| AI | In-app guidance and live writing checks, plus a data-grounded AI Operations Advisor with downloadable assessments. |
Capabilities in detail
What each area does in practice
The sections below describe what each area of SPANNER does on the floor and in the office.
Incident & Alert Management
The signature workflow. When a machine goes down, the issue moves through a tracked, timestamped lifecycle that coordinates up to four people without a single radio call.
- Raise an alert in seconds — pick the area and machine, describe the issue, submit — every technician and manager is notified instantly.
- Responder lock — a technician taps “Responding”; their name is broadcast so two techs never show up to the same job.
- Automatic downtime — the clock starts when the alert is raised and stops when the repair is submitted — measured to the second.
- Supervisor sign-off — the supervisor reviews the repair report and confirms resolution as a quality gate before the record closes.
- Complete audit trail — who raised it, who responded, response time, root cause, action taken, category, and downtime — all searchable and exportable.
The signature 15-second workflow
An operator raises a machine-down alert from a phone in seconds. Every technician is notified instantly; one taps “Responding” and locks the job. Downtime is timed and flows straight into OEE, and a supervisor signs off with one tap — no radios, no paper, no lost time.
Maintenance Management
Everything that keeps equipment running, organized by asset and machine.
- Assets & machines — a registry of areas and machines, with specs, ideal run rates, and full incident history per machine.
- Work orders — planned and corrective work with real per-company work-order numbers, parts, and multiple assignees.
- PM schedules — recurring preventative-maintenance schedules by frequency (daily through annual) with compliance tracking.
- Improvements (kaizen) — capture improvement ideas with purpose, expected results, and parts, and track them to completion.
- Manuals & certifications — attach machine manuals and view them in-app; track service and calibration certifications.
- KPIs per asset — issues, downtime, MTTR, and MTBF computed over each asset’s full history, with boardroom-ready reports.
Preventative Maintenance (PM) Forms
Replace the clipboard. Turn any maintenance checklist into a digital form technicians complete on a phone or tablet.
- Build or upload — create a form in a visual editor, or upload an existing Word document and SPANNER turns it into a fillable form.
- Fill anywhere — technicians complete forms on any device; entries are timestamped and attributed automatically.
- Sign-off & records — managers review and sign completed forms; every submission is filtered by schedule, sortable, and downloadable.
- Schedule-aware — forms and records are organized by frequency so daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly work is easy to find.
Production & OEE
Turn shift output into a live measure of equipment effectiveness — automatically.
- Per-shift data entry — capture shift time, planned stops, run rates, good units, and defects for each machine and shift.
- Automatic downtime — unplanned downtime is pre-filled from resolved incidents, so OEE reflects what actually happened on the floor.
- Instant OEE — availability, performance, quality, and overall OEE are calculated the moment data is saved.
- Dashboards & BOM — colour-coded dashboards roll up by machine, area, week, and month; bill-of-materials ties production to components.
Quality Management
A full quality system covering inspection, nonconformance, and corrective action.
- Defects & inspections — log defects and run inspections against defined specifications.
- CAPA — corrective and preventive actions with close-out controls.
- SPC & specifications — statistical process control and specification limits to keep processes in tolerance.
- Certificates, calibration & holds — manage certificates of analysis, calibration schedules, and quality holds.
- Cleaning & sanitation — sanitation schedules and records for regulated environments.
Inventory & Warehouse Management
Know exactly what stock you have, where it is, and what it is worth.
- Multi-warehouse stock — track quantities across multiple warehouses and locations.
- Perpetual valuation — moving-average costing keeps inventory value accurate on every movement.
- Stock ledger — every receipt, issue, and adjustment is recorded for a complete audit trail.
- Inventory overview — value by product type, stock-count accuracy against target, high and low variances, and dead-stock and low-stock alerts, all date-filtered.
- Products & bill of materials — a product catalog with categories, container types, case quantities, and costs.
Daily Recon — a stock-reconciliation spreadsheet you control
Define your own columns and per-column formulas, add manual and summary (subtotal) rows, and auto-fill columns from product data or from live inventory movements (received, produced, sold, returned, consumed). Populate a day by importing Excel, CSV, Word, or PDF — or pasting from a spreadsheet — with column mapping the system remembers. Every layout exports to Word, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Purchasing & Procurement
From requisition to receipt, with proper documentation.
- Purchase orders — create POs with real per-company document numbers and downloadable reports.
- Receiving — receive against orders so stock and commitments stay in sync.
- Suppliers — maintain supplier records tied to orders and parts.
Planning (MRP)
Material requirements planning that looks across demand, stock, and supply to tell you what to make and buy.
- Requirements run — calculate net requirements from demand and current inventory.
- Connected to the rest — planning draws on production, inventory, sales, and purchasing data already in the system.
Sales, Customers & Fleet
Manage the demand side alongside operations — including the vehicles that move your goods.
- Customers — a central record of customers and their orders.
- Sales orders — create and track orders that feed planning and fulfilment.
- Fleet register — record delivery vehicles by type, licence plate, make, model, and supplier.
- Downtime & fuel — log supplier-run maintenance downtime and fuel consumption — daily, weekly, or monthly — with litres-per-100 km efficiency.
Financials & Accounting
A double-entry accounting suite built into the same platform — opt-in per company.
- General ledger — true double-entry posting with a configurable chart of accounts; every entry is balanced and immutable.
- Financial statements — live trial balance, profit & loss, balance sheet, and per-account drill-down, filterable by date.
- Automated posting — invoicing, receiving, and shipping post the receivable, payable, and cost-of-goods-sold journals automatically.
- A/R & A/P aging — open receivables and payables aged by customer and vendor into 30 / 60 / 90-day buckets.
- Receipts, payments & FX — record receipts and vendor payments; foreign-currency settlements book a realized exchange gain or loss.
- Period close & audit trail — lock a closed period so nothing can post into it; journals are corrected with reversals, never silent edits.
Accounting that posts itself
Invoicing a sales order, receiving a purchase order, and shipping goods post the receivable, payable, and cost-of-goods-sold journals automatically — so gross margin, aging, and the trial balance stay live without anyone re-keying entries.
HR, Time & Attendance
The people side of operations, connected to the work.
- Employee records & leave — maintain employees and approve leave requests with live balances.
- Employee scheduling — build and search shift schedules with month grouping and date filters.
- QR time clock — employees clock in and out by scanning a weekly-rotating, signed QR code, with one punch per day enforced.
- Automatic overtime — hours past the daily and weekly thresholds become overtime entries with a four-stage sign-off.
- Payroll-ready reports — timesheets and overtime export in every format, filtered by employee and period.
Training & Safety
Keep skills current and provable, by department.
- Training records — per-department training with skill ratings and clear competency labels.
- Training library — reference documents attached per asset and area.
- Review & sign-off — managers review employees against a checklist, leave per-employee comments, and record completion.
Emergency Management
Be ready for the moments that matter, with real procedures and a live record.
- Response protocols — ready-to-run protocols including first aid, fire, and spill response, drawn from recognized standards.
- Live activations — activate a protocol and work a step-by-step checklist in real time.
- Contacts & muster — one-tap emergency contacts and muster-point check-ins to account for people.
- After-action reports — completed activations become reportable records with scope and resolution notes.
Projects, Tasks & Chat
Coordinate planned work and conversations without leaving the platform.
- Projects — group work into projects with sections, leads, and completion tracking; download detailed reports.
- Tasks — assignable tasks with priorities, due dates, comments, and overdue flags, organized by department.
- Team chat — built-in messaging so coordination stays in one place.
Reporting, Documents & AI
Get information out as easily as you put it in — and let AI help you read it.
- Reports everywhere — every module produces downloadable reports in CSV, Excel, Word, and PDF, with PowerPoint decks where it counts.
- Document management — upload, organize, and view documents in-app, including manuals and attachments across modules.
- Spanner AI assistant — an in-app guide that answers how-to questions and helps users find the right screen.
- AI Operations Advisor — a data-grounded advisor that analyzes bottlenecks, utilization, reliability, cost, and quality, and generates a downloadable assessment.
- Live writing checks — spelling and grammar are checked as users type, across the app.
Your data, turned into decisions
The AI Operations Advisor reads the numbers already in SPANNER — downtime, OEE, reliability, cost, and quality — and returns grounded, plant-specific findings and recommendations, not generic advice. Every assessment is downloadable to share with the team or leadership.
Access
Roles & access control
SPANNER is role-aware from top to bottom. Each role sees a tailored interface and a defined set of permissions; managers can fine-tune access per person.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Master | Full, unrestricted access across every module — owner-level control and lockout insurance. |
| Manager | Configures the system, manages users and equipment, enters production data, posts financials, and exports any report. |
| Supervisor | Oversees shifts, confirms incident resolutions, creates tasks, and reviews metrics across areas. |
| Team Leader | Raises alerts, creates and tracks team tasks, and monitors their line. |
| Machine Operator | Raises alerts, confirms resolutions, and views dashboards. |
| Maintenance Tech | Responds to alerts, documents repairs, and completes PM forms and tasks. |
| Lab / Production Worker | Area-specific access for quality, production, and emergency. |
| Viewer | Read-only access to the areas a manager grants. |
Granular permissions
- Editable permission matrix — managers grant or remove specific abilities (raise alerts, post journals, run MRP, export reports) per role.
- Per-user overrides — any individual can be given or denied a capability without changing their whole role.
- Central enforcement — every action is checked on the server, so the rules hold no matter how a request is made.
Trust
Security, architecture & reliability
- Strict multi-tenant isolation — each company’s data is separated at the database level — one customer can never see another’s information.
- Role-based access control everywhere — every endpoint enforces roles and permissions; there are no unprotected actions.
- Secure credentials & sessions — passwords are hashed with industry-standard bcrypt, sessions use secure cookies, and sign-in is rate-limited.
- Audit logging — sensitive actions are recorded for accountability.
- Real-time updates — live connections push changes to every user instantly, so the whole plant stays in sync.
- Works like an app on any device — installs to a phone or tablet home screen as a Progressive Web App, with push notifications.
- Modern, proven foundation — built on a current web stack (Next.js and PostgreSQL) on enterprise cloud infrastructure with scaling and backups.
Getting started
Deployment & onboarding
- Nothing to install on your servers — SPANNER is delivered as a cloud service — users simply sign in from a browser.
- Guided setup — a setup wizard walks a new company through areas, machines, shifts, and inviting the team by email.
- Grow into it — turn on modules as you are ready; heavier modules such as Financials are opt-in.
- Fast for frontline staff — invited users set a password, get a role-specific welcome, and are ready to work — no training project required.
Outcomes
The business case
Plants that move from paper and spreadsheets to SPANNER see the change in concrete terms.
| Before SPANNER | With SPANNER |
|---|---|
| Response time nobody can measure | Measured in seconds, for every incident |
| ~60% of incidents documented | 100% documented as work happens |
| 30+ minutes of manual OEE in Excel | OEE calculated automatically |
| Downtime estimated after the fact | Downtime captured to the second |
| Paper forms in a tray | Searchable, exportable digital records |
| Verbal, lost work delegation | Tracked, prioritized task boards |
| Separate tools for each function | One platform, one login, one record |
The people closest to the machines spend their time fixing problems instead of filling out paperwork — and leadership gets a complete, trustworthy picture of the operation in real time.
See it running on your own operation
SPANNER is live, in production, and ready to demonstrate against your real workflows — from the incident on the floor to the general ledger in the office.