Fabrication Plan
§ 01 · Scenarios
Who this is built for

Three jobs on the floor,
no room for slop.

Fabrication Plan is built for shops with 3 – 50 fabricators running concurrent jobs — event & scenic, custom metal, print & signage. Here's what a typical week looks like when the whole plan lives in one place.

On this page
01Event & Scenic — three clients, one weekend
02Custom Metal & Welding — steel by Monday
03Print, Vinyl & Signage — no Sunday-night texts
↓A day in the life
"What shop owners are saying
01
Event & Scenic Fab
3 – 50 fabricators · several clients at once
02
Custom Metal & Welding
CNC + welding · single-owner → 2-shift shops · material-heavy
03
Print, Vinyl & Signage
Large-format print · vehicle wraps · install crews in the field
§ 02 · Shop profiles
01
Event & Scenic Fab

Three jobs, three clients, one weekend.

Illustrative scenario
18 fabricators · 2 welders · 3 scenic painters

Embassy dinner Thursday, Capitol signage Friday, gala stage Sunday. Three clients, one owner, one crew. The schedule used to live in a shared spreadsheet, and the crew got a text by 11 PM Sunday. Now the crew sees the week on a tablet by the coffee pot — and the owner sees they're over capacity a week out, not Friday at 6 PM.

Weekly board · 4 clients
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
Embassy
Dinner · Thu
Capitol
Signage · Fri
Gala
Stage · Sun
Capacity · 87%Conflicts · 0On track
02
Custom Metal & Welding

Two welders, one CNC, and a PO that lands on time.

Illustrative scenario
2 welders · 1 CNC · purchaser + office manager
Materials vs schedule · this week
SKU
ON HAND
NEED
PURCHASE
HSS 2x2 · 11ga
▲14
32
PO-0412 · Tue
¼" A36 plate
8
6
—
MIG wire · ER70
22
18
—
Sch 40 · 1½"
▲2
18
PO-0415 · Mon
2 reorders queuedSaves 3.1 days lead

The purchaser used to find out a job slipped when the steel showed up and the bay was still tied up. Fabrication Plan puts material lead times right next to the live schedule — so when a job slips three days, she sees it before she places the PO, not after the coil lands.

What it costs
them today
42%

Of project margin large steel contractors lose to change orders, according to Procore's research.

Margin lost to change orders
Source · Procore · 2025
03
Print, Vinyl & Signage

Sunday-night rush jobs without the Sunday-night texts.

Illustrative scenario
6 shop + 4 install · running 2 print queues

A large-format print queue, geofenced clock-ins, and a live job board so hours land on the right job automatically. The owner can look at a phone on Sunday night and see exactly which jobs are tight — and let the crew see it too, without texting them one by one.

Install route · Tue
09:15
Barton Springs · Austin
En route
10:40
4201 N Lamar
Installing
12:05
Oltorf & S 1st
Queued
14:00
SoCo · Monument sign
Queued
4 jobs · geofenced clock-in+2.4 hrs saved
§ 03 · Day in the life
Tuesday in April

What actually
happens on the floor.

An illustrative day built around what the app does today. No magic — just nine small moments where the plan keeps you out of trouble.

06:45
· Crew
First fabricators clock in from their phones. Hours start against the job they picked.
07:15
· Owner
Checks the phone in the truck. Two jobs green, one amber. No fires.
08:30
· Schedr.
Drags Welder A from "Gala stage" to "Embassy dinner" — Gala is ahead of pace. Conflict badges flip green.
09:40
· Crew
Jose pulls HSS 2x2 off the rack — phone scan auto-deducts stock and bills it to the right job.
11:10
· Purch.
Sees the week slip 3 days on Signage — places the steel PO today instead of Thursday. Avoids $6.1K carrying.
12:30
· Crew
Lunch. Clock-outs auto-log. Photo-of-the-day from Bay 3 files against the job.
14:05
· Client
Client calls: "Can you do matte instead of gloss?" Change order logged. $410 diff auto-priced.
15:50
· Crew
Welder B runs long on the Gala bracket. Flags a conflict — the scheduler re-sequences in 30 seconds.
17:00
· Owner
Clock-outs roll. Payroll export for Friday queued up. No Sunday-night spreadsheet.
§ 04 · By the numbers
By the numbers

Most shops run on spreadsheets and sticky notes.
Here's what that costs.

84.8%
of inventory pros still track stock in spreadsheets
Source · inFlow State of Inventory 2026 · 400 US ops pros, Mar 2026 · vendor-run survey
44%
get hit with a stockout at least once a month
Source · inFlow State of Inventory 2026 · 400 US ops pros, Mar 2026 · vendor-run survey
54%
say carrying costs run over 10% of what is on the shelf
Source · inFlow State of Inventory 2026 · 400 US ops pros, Mar 2026 · vendor-run survey
+22%
on-time delivery at one Wisconsin job shop after it tracked its work in shop software
Source · Global Shop Solutions case study (Jensen Metal Products), Apr 2017 · vendor-reported
67%
of small manufacturers cut their production planning time after switching to shop software
Source · MRPeasy, 70 customer case studies, 2025 · vendor-run
82%
saw inventory accuracy improve after switching
Source · MRPeasy, 70 customer case studies, 2025 · vendor-run
46%
of job shops name quoting and estimating among their greatest software needs
Source · FMA Forming and Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report, Q2 2026 · 369 FMA member shops · industry survey
34%
name scheduling among their greatest software needs
Source · FMA Forming and Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report, Q2 2026 · 369 FMA member shops · industry survey
89%
report steel and aluminum prices up compared with the second half of 2025
Source · FMA Forming and Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report, Q2 2026 · 369 FMA member shops · industry survey
85%
report higher logistics costs compared with the second half of 2025
Source · FMA Forming and Fabricating Job Shop Consumption Report, Q2 2026 · 369 FMA member shops · industry survey

These come from published surveys and case studies. Most were run by software companies, and we tag each one so you know. Your shop's numbers will be your own.

Every plan · every seat · every feature

See what your shop looks like
with the crew on the same page.

30-day free trial — full use, no charge until day 31. No tiers, no feature gates, no contracts.

Start 30-day trial →See pricing