Pragma Build

Practical Automation

We build the system your operation actually runs on.

Thirty years on the floor. Now we build the systems.

Book a walkthrough See how it works

A welder at a steel bench in a working fabrication shop, daylight through high windows, a press brake and racked steel behind him.
  • 30years on the floor
  • 35–500people, the fit
  • 5steps, stop after any
  • 30day exit, no penalty

You already have software. We are not here to replace it.

Most operations this size are not missing an ERP. They are missing the four things the ERP never covered, and those four things are running on a spreadsheet that one person maintains and nobody else fully understands.

Ripping out a system that works costs you a year and a number with too many zeros in it. We do not do that. We build what is missing, connect it to what you already run, and leave your ERP alone.

If you do not have one, and you do not want one, we will build the whole thing instead. That is your call, not ours, and we will tell you which of the two is cheaper for you.

If your real process lives in spreadsheets, whiteboards, and three people’s heads.

Industrial operations, roughly 35 to 500 people. Manufacturing, fabrication, processing, energy and resources, distribution, trades at scale. The kind of place where the system everyone depends on is a workbook somebody built in 2019 that nobody else fully understands.

A shop floor desk. A whiteboard job schedule rubbed out and rewritten, an open binder of receiving slips, a marked up printed spreadsheet, and a monitor showing another spreadsheet.

The walkthrough deliverable

We draw your operation. Every step, every handoff, every spreadsheet.

This is the map. Lanes are who does the work. Colour is the tool it runs on. Red is where the job stops and waits for a person.

Order to invoice, as it runs today 90 person fabrication shop. Client details removed. Spreadsheet Email Whiteboard In someone’s head Handoff Sales Operations The floor Accounts RFQ Build quote Excel, built 2019 Over $25k? yes no Owner signs Inbox, 2 days Open job Re-typed by hand Slot the job The whiteboard Order steel He knows the guy Cut and weld Setup in his head QC sign off Paper on a clipboard Ship Slip in a binder Invoice Re-typed again PAID 1 2 3 4 5 6 Six handoffs, and every one of them is a person 1 Quote waits for a signature 4.0 hrs/wk 2 Quote re-typed into the job 6.5 hrs/wk 3 Job written on the whiteboard 5.0 hrs/wk 4 Floor asks what is next 3.5 hrs/wk 5 QC paper walked to shipping 2.5 hrs/wk 6 Shipping slip re-typed to invoice 7.0 hrs/wk
One page of the map you keep. Every step, the tool it runs on, and the hours each handoff costs per week.

One job, two ways

The handoffs stop being people.

TODAY Quote Excel, built 2019 Approval Somebody’s inbox Schedule The whiteboard The floor In his head Invoice Re-typed re-typed phone call walked down re-typed Four handoffs. Every one of them is a person. When one is off sick, the operation slows down and nobody can say by how much. When one leaves, part of the system leaves with them.
AFTER Quote One record Approval A rule, not a person Schedule Live board The floor Same board Invoice Automatic carried carried carried carried Nobody retypes anything. The quote becomes the job. The job becomes the invoice. Your people stop doing data entry and go back to the work.

Where this usually starts

Which one of these is your Monday?

Know what you have.

Today. A work instruction isn’t a document. It’s the laminated sheet at the station, the revision somebody penned in the margin, and the way the senior operator actually does it.

Built. The current version in one place, tied to the part and the station, so the person at the machine is looking at the one that is right today.

SOPs, work instructions, part numbering, document control, training material.

Book a walkthrough

Full systems, or the one piece that replaces the spreadsheet that keeps breaking.

We map your operation without setting foot in it.

That’s the same thing we’re about to build for you. A walkthrough runs on a screen share, a phone camera in your operator’s hand, and whatever documents you already have. If a job needs boots on the floor, we’ll come. Most don’t.

A machine operator filming a running CNC machine on his phone, seen from behind.

Built so far

We do not sell you a system in a box. We fix the thing that is bugging you.

Then it snowballs. You fix the one that hurts, and it shows you the next one, and the one after that. Every job below started as a single problem. Different industries, same shape. Client names left out on purpose.

  • Energy and resources · asset recovery

    A yard full of equipment nobody had catalogued.

    Was

    A buyer took over an acquired facility and inherited the contents. No list, no values, no idea what still ran or what it would cost to bring back.

    Now

    Photograph a machine on a walk round. It identifies itself, pulls the original vendor, checks whether it can be rebuilt or sourced used, and files it with a reliability rating and a downtime cost. Purchasing ends up with every part and where to get it, instead of a yard and a guess.

    Started as one walk-round app. It is now the asset register, the parts sourcing and the purchasing decision for the whole site.

  • Construction · flooring at building scale

    Twenty floors, thirty units each, measured by hand.

    Was

    Somebody counting square footage off drawings, guessing the waste factor, then chasing installers to find out what they actually used against what was booked.

    Now

    Upload the drawings. It works out the area per unit, splits carpet, hardwood, floor tile, bathroom tile and backsplash, adds the waste factor, assigns installers and tracks booked against used all the way to job costing. Matching floor plans are grouped so the same crew repeats the same layout.

    Started as a takeoff calculator. It became estimating, scheduling, crew assignment and job costing, because each one exposed the next.

See all five

Before you book

The questions a GM asks first.

Do I have to replace my ERP?
No. Most of our work sits around a system that already works and fixes the parts it never covered. We can build the whole thing when that is actually cheaper, and we will tell you when it is not.
How long does a build take?
Hours to days, depending on scope. We will not put a date on a job before we understand it. What we will say is that we move faster than anything you are used to, and you see working pieces every week rather than a reveal at the end.
Who am I actually dealing with?
Christopher. He runs the walkthrough, he writes the code, and he stays on the job through handover. A small team comes in as the work needs it. You are not handed to an account manager.
What does it cost my people?
A couple of hours from you for the walkthrough, then a short check-in each week while it is built. Your people keep working.
What happens if it goes wrong?
We don’t leave. The system has to run in your operation for an agreed stretch before the job is called done, and we go back and forth until it does.
Do you have to come to our site?
Usually not. A walkthrough runs on a screen share, a phone camera in your operator’s hand, and whatever documents you already have. If a job needs boots on the floor we will come. Most don’t. We are based in Kelowna, British Columbia and we work globally.
What do I get from the walkthrough itself?
A written map of your operation: every process, what it costs you in hours and dollars, what can be automated, and the order it pays back in, with each item priced. It is yours whether or not you build anything with us.
Who owns the system?
We keep the code. You keep your data and your freedom to leave. No license audits, no forced upgrades, export everything any time in an open format at no charge, and a thirty day exit with no penalty.
How do you price it?
Against the value of what the system replaces, not against hours. Most engagements land between five and six figures. Once a system is live, an annual license covers hosting, support, upgrades and the changes that keep it current. It is 15% of what was built, every year, the same for everyone, and you see it before you commit.
Our data is a mess. Should we clean it up first?
No. That is most of what the first two weeks is, and it is the same job whether you start now or a year from now.

Start with a walkthrough.

One session. We look at how your operation actually works, and you get a written map of every process, what it costs you in hours, what can be automated, and in what order it pays back.

Book a walkthrough