Manufacturing execution for complex hardware
Run changing processes without losing traceability. Procedures, BOMs, work orders, and inventory in one fast, live system that you can program when your operation demands it.
Built for teams building
satellites / nuclear reactors / electric aircraft / autonomous boats / robots / energy systems
Who you'll work with
Co-founders & engineers
We led backend teams at First Resonance, building ION, an MES for manufacturers in aerospace, energy, and defense. Factorial is the one we'd build knowing what we know now. You work directly with us from the first conversation through rollout, and we want to be on the floor with you, seeing how work really moves.
Why we're building an MES again →The product
BOMs, procedures, work orders, inventory, queues, and traceability are first-class parts of one system, so you don't have to build and maintain dozens of internal apps.
01 · Audit trail
Every status change, install, build, and redline lands in one event stream as the work happens, with the person or API key behind it. Filter down to one unit and an auditor's question becomes a link you can send.
02 · Traceability by default
Factorial records every installation, consumption, split, merge, technician, location, tool, and timestamp as the work happens. Open any part and see what it went into and where it came from, side by side. Inventory records say what is known instead of inventing certainty.
03 · Change control
See exactly what changed between revisions, release through required approvals, and redline work that is already in progress without erasing its history. Start light on prototypes and add rigor as designs settle.
Plugins
Integrate with any vendor, machine, or tool and keep your data in sync. Then customize your factory to run the way your physical workflows demand. You don't have to write the code by hand: our plugin system is built for the age of AI agents. The fctl CLI gives your agents the know-how to test plugins safely, check execution logs, and understand the ins and outs of the plugin system.
Up and running fastWe bring your data into Factorial, up to date and syncing with your other systems on day one, so your team starts from what's real.
Claude Code writing, testing, and uploading a plugin for our demo factory with fctl. Click to watch. Read the plugin docs →
04 · Plan and actual
Steps, dependencies, durations, part requirements, and instructions live in one versioned model, and its timeline shows the critical path before anything reaches the floor. Once work starts, every unit gets an execution timeline of its own: hands-on time, waiting, holds, and how it is running against the plan.
05 · Instructions in 3D
Models belong to the part and show on any step. An author saves the view a step opens on, so a technician lands on the parts that matter instead of hunting through the whole assembly. Turn it, hide what is in the way, or isolate one part, right on the task.
06 · On the floor
Instructions, part requirements, scanning, and discussion sit on the task itself. Factorial uses the current screen to decide what a scan should do, and every screen is live, so nobody works from stale state.
07 · Live, together
Engineers write instructions together and see each other's cursors as they type. On the floor, a reading entered at the dyno shows on the lead's screen the moment it is saved, and everyone can see who else is on the page and where.
08 · Real factory flow
Work lands in the right queue as each step becomes ready, balances across eligible stations, and makes shortages and blocked work obvious as early as possible. Batch, schedule, and track dependencies across work orders and projects.
The full walkthrough · 11 min
A narrated tour of our demo factory in eleven short chapters: a question from the floor becomes a new revision, it's released and built, and every part is traced. Start anywhere. The voice is AI and a script drives the clicks, so every chapter is re-recorded as the product changes.
How we build it
100ms
p95 target
Performance you can feel, tested with tens of millions of inventory items and tasks.
Live
By default
Screens update as work happens, and you can see who else is looking.
1 binary
Cloud or self-hosted
An application binary, a database, and file storage. Run it with us or on your own infrastructure.
v.pinned
Upgrades on your schedule
Your MES should never change underneath you without warning.
Your data
Always
Complete APIs, bulk export, and SQL access. You own your data.
∀ invariants
Property tested
Core manufacturing invariants are verified with property-based testing.
Documentation
Over thirty pages on how Factorial works, from parts and procedures to queues, permissions, the API, and self-hosting. Read how it behaves before you ever talk to us.
Read the docs →Talk to us
Tell us what you build and where things break today. The founders read every message and can walk you through Factorial on processes like yours.
Prefer direct email? orion@factorialhq.com and andrew@factorialhq.com