Factorial Documentation

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Why Factorial ​

  Table of Contents

Factorial is an MES for complex manufacturers that need to iterate quickly without compromising traceability. It provides opinionated defaults out of the box, with deep programmability where the operation demands it.

  • A complete system from day one. Start quickly without building and maintaining dozens of internal applications. Factorial understands BOMs, procedures, work orders, and inventory as first-class manufacturing concepts.
  • Software that conforms to your operation. Extend records with custom metadata, modify behavior with plugins, and automate work with scripts. Plugins are versioned and written in a familiar subset of Python, with a built-in test loop, thorough documentation, and skills for both engineers and coding agents.
  • Engineering changes without loss of control. Compare EBOM and MBOM revisions, resolve conflicts, keep part requirements tied to procedure revisions, and redline in-flight work without erasing its history.
  • Traceability by default. Factorial records every installation, consumption, split, merge, technician, location, timestamp, tool, and execution task. One-click history and containment reports, along with as-built BOMs, make that record useful when it matters.
  • Procedures with operational context. Work instructions include part requirements, step-specific kits, dependencies, signoffs, data collection, inventory consumption, creation, and installation. A procedure is an executable model of the work, not a loose collection of forms.
  • Queues designed for real factory flow. Work enters queues as it becomes available, and least-busy assignment balances it across eligible queues. Operators can reprioritize work and batch compatible tasks when reality demands it.
  • Reusable work instructions. Embed independently versioned procedures instead of copying common processes hundreds of times. Shared work keeps a single source of truth rather than drifting into copies of instructions that get out of sync.
  • Inventory records that admit uncertainty. Factorial preserves traceability through splits and merges and surfaces ambiguity. The system shows what is known instead of inventing certainty.
  • Traceability before bureaucracy. Manage ad hoc prototype work and controlled manufacturing procedures in the same system. Teams can request and consume parts during early builds, then promote proven work into versioned procedures when control becomes necessary.
  • A system that grows with your company. Factorial supports multiple factories and is performance-tested with tens of millions of inventory items and tasks.
  • Integrations as a first-class capability. Import and export data with job scripts, send webhooks with hooks, receive webhooks through plugin endpoints, and synchronize external systems through a pollable event API.
  • Fast, deliberate interaction. Keyboard-driven data entry reduces repetitive navigation, while custom slash commands turn routine multi-step workflows into a single action.
  • Live data by default. Screens update in real time without requiring a refresh, so operators and planners do not make decisions from stale state.
  • Cloud hosted or self hostable. Use Factorial as a cloud hosted service or run it on your own infrastructure. A self-hosted deployment consists of a single application binary, a database, and file storage, making it easy to manage for small teams.
  • Controlled upgrades. Factorial uses semantic versioning and supports version pinning. Your MES should never change underneath you without warning.
  • Testing appropriate for factory-critical software. Factorial combines workflow simulation with property-based testing of core manufacturing invariants. Tests exercise unexpected sequences of operations to verify that inventory, traceability, permissions, and revision history remain correct.
  • You own your data A complete REST API and bulk import and export workflows keep data accessible. Self-hosted customers also control the underlying database.
  • AI native Factorial provides a CLI, Markdown prompt exports, and packaged skills so agents can work alongside people using the same permission-aware system.
  • Performance you can feel. Factorial targets p95 response times of 100 milliseconds, including at operational scale.

What Factorial is not for ​

Factorial is deliberately focused. It is not the right system for:

  • High-volume, low-complexity manufacturing. If the product and process have been unchanged for decades, a more rigid system may be a better fit.
  • Accounting and finance. Factorial is not a replacement for the financial core of an ERP.
  • Long-range supply-chain planning. It does not aim to own heavyweight planning, purchasing, or strategic sourcing decisions.
  • Pure design. Factorial begins where CAD and pure design tools stop: when the team is ready to build.