About Wheeler Industries: A family-owned precision metal fabrication company serving aerospace and industrial clients for over 70 years, specializing in custom manufacturing solutions from their Spokane Valley facility.

The Challenge

Software Limitations

Wheeler Industries' commercial software epitomized "square peg, round hole syndrome." Built for contractors rather than precision manufacturers, it forced rigid workflows that didn't match reality. Historical data sat locked away, making estimation time-consuming.

Operational Inefficiencies

Staff fought the system instead of using it—paying license fees for software that made jobs harder. Paper "orange sheets" persisted because the digital system was too cumbersome.

"We needed something built for how we actually work, not how some software company thinks we should work." — David Wheeler

The Solution

Custom Portal Development

A custom web portal replaced paper "orange sheets" with digital job tracking built for Wheeler's exact workflow. Job numbers, materials, labor, vendor work, drawings—everything captured and searchable.

Digital Workflow Integration

Status flows naturally through the system: New → In Progress → On Hold → Ready for Pickup → Complete → Invoiced. Staff can update jobs in real-time, eliminating double-entry and reducing errors.

API-First Architecture: AI-Ready

Privacy-First Design

Ten years of job data is structured and accessible through a comprehensive API—built for Wheeler's terms. The architecture supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) for future AI integration, designed to run entirely on Wheeler's infrastructure. No data ever leaves their network.

Comprehensive API

The portal is built on a complete REST API with full CRUD operations across all entities—jobs, customers, materials, labor, drawings, and invoicing. Every piece of data is structured and accessible, enabling future AI integration for natural language queries, intelligent quoting based on historical patterns, and proactive customer insights—all running locally on Wheeler's infrastructure.

Impact

Job entry time dropped from 15 minutes to 3 minutes. Historical search improved from 30 minutes to 30 seconds. Staff productivity increased 80% for job-related tasks. Overall, faster and more efficient with back-office tasks leaving more time to focus on core business objectives.

Wheeler Industries proves custom software works for small manufacturers. API-first architecture enables future capabilities without cloud exposure. Software built for your actual workflow eliminates the "square peg, round hole" problem—and pays for itself in 13 months.