You're Adding Machines. Why Are You Also Adding Headcount?
When a manufacturer scales from 62 to 80 machines, the expectation is that production throughput scales with it — not the payroll. But without the systems to coordinate the floor, deliver documents automatically, schedule accurately, and surface real-time performance data, every new machine just creates another need for someone to chase it manually.
40+ Years as SyteLine Partner | Infor Gold Partner | 800+ Manufacturers Served
Four ways manufacturers discover they've outgrown their current process — without outgrowing SyteLine.
Headcount grows alongside machine count, leadership loses visibility into what's slowing production, and supervisors spend their shifts managing data instead of people — these are the coordination failures that show up when scaling outruns the systems behind it.
Every machine added means another person hired
When the floor lacks real-time visibility, someone has to walk it. When documents aren't controlled, someone has to chase revisions. When scheduling isn't trusted, someone has to manually prioritize every work order. People become the system.
Leadership can't see what's slowing you down
Finance runs reports on cost. Operations runs reports on jobs. The shop floor is tracked in a whiteboard and a foreman's memory. When production falls short, the post-mortem takes three weeks because the data was never captured at source.
Scaling reveals every process you never fixed
At 30 machines, a supervisor can hold scheduling, document control, and floor management together personally. At 60 machines, that stops working. Manual processes that were tolerable at small scale become structural constraints under load.
Supervisors are managing data, not production
When floor data isn't captured automatically, supervisors collect it manually — walking stations, asking operators, updating spreadsheets. When scheduling isn't trusted, planners touch every work order by hand. Everyone is doing administrative work that a system should handle.
Before the Trak-Suite, scaling means adding people. After, it doesn't.
The Trak-Suite closes four coordination gaps inside SyteLine — floor visibility, document delivery, scheduling, and analytics — each one addressing a different part of the process that breaks down when you add machines faster than your systems can keep up.
Floor data captured at source
Shop-Trak captures labor and job progress at the workstation as work happens. Supervisors see live status — what's running, what's behind, what's blocked — on a single dashboard without walking the floor. SyteLine updates automatically.
Correct documents deliver themselves
Doc-Trak connects to SyteLine's job records and delivers the current revision of every drawing, work instruction, and traveler automatically when the job releases to the floor. Engineering files stay where they already live. Obsolete revisions are archived, not accidentally reused.
Schedule generated and followed
APS-ME addresses the three conditions that cause most SyteLine APS deployments to fail — data readiness, process design, and user trust — before go-live. Once live, the planning team follows APS output instead of manually re-prioritizing every order.
Performance Data Live, Not Three Weeks Late
Fact-Trak connects directly to SyteLine's live database and surfaces role-based dashboards for CFOs, Operations VPs, and Plant Managers. On-time delivery, labor cost, and machine utilization visible before the period closes, not after.
What manufacturers achieve when the Trak-Suite is running.
PMC expanded from 62 to 80 machines with fewer people — not more — and the measurable pattern across the install base is consistent: machine count scales, but headcount, reporting overhead, and scheduling rework don't have to scale with it.
Four Products. One Platform. One Partner.
Each Trak-Suite product solves a different coordination failure inside SyteLine — deployable individually or as a coordinated suite, but built from the beginning to work together.
- Shop-Trak
- Doc-Trak
- Fact-Trak
- APS-ME
Real-Time Shop Floor Visibility
Shop-Trak captures labor and job progress at source — at the workstation, as work happens. Supervisors see live floor status on a single dashboard. SyteLine is updated automatically, without manual entry or shift-end batch reconciliation. The floor manages itself instead of requiring someone to manage the data.
- Labor captured at workstation — hours tracked as work happens, not estimated at shift-end
- Live job status at every station — supervisors see what's running, what's behind, what's blocked
- Machine activity monitoring — uptime, downtime, and utilization tracked
- SyteLine updated automatically — no parallel data entry, no export/import cycle
- Exception dashboard for supervisors — deviations surface in real time, not in next morning's report
- Built exclusively for SyteLine manufacturers — not a generic MES retrofitted to connect to SyteLine. The Lake Companies is the Midwest's leading SyteLine implementation and optimization partner, with 40+ years focused on this platform alone.
Controlled Document Delivery Inside SyteLine
Doc-Trak connects to SyteLine's job and work order records and automates the document layer that breaks down at scale. Files stay in the repository engineering already uses — SharePoint, IDM, network drives, S3. Doc-Trak handles the connection, the revision check, the delivery, and the audit trail. It also automates AP invoice processing, surfaces every document in a single AI-powered search, and ensures operators always work from the right version.
- Connects to IDM, SharePoint, S3, and network file systems — documents stay where engineering already saves them
- AP invoices scanned, classified, and linked to SyteLine POs automatically— no manual filing or folder hunting
- AI Search & Query across every document attached to a job, order, or customer— single interface, regardless of repository
- Correct revision delivered to the floor automatically — obsolete versions archived, not accidentally reused
- Audit-ready revision history — every delivery logged, every acknowledgment tracked
- The only document control layer built exclusively for SyteLine manufacturers — not a generic DMS retrofitted to work with SyteLine after the fact.
Live Manufacturing Analytics in Power BI
Fact-Trak connects directly to SyteLine's live database and delivers role-based dashboards for Operations VPs, Plant Managers, Quality teams, Purchasing, and Finance — pre-built, not configured from scratch. Operations and Finance stop reconciling separate spreadsheet exports and start working from the same numbers. Performance is visible before the period closes — not three weeks after.
- Role-based dashboards for Operations VP, Plant Manager, Quality, Purchasing, and Finance — pre-built, not built from scratch
- Live SyteLine database connection — no exports, no ETL, no scheduled refreshes
- On-time delivery by customer, job, and quarter — visible in real time, not in the month-end rollup
- Vendor scorecards: on-time performance, lead time accuracy, and quality pulled from SyteLine purchasing data
- Scrap and quality alerts by work center, shift, and operator — surfaced same-shift, not in the weekly report
- Among Midwest SyteLine partners, no one else has built a manufacturing analytics layer at this depth — Godlan, Decision Resources, and LogicData rely on SyteLine's native reporting. Fact-Trak is the proprietary alternative.
APS Made Easier™
Most SyteLine APS deployments fail for the same three reasons: input data quality was never assessed before go-live, the planning process wasn't redesigned to work with APS output, and user trust was never earned before the cutover date. APS-ME addresses all three, in sequence, before anything goes live. The result: schedules the planning team will actually follow, delivered within 90–120 days.
- Input data readiness assessment across routing accuracy, work center capacity, and inventory — before any configuration
- Planning process redesign: S&OP, order release, and Monitor & Adjust workflows rebuilt before go-live
- Monitor & Adjust framework: daily deviation dashboard, defined thresholds, corrective action protocol
- SyteLine APS configured to site-specific parameters — work center calendars, constraints, priority logic
- Parallel run phase: planners evaluate APS output alongside the existing process before committing to follow it
- Among Midwest SyteLine partners, Lake Companies is the only one we're aware of that addresses data readiness, process design, and user trust as part of the APS implementation — not as afterthoughts left to the customer after go-live.
Start with One Product or Deploy the Full Suite?
Each Trak-Suite product addresses a different coordination failure and can be deployed standalone. If one pain is dominant — scheduling is broken, or wrong revisions keep reaching the floor — start there. If multiple coordination failures are active simultaneously, a coordinated suite implementation is more efficient than four sequential rollouts. Lake Companies is the Midwest partner who can deliver all four products in a single, integrated engagement.
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What a Trak-Suite deployment looks like in practice.
A full Trak-Suite deployment runs 6–9 months across three sequenced phases, with individual products going live in as few as 30 days — and none of it requires stopping production, replacing your ERP, or running a separate IT project.
A coordinated Trak-Suite deployment is sequenced for efficiency: Shop-Trak goes live first because clean floor data improves the quality of everything that follows. Doc-Trak and APS-ME follow in Phase 2. Fact-Trak dashboards go live in Phase 3, when the data sources are fully instrumented.
Shop-Trak deploys at workstations. Live floor data flows into SyteLine. Supervisors gain real-time visibility for the first time.
- Shop-Trak workstation and machine configuration complete
- Supervisors trained on live floor dashboard and exception management
- SyteLine updated automatically
- Floor baseline established: labor hours, job progress, machine utilization captured at source
Doc-Trak deploys alongside the live Shop-Trak floor. APS-ME begins: data readiness assessment, planning process redesign, configuration, and parallel run.
- Doc-Trak connected to document repositories
- Automatic revision delivery live for all active jobs
- APS-ME data readiness assessment complete, planning process redesigned
- SyteLine APS configured, parallel run underway
Fact-Trak deploys once Shop-Trak and APS-ME data are live. APS-ME transitions from parallel run to live scheduling. operational.
- Fact-Trak connected to SyteLine live database
- Operations VP and Plant Manager dashboards live
- APS-ME cutover to live scheduling
- Full suite operational
What You Won't Deal With
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✕You don't need a new ERP system. All four Trak-Suite products run inside SyteLine — they extend the platform you already have, not replace it.
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✕No requirement to deploy all four at once. Designed to deploy in phases or as individual products. Start with the urgent pain; the suite comes together over time.
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✕No IT project, no developers, no custom code. Each product configures inside SyteLine's existing architecture. IT involvement is credential setup and network access — a handoff, not a project.
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✕No "rip out the existing process" go-live moment. Each product deploys parallel to existing workflows before cutover. The cutover is a decision your team makes, not a deadline imposed on them.
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✕Poor data quality won't block the deployment. Data readiness is assessed and remediated as part of each product's Phase 1 — not as a prerequisite before the engagement starts.
(full suite)
Real questions from Operations VPs, Plant Managers, and CFOs.
These are the questions buyers ask before committing — on scope, architecture, prior APS failures, deployment disruption, and what happens after go-live.
You can start with any single product — and most manufacturers do. Each Trak-Suite product is a complete, standalone deployment that addresses a specific operational pain. The suite compounds value when multiple coordination failures are active simultaneously, but you don't need to commit to all four to begin. Lake Companies recommends a starting point based on where your highest-leverage gap is. The suite is always available as a next step.
- Reporting reconciliation cycle — Fact-Trak eliminates this within 30 days of dashboards going live.
- Wrong-revision scrap — Doc-Trak stops this at source within 60 days of revision control going live.
- upervisor administrative load — Shop-Trak typically frees 18+ hours per week of supervisor time on a 60-machine floor within 60–90 days.
- On-time delivery and schedule reliability — APS-ME drives the most strategic improvement but takes longest (90–120 days through parallel run).
If you need a quick win to build organizational confidence before a larger deployment, Fact-Trak or Doc-Trak is the faster entry point. If you're solving the most expensive scaling problem (headcount growing with machines), Shop-Trak is the most leveraged starting point.
Yes. All four Trak-Suite products are compatible with SyteLine CloudSuite Industrial (CSI) in Infor's cloud environment. If you're evaluating a cloud migration, the Trak-Suite deployment can proceed in parallel — or be sequenced after migration — depending on your timeline. Lake Companies manages both the migration and the Trak-Suite deployment, which eliminates the coordination problem of managing two separate vendor relationships through a major infrastructure transition.
Failed SyteLine APS deployments almost always trace back to the same three causes: input data quality was below the threshold APS needs, the planning process wasn't redesigned to work with APS output, and user trust was never earned before go-live. APS-ME addresses all three explicitly, in sequence, before the system goes live. The methodology is different — not just the configuration. If you've had a previous failed deployment, the Phase 1 assessment diagnoses exactly which of those conditions caused it.
Generic MES and BI tools are built to work with any ERP — which means they don't optimize for SyteLine's specific data structures, modules, and workflows. Each Trak-Suite product was built by Lake Companies specifically and exclusively for SyteLine manufacturers, over 40+ years of implementation experience. Shop-Trak knows how SyteLine work orders are structured. Doc-Trak knows how SyteLine job packets work. Fact-Trak is pre-built for SyteLine's data model — not configured from scratch against it. No other Midwest partner built proprietary IP at this depth for SyteLine.
Results emerge in stages aligned with deployment sequencing. Shop-Trak typically delivers immediate supervisor time savings within weeks 6–8 — managers stop walking the floor for status. Doc-Trak eliminates revision-related scrap at source as soon as it goes live. APS-ME drives on-time delivery from a 60–70% manual baseline toward 90%+ within 30–60 days of cutover. Fact-Trak eliminates the 2–3 weeks per quarter spent reconciling Finance and Operations reports as soon as dashboards are live (typically within 30 days of kickoff).
The compounding effect — fewer supervisors needed, fewer expediting events, schedules planners follow, performance visible same-shift — typically becomes measurable within 90–120 days of starting the engagement.
Less than most manufacturers expect. Each product deploys in parallel with existing workflows — there's no hard cutover that requires stopping production. Shop-Trak workstation installs happen on a rolling basis, one department or work center at a time. APS-ME includes a parallel run phase where planners evaluate APS output against their existing schedule before relying on it. The deployment is designed to build trust incrementally, not to require a single high-risk go-live event.
- Shop-Trak: percentage of workstations live, supervisor hours/week on data collection (before vs. after), labor data accuracy.
- Doc-Trak: wrong-revision scrap rate, audit prep time, document distribution speed.
- APS-ME: planner adoption rate (are they following APS output?), on-time delivery rate, expediting frequency.
- Fact-Trak: active dashboard users by role, reporting reconciliation hours eliminated, time-to-decision on operational issues.
We track these from baseline (pre-deployment) through stabilization, and review them with you quarterly through the On-Trak program post-go-live.
No. Lake Companies' OnTrak program provides post-go-live training, adoption support, and ongoing optimization for all Trak-Suite products. Customers who invest in OnTrak consistently show higher product utilization and faster time to measurable outcomes than those who treat go-live as the finish line. OnTrak is how Lake Companies ensures the Trak-Suite keeps delivering value as your operation evolves.
Pick the right next step for where you are right now.
High-intent or still sizing up the problem — there's an entry point that fits where you are, and none of them require a commitment before you're ready.
Talk to an Expert About Scaling
Each Product Has Its Own Story
If one pain is the right starting point, each product hub covers the problem, the process, the proof, and the implementation in full — more depth than this page can carry.
When floor data isn't captured at source, someone has to collect it manually. Shop-Trak captures labor, job progress, and machine activity automatically and updates SyteLine without manual entry.
- Live job status at every workstation — no supervisor floor walks
- Labor captured at source — not estimated at shift-end
- Deviations surface in real time — exceptions visible before they compound
When documents aren't controlled, operators work from whatever version they have. Doc-Trak delivers the correct revision automatically, automates AP invoices, and powers AI search across every document attached to a job.
- Current revision delivered automatically — obsolete versions archived
- AP invoices scanned, classified, and linked to SyteLine POs
- AI Search & Query across every attached document
When Operations and Finance work from different exports, meetings become debates and decisions get delayed. Fact-Trak connects directly to SyteLine's live database and delivers role-based dashboards that give every team the same numbers at the same time.
- Pre-built dashboards for Operations VP, Plant Manager, Quality, Purchasing, Finance
- Live SyteLine connection — no exports, no ETL
- On-time delivery, labor cost, and throughput visible before the period closes
When planners don't follow the APS schedule, they go back to Excel — and customer commitments become gut-feel estimates. APS-ME addresses data readiness, planning process design, and user trust before SyteLine APS goes live.
- Data readiness assessed before configuration — routing, capacity, and inventory scored
- Planning process redesigned before go-live — the team knows how to use APS output
- Parallel run phase — planners validate APS output before relying on it