A phase moves material from one deposit to the next.
Everything else in the product follows from that one rule. Cost, traceability and work in process are not three features bolted on; they are what falls out of recording the move.
Six steps, and you name five of them
The engine does not know what a shoe is, or a candle, or a cabinet door. It knows that material sits somewhere and that a phase moves it.
- You define the processesName them in your own words. Each one says which deposit the material comes from and which one it goes to.
- A production order opens a batchThe batch is the object everything else hangs on: its cost, its genealogy, its quality record.
- Consumption is by actual input lotNot by average. The cost of the lots you actually consumed is frozen at the moment you consume them.
- The phase closes and the material movesOut of one deposit, into the next. The accounting entry is the same movement, seen from the other side.
- A stop needs a reasonNot free text. A short seeded list, so a month of stops becomes something you can sort.
- The batch can split, and it usually doesBlended from three supplier lots, packed into two presentations with two expiry dates. Ordinary, and refused by the market leader.
Work in process is a place, not a calculation
Pull components for a run in most systems and they leave raw materials without arriving anywhere. For the whole length of an active production they are nowhere: inventory value is wrong and cost of sales is a guess until the order closes.
Here the deposit carries the account. Material that left raw materials is sitting in a named place, and that place has a balance. Nothing has to be reconstructed at month end, because nothing was ever missing.
One batch, mid-run
| Deposit | Value | Got there by |
|---|---|---|
| Raw materials | 1,240.00 | Receipt |
| WIP 01 · Cutting | 3,110.50 | Phase 01 closed |
| WIP 02 · Sewing | 4,802.75 | Phase 02 closed |
| Scrap | 118.20 | Recorded in phase 02 |
| Accounted for | 9,271.45 |
Four things this engine does not do
Each of these is work we could describe and have not built. Saying so costs us a signup and saves you a bad month.
It does not schedule your floor
There is no finite-capacity planner and no Gantt. The board shows what is happening, not what a solver thinks should happen.
It does not buy anything
Requisition and receipt, yes. Purchase orders and accounts payable, no. Those live in the system you already pay for.
It does not hold a standard cost per SKU
A door at 90×210 and one at 70×180 are both one unit and they do not cost the same. Averaging them is the thing we are avoiding.
Nothing here ships today
scalebatch is pre-launch and has no customers. Everything on this page describes a design that is being built, not a product you can buy.
The rule is small. What follows from it is not.
Recording the move is what makes the ledger, the genealogy and the cost agree without anyone reconciling them.