Signal builds your system of record.
A system of record is the one place where every fact about a part lives: what it is, how it is made, what it costs, and every decision anyone made about it, with who, when and why.
With one, the next quote, the next repeat order and the next customer audit start from what your shop already knows. Without one, each of them starts from scratch, from someone's memory or from a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
Replay, don't restart.
The routing, nests, inspection plan and every correction from the last run come back with the next order.
Numbers you can defend.
Every figure traces back to the part it came from, so a price is an answer, not a guess.
Proof, not promises.
Who approved what, when, against which revision. When a customer asks you to show it, it is already there.
Knowledge that stays.
When someone leaves, the reasons behind their decisions stay with the part instead of leaving with them.
In manufacturing, the source of truth is the model.
We learned it on our own floor. Every number a manufacturer runs on is already in the 3D model, or follows from it: what to buy, how to make it, how long it takes, how to check it, what it costs and what it earns.
Without the model, each of those numbers is typed by someone, estimated by someone else, and kept in a different place. That is why ERPs become unreliable in manufacturing. The data is not wrong because the software is bad; it is subjective because it was never derived.
- Geometry
- Material and thickness
- Joints and assembly
- Finish
- Raw materialSheets, tubes and boards to buy, from the parts nested on stock you can actually buy.
- ProcessesThe route of every part, from how it is made: cut, form, join, finish, assemble.
- LaborStandard time per operation, from cut length, bends, weld inches and install steps.
- Lead timeThe hours each station needs, added up per job and per period.
- QualityInspection points on every sheet, from the dimensions the part depends on.
- CostsThose quantities times your rates. Nothing estimated by eye.
- ProfitPrice against a cost you can trace, per part and per job.
- The bill of materials is retyped from the drawing.
- Weld, bends and finish are guessed by eye.
- Each department keeps its own number for the same part.
- The model changes; the ERP does not find out.
Subjective. Reliable only as long as someone keeps it in sync.
- The bill of materials comes out of the model.
- Weld, bends and finish are measured on the geometry.
- One owner per fact, and every department reads it.
- The model changes; everything derived from it goes back to pending.
Derived. Reliable because it starts at the source.
Signal begins in Fusion, where the part is designed, before any ERP number exists.
How it works
Design in Fusion. Signal reads the model and derives what your shop runs on: material, processes, labor, lead time, quality, cost and margin. Everything your shop approves, corrects or changes is written back to the same part, with who, when and why.
Drawings, quotes and CNC programs are outputs. The record is what your shop keeps, and it gets better with every design.
Design, engineer, review and send to production, without switching tools.
Signal keeps the whole job in one place, on the same model. When the design is approved, production gets the full set at once: shop drawings, QC and machine programs, all from the part your team just reviewed.
Model it, or generate it
Draw in Fusion, or let Signal build it from a sketch or a room.
Joints, welds, strength
Fasteners and welds placed by rule, flat patterns and collisions checked, the structure simulated.
Decided, and kept
Welding and assembly reviews with your team, suppliers and customer, every decision recorded with its reason.
The full set, at once
Shop drawings, inspection drawings and CSVs, nests, DXF for the laser, IGS for the tube laser and CNC programs.
Start in Fusion, where the part is designed.
Signal for Fusion reads what your designers draw and turns it into everything the shop needs. Every export is kept in Signal, with every correction your team makes.
Whatever your shop makes.
The same rule holds in every process: read the model, derive the rest. Each module knows how its parts are cut, formed, joined, finished and installed.