Shop-floor software that survives a shift change, not just a steering committee.

We work with what you have, almost always. Ripping out a working MES is a multi-year project with negative ROI in most plants. We extend it — add a modern API layer, fix the broken ERP handshake, build the dashboards your existing MES can't. If your MES is genuinely end-of-life or unsupported, we'll say so directly and scope a phased replacement, but that's the exception.

Strangler pattern, module by module. We put an API gateway in front of ECC, route specific transactions (production confirmations, goods movements, batch records) to new S/4 services as they're ready, and keep ECC authoritative for everything else. Cutovers happen on weekends per module, not in one terrifying big-bang weekend. Typical engagement runs 9-18 months depending on customizations and number of plants.

Yes. VooStack is SDVOSB-certified and veteran-owned, eligible for set-aside contracts under FAR 19.14. We've worked on programs touching CMMC 2.0 Level 2 environments, ITAR-controlled technical data, and DFARS 7012 requirements. For defense industrial base manufacturers, we can operate inside your enclave or stand up a compliant dev environment. Bring your contracting officer into the first call and we'll confirm vehicle eligibility.

Control loops stay on-prem. Period. Anything with sub-second timing requirements or safety implications runs at the edge. Historians, MES analytics, ERP, quality systems, and ML workloads belong in the cloud or a regional data center. The seam is the DMZ broker. We've seen too many consultancies push full-cloud architectures that fall over the first time a plant loses WAN connectivity for 20 minutes.

Both. Predictive maintenance on rotating equipment with good vibration data works and pays back. Vision-based quality inspection on well-lit, repeatable parts works. LLMs are useful for operator-facing knowledge retrieval — pulling the right SOP, summarizing shift handoffs, querying historians in natural language. What doesn't work yet: autonomous scheduling on complex multi-constraint lines, or any LLM making safety-critical decisions. We'll tell you which bucket your use case falls into.

We follow IEC 62443 zone-and-conduit principles and align to NIST 800-82. New connections cross a documented conduit through the DMZ — no flat networks, no direct corporate-to-PLC paths, no jump boxes with shared passwords. We coordinate with your OT security team or, if you don't have one, your IT security team plus the controls integrator. Every change goes through a documented MOC process. We've never caused an unplanned production stop from a security misconfiguration, and we intend to keep it that way.

Discovery and signal inventory: 3-5 weeks with one senior architect and a controls SME from your side. Build phase: 2-4 senior engineers for 4-9 months depending on scope. We don't staff with junior offshore teams — every engineer on a manufacturing engagement has shipped industrial software before. Most clients see first production value (a working integration, a real dashboard, a migrated module) within 8-12 weeks of contract signing.

Canonical event model first. We define what a 'production confirmation' or 'downtime event' looks like in your enterprise — once — then build site-specific adapters that translate local PLC tags, MES schemas, and ERP plant codes into that canonical shape. Adapters are small and per-site; everything downstream (analytics, ERP postings, executive dashboards) consumes the canonical stream. New plants take weeks to onboard, not quarters.

Both. For manufacturers with internal platform teams, we embed senior engineers — typically 2-6 — under your tech lead on a time-and-materials basis. For clients who want an outcome delivered, we scope fixed-bid milestones with clear acceptance criteria. Most engagements blend the two: fixed-scope discovery and architecture, then T&M build with named engineers. We don't do body-shop staffing with rotating resumes.