From the team

mode40 is a finalist in the 2026 Best of Canada Small Business Awards

We made the final list for the 2026 BASA Awards, and public voting is open until October 12. The mode40 team · Oct 6, 2026 →

Retiring the spreadsheet that runs your plant

Most plants run on a spreadsheet somebody built years ago. Here is where it still earns its place, where it costs you, and how to move off it without a big rebuild. The mode40 team · Sep 23, 2026 →

How to calculate OEE without fooling yourself

The OEE calculation takes thirty seconds. The inputs are where most plants end up with a number better than the shift actually was. Chris Peters · Sep 8, 2026 →

Three definitions of availability, three different OEE numbers

Overall equipment effectiveness depends on definitions each plant sets locally, and availability is the one they most often define differently. Chris Peters · Sep 5, 2026 →

Traceability software for manufacturing: what to ask

Every vendor can run a clean mock recall on stage. The question is whether the trace was recorded live or assembled afterward. Rob Ryder · Sep 2, 2026 →

MES vs ERP: which one knows what happened at 2 a.m.

ERP records the plan and the cost, your MES records the events on the floor, and neither one records why the line stopped. Rob Ryder · Sep 1, 2026 →

Machine downtime tracking starts with the reason codes

A control system times every stop on its own. The reason is the only field a person fills, and it decides what you can fix. Chris Peters · Aug 29, 2026 →

What “practitioner-built” actually means

Everybody in this category says they understand your operation. Here is the test you can run inside a single demo. Chip Martens · Aug 26, 2026 →

How to run root cause analysis from records

Root cause analysis in manufacturing stalls when the only answer is what one person remembers. Here is how to work from records instead. Chris Peters · Aug 26, 2026 →

Finite capacity scheduling: why Friday’s plan is wrong by Tuesday

Most plants schedule without their real limits, so Friday's plan stops matching the plant by Tuesday. Finite capacity scheduling plans inside those limits. Cameron Bergen · Aug 25, 2026 →

What a unified namespace is, and what it is not

A unified namespace is an agreement about names and one place to publish them. It is not something a vendor can hand you. Matthew Joubert · Aug 22, 2026 →

Historian software: what it records and what it misses

A historian stores what your equipment did, with timestamps nobody edits later, and that record is worth more than any trend drawn on it. Matthew Joubert · Aug 19, 2026 →

When the chart turns red and nobody acts

Reporting tells you something went wrong, then waits for a human to do the rest. That gap is where the money goes. Tracy Gromniski · Aug 19, 2026 →

How to get SCADA data off the plant floor

Pulling SCADA data off the plant floor takes one line, one gateway, a protocol your equipment already speaks, and about forty well-chosen tags. Matthew Joubert · Aug 18, 2026 →

Statistical process control on live data

The math has not changed since the 1920s, but live data lets you act during the run instead of the next morning. Tracy Gromniski · Aug 15, 2026 →

Sovereign AI: who owns what the model learned from you

Hosting is the easy half of sovereign AI, and the harder half is who keeps what the model learned from you. Tracy Gromniski · Aug 12, 2026 →

The retirement problem nobody budgets for

The most valuable system in your operation is a person, and they just gave notice. Cameron Bergen · Aug 12, 2026 →

What data sovereignty means for Canadian operations

Where the data sits is the easy question. Who can reach it and which government can order it handed over is the harder one. Matthew Joubert · Aug 11, 2026 →

A digital twin is a working model of your operation

Most digital twin projects in manufacturing buy a 3D render; the operation needs a model that answers what happens if something changes. Tracy Gromniski · Aug 8, 2026 →

The nouns and verbs your operation runs on

Operational data is stored everywhere and defined nowhere. Making it usable starts with writing down the words your team already uses. Chip Martens · Aug 5, 2026 →

Predictive maintenance without history is guesswork

A model can see the signal before a failure. It cannot see what your crew did the last three times. Tracy Gromniski · Aug 4, 2026 →

AI in manufacturing: the pilots that never reach production

Most AI pilots stop between the demo and the plant floor, and the reason is almost never the model itself. Cameron Bergen · Aug 1, 2026 →

Capture tribal knowledge before the exit interview

Knowledge management in manufacturing starts too late. Here is what to capture in a veteran's last ninety days, and from whom. Cameron Bergen · Jul 29, 2026 →

Why the same problem gets solved at full cost every year

Continuous improvement in manufacturing rarely fails at fixing the problem. It fails at keeping what was learned, so you pay again next year. Meghan Esau · Jul 28, 2026 →

The dashboards you should delete

A manufacturing dashboard is worth keeping only if it changes a decision. Here is an audit you can finish in one afternoon. Chip Martens · Jul 25, 2026 →

FSMA 204 traceability: the record you need in 24 hours

Not a report. One lot code tracked through every step in your plant, with a few required facts recorded at each one. Jacqueline Tupua · Jul 22, 2026 →

Most electronic batch records cannot answer the next crew’s questions

The record outlasts every crew that made it. Most plants build it for the auditor and never read it again themselves. Jacqueline Tupua · Jul 21, 2026 →

What the auditor asks, and what your records hold

An audit is a series of questions about your records. Here is what food safety compliance software has to hold to answer them. Jacqueline Tupua · Jul 18, 2026 →

Why nobody owns food manufacturing yield

Food manufacturing yield is lost a few grams at a time on every shift, then reported a month later to people who cannot act on it. Cameron Bergen · Jul 15, 2026 →

Digital thread in aerospace: what it has to connect

A digital thread breaks at the handoffs between companies, and in most shops those handoffs are held together by one person and a binder. Kerry Harris · Jul 14, 2026 →

ITAR compliance software and the records an audit asks for

Controlling who can open a controlled file is the easy half. The hard half is proving, later, who did. Kerry Harris · Jul 11, 2026 →

CMMC compliance starts with finding every copy of your data

The scope of a CMMC assessment is set by the systems that store, process, or transmit controlled information, so map those first. Matthew Joubert · Jul 8, 2026 →

AS9100 records an auditor can follow

Records written as the work happened hold up in an audit. Assembled ones do not. Here is what AS9100 compliance software has to hold. Kerry Harris · Jul 7, 2026 →

Aerospace MRO traceability when a part has three histories

A repaired part has three separate records. Why the part, the aircraft and the shop disagree about it, and how to keep them as one record. Kerry Harris · Jul 4, 2026 →

Why hospital patient flow stalls after the discharge order

Hospital patient flow stalls at discharge because every step that frees a bed waits behind work that has a scheduled slot. Meghan Esau · Jul 1, 2026 →

Student retention: the warning signs arrive weeks early

Attendance, registration changes and support tickets already show who is struggling. Student retention analytics fails at getting that to someone who can act. Meghan Esau · Jun 30, 2026 →

Higher education data analytics misses the registrar’s spreadsheet

Transfer credit decisions get worked out in one person's spreadsheet, and the student information system stores the outcome without the reasoning. Kerry Harris · Jun 27, 2026 →

Why manufacturing software should be sold in separate parts

A modular manufacturing software platform is worth buying for one reason. It lets you start with the one problem you can already name. Tracy Gromniski · Jun 24, 2026 →

An MES alternative that does not start with a rip-out

You do not have to pull out the systems that run your floor. You can leave them running and add a layer above them. Tracy Gromniski · Jun 23, 2026 →

The demo test: bring your own data

Every manufacturing analytics software demo runs on clean sample data, so ask for an hour against one real week of your own. Rob Ryder · Jun 20, 2026 →

What an AI agent should be allowed to do

AI agents in manufacturing should act alone only when the action is reversible, the authority is a named role, and the action records itself. Tracy Gromniski · Jun 17, 2026 →