MRP for UK manufacturers
Know what to make, what to buy and what will miss its date.
MRP for UK precision engineering, machining and fabrication businesses of 25 to 150 people. One system from enquiry to despatch, built and supported in Sheffield.
The questions underneath it
Five questions a spreadsheet cannot answer
Keystone answers all five from your live production data.
- 01
Which of your orders will miss its date?
Keystone compares the promised date against the works order, the operations booked so far, the material still outstanding and any inspection holding the job. It returns the list, not a percentage.
- 02
What do you need to buy, and by when?
An MRP run nets accepted demand against stock, open production, issued purchase orders and requisitions, week by week. Every recommendation names the order behind it, so you can see why it wants you to buy.
- 03
Which jobs are stuck on quality or subcontract?
Keystone reads the operation each job sits at and lists the ones waiting on an open inspection, a non-conformance, or a consignment that went out and has not come back.
- 04
Where are you overloaded, and who is short?
The schedule loads work centres against their calendars, then narrows each one to the minutes somebody is actually rostered to that machine. Lights-out hours count separately, so the machine nobody is on shows up before the week starts.
- 05
What did that job actually cost you?
See real margin per job, built from what your people booked and what you actually paid for material and subcontract. Missing rates show as unvalued rather than quietly reporting a profit you did not make.
Connected Factory
Machine reality, joined to the order it affects
We install a small collector unit on your network. It reads machine state and ties each reading to the works order that was running. When a machine stops for four hours, you see which customer order it just delayed.
Collection only reads. No screen offers start, stop, reset, jog, override or programme load, and a test fails our build if one ever appears. We read MTConnect and Modbus today. The FANUC FOCAS reader is written and tested, but we have not yet commissioned it against physical controls.
One journey
The job carries its own history from enquiry to actual margin
Every stage writes to the same record. Nobody retypes anything at a handover.
Keystone AI
Factory intelligence that keeps watch between conversations
Factory Watch checks eight areas of the factory record on a schedule: commercial, planning, materials, production, quality, machines, people and despatch. Each finding names the records behind it, carries a priority and an owner, and can be acknowledged, snoozed or actioned.
The checks are rules, not a model. An AI provider writes the explanation in plain language, and if that provider goes down the findings still appear. Detection does not depend on model availability. Local Claude and Amazon Bedrock are both supported.
Implementation
Built in Sheffield. Implemented with UK manufacturers.
Keystone runs in a browser, so there is nothing to install on office machines or shop-floor terminals and no server to look after. We are in Sheffield and we work with manufacturers across the UK, starting by walking your floor and following one of your jobs.
We map the process, configure the system, import the data, test it role by role, train each role, agree opening stock and open orders, then go live on a planned date with a fallback. How long that takes depends on data quality, integrations and how many sites are involved, so we quote after discovery instead of guessing first.
Keystone runs manufacturing operations. The ledger stays where it is, telemetry stays read-only, and CAD and CAM stay in the tools your engineers already use.
Why Keystone
Four reasons manufacturers pick us
Capacity that knows who is on shift
Every MRP loads a machine. We narrow that machine to the minutes somebody is rostered to it, and count lights-out hours separately. You see the machine nobody is on before the week starts.
Machine data tied to the order
We read machine state over MTConnect and Modbus and join it to the works order that was running, so a stoppage tells you which delivery date moved.
Security built in, not bolted on
Keystone is built by a Cyber Essentials certified, ISO 27001 aligned managed service provider. Every screen, action and export is permission-checked, and the codebase has been through a penetration review.
Starts small, grows with you
Built for factories of 25 to 150 people. Start on Core, add MRP and quality when you need them, add machine data when you are ready. Nothing to install and no upgrade night.
Next step
Show us how your factory runs
A walkthrough starts with your orders, your production flow and your material problems. We follow one of your jobs through the system rather than presenting a feature list.