We run a food plant. Are you going to tell us how to do food safety?
No. Your quality people know the scheme you are audited against and we do not pretend to. What we build is the record-keeping around it: the run log that fills itself in from the line, the supplier certificates filed against the right lot, the trace that assembles in minutes. If a control belongs to a person, it stays with the person. We will not put a hold release behind an automated rule.
Our warehouse already has a WMS. Does this replace it?
Almost certainly not, and we would push back if you asked. A working WMS is expensive to replace and rarely the actual problem. The problem is usually everything around it — appointments booked by email, paperwork that lives in an inbox, exceptions nobody owns. We build that layer and connect it to what you already run.
How much of this is actually AI?
The parts where a machine reads something a person would otherwise retype: a supplier certificate, a load tender, a scanned bill of lading. Sorting and matching, too. The decisions — release this lot, hire this person, accept this load — stay with your staff, and we build them that way on purpose. Where a plain database and a form do the job, that is what you get, and it costs less.
Half our applicants speak Spanish first. Can you handle that?
Yes, and in a town with Rantoul’s workforce it is not optional. Application forms, confirmations and scheduling messages run in both languages, written by a person rather than machine-translated once and forgotten. Anything a candidate reads gets reviewed before it goes live.
What does a first project cost and how long does it take?
We scope it flat before you commit, so the number does not move. Most first builds here run four to eight weeks and cover one workflow properly rather than four badly. If we think the honest answer is smaller than what you asked for, we say so in the scoping call, not after the invoice.
If we stop working with you, what happens to our records?
They leave with you. Lot histories, applicant records, shipping data — all exportable in standard formats, on request, at any point, and that is written into the agreement before money changes hands. We have no interest in holding a plant’s traceability history hostage.
Do you work with the smaller shops, not just the plants?
Most of our Rantoul conversations start with a contractor, a repair shop or a staffing office rather than a plant. The pattern is the same at a smaller scale: quotes that go out and never get chased, jobs tracked in a notebook, invoices that go late because someone has to reconstruct the week. Those are short builds and they pay for themselves fast.
Is the show week work really worth building software for?
For some businesses here it is a meaningful share of the year. When tens of thousands of people come to the old airfield, the motels, food trailers, fuel stops and equipment dealers either planned for it or spent the week guessing. Building honest availability and a stock plan off last year’s real numbers is a small job with a visible payoff.