The software didn't replace Harold’s knowledge of wood grain. It replaced the tedious act of remembering where the screws were. It freed him to focus on quality, design, and craft.
But the market was changing. A big hotel chain wanted to order 500 nightstands, but they needed them in two weeks, not six. They also wanted a mix of oak, walnut, and cherry. Harold’s ledgers required a full shutdown to count stock. When he finally tallied the raw wood, he realized he was 200 board-feet short of cherry. By the time the special order arrived, the hotel had hired another vendor. inventory software for manufacturing
It wasn’t a physical robot. It was a green-on-black terminal connected to a mainframe—the first Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) system the company had ever seen. Harold scoffed. “A machine doesn’t know wood grain,” he muttered. The software didn't replace Harold’s knowledge of wood