The scheduler that keeps up with reality
Keep Your Commitments, Even When Reality Changes
Most production schedules are outdated by lunchtime. When the shop floor changes—machine downtime, rush orders, shifting priorities—Otto reschedules in one click around your real machines, tools, changeovers, and shifts, so you can stay on track and deliver on your commitments without constant firefighting.
Use Otto yourself, let an AI agent manage it, or choose anything in between. Built for manufacturers who have outgrown spreadsheets but don’t want to deal with the complexity and overhead of enterprise software.
Now in early access · Free during the pilot · Founding discount at launch
Features
What Spreadsheets Can’t Do (And ERPs Overcomplicate)
Real manufacturing is messy. Your plan is right at 6 a.m. and wrong by 9. Materials slip, machines drop, rush orders land, priorities flip. Otto handles the disruption your current tools ignore.
Plans That Survive Reality
The scheduler built around the assumption that your plan will break. When a machine goes down, a rush order lands, or priorities flip, reschedule in one click against your real capacity — machines, tools, shifts, and maintenance — and see what moves before it becomes a missed delivery.
Instant Rescheduling
Move a job, click reschedule, and see the updated schedule instantly. No overnight batch runs. Just drag, drop, done.
Sequence-Dependent Setups
Setup time depends on what comes before and after — Otto knows this. Model real changeover complexity that spreadsheets can’t handle and ERPs overcomplicate.
Variable Run Rates
Production speed changes with crew size and workstation. Otto calculates actual throughput, not theoretical maximums that never happen on the floor.
Maintenance Integration
Downtime and maintenance built directly into your production schedule. No more surprises when the PM schedule conflicts with your biggest order.
Built for Growing Manufacturers
Most manufacturers have fewer than 100 employees, yet most software is built for giants. Otto gives you sophisticated scheduling without the enterprise price tag or IT overhead.
Custom Algorithms
Custom Optimization, Without the Enterprise Project
Otto’s default engine gets most factories running on day one. But some plants have one constraint that generic scheduling logic gets wrong — a carrier that only holds one mould family, a line whose rate depends on who’s crewing it, a changeover rule with no clean pattern. Modelling that properly has meant an enterprise optimization project with a consulting engagement attached, which is why most mid-sized manufacturers never got one. We build the algorithm for a fixed fee.
Your algorithm is bespoke. Everything around it — the app, the imports, the updates, the support — stays standard.
Your routings
Multi-stage flows, shared resources, and the real layout of your shop floor.
Your constraints
Sequence rules, crewing, tooling, material timing — whatever your plant runs on.
Your objectives
Tune for on-time delivery, throughput, changeover cost, or what your plant values.
From the Blog
Insights for Modern Manufacturers
Practical advice on production scheduling, workforce optimization, and the future of small manufacturing.
Company · February 2025 · 6 min read
Why We’re Building a Smarter Scheduling Platform for Small and Medium Manufacturers
75% of US manufacturing firms have fewer than 20 employees, yet most scheduling software is built for giants. We’re changing that with scheduling that adapts to reality — and lets you decide how much of the work AI handles.
Read moreIntegrations
Built to Connect, Not to Lock You In
Start with the spreadsheets you already keep. Every record Otto schedules from — items, routings, bills of material, work orders, shifts, downtime, customers — imports from CSV, so you can be scheduling before any integration work begins. When you’re ready to connect systems, Otto is API-first: export your data anytime and never worry about vendor lock-in. Need an integration we don’t have yet? Tell us — it shapes what we build next.
Early Access
Help Us Build the Scheduler You’ll Love
Otto is in early access. Rather than sell you a finished product, we’re working with up to six plants as design partners to shape it around real shop floors.
No price tag during the pilot. Just your problems, your feedback, and our full attention.
Who we’re looking for
Plants with a genuinely challenging production scheduling or materials planning problem, where:
- Scheduling or materials planning still happens in Excel or on a whiteboard
- Or your plant has unique challenges that will push Otto further
What you get
- Otto and Otto Mate free for the length of the pilot
- No obligation to buy when the pilot ends
- A direct line to the founders — no support tickets
- Your plant’s real constraints shape what we build next
- Your data stays yours — exported or deleted on request
- A founding discount once Otto launches
What we ask
- A real scheduling or materials planning problem, and real data to try Otto on
- Regular, honest feedback — a short call every couple of weeks
- One person at the plant who owns the pilot
- Patience with rough edges — it’s early, and we’ll say so
Founding discount
40% off your first year · 20% off years two and three
From the day Otto launches, while you stay subscribed. Launch pricing is set with input from our design partners.
or email [email protected]
Where Otto Is Heading
Start manual, add AI when you’re ready. Design partners use Otto and Otto Mate today, and help decide what Otto Pilot becomes.
Otto
You schedule.
- One-Click Scheduling
- Default Scheduling Algorithm
- Multi-Stage Process Routing
- Sequence-Dependent Changeovers
- Variable Run Rates by Crew Size
- Drag-and-Drop Rescheduling
- Bill of Materials (BOM) Support
- Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
Otto Mate
Otto proposes, you approve.
Everything in Otto, plus
- Ask about orders, workstations, and stock in plain English
- Flags orders at risk of missing their due date
- Proposes changes — due dates, quantities, maintenance, stock
- Applies the changes you approve — one click
- Every change recorded with who made it and why
Otto Pilot
Otto runs it. You set the guardrails.
Everything in Otto Mate, plus
- Takes customer orders automatically
- Prepares & submits purchase orders
- Schedules production autonomously
- Estimates delivery timelines for customers
- Monitors disruptions and reschedules proactively
- Operates within the guardrails you set
Custom Algorithms
Does your plant need its own algorithm?
Some plants have constraints no default scheduler handles well. If yours is one of them, we’ll scope a custom algorithm with you alongside the pilot.
- Quoted up front at a design-partner rate — agreed before any work starts
- Runs on the same platform as the default scheduler
Need ERP or other integrations? Mention them in your application — it helps us decide what to build first.
FAQ
Questions We Hear From Shop Floors
Real questions from production managers, plant owners, and schedulers like you.
How is Otto different from the scheduling software I’ve already tried?
Most schedulers hand you a plan and walk away — the moment materials slip or a machine drops, you’re back in the spreadsheet rebuilding it by hand. Otto reschedules in one click against your real constraints — machines, tools and molds, changeovers, shifts, and maintenance — so fixing a broken plan takes minutes, not hours. And you decide how much AI is involved: schedule yourself, or let Otto Mate propose changes for you to approve.
What does Otto cost?
Nothing during the pilot, and there’s no obligation to buy when it ends. Otto is in early access, and we’re working with up to six plants as design partners to shape it before launch — including its pricing, which we’ll set with their input. Design partners who stay on get 40% off their first year once Otto launches, and 20% off years two and three while they stay subscribed.
We’re a small shop. Isn’t this overkill for us?
Otto is built specifically for small and medium manufacturers — the 93% of US plants with fewer than 100 employees. You get sophisticated scheduling without the enterprise price tag, or IT requirements dependency. If you’ve outgrown spreadsheets but don’t need SAP, you’re exactly who we built this for.
Can Otto handle our complex changeover rules?
Yes. Otto supports sequence-dependent setup times — where changeover duration depends on what you ran before and what you’re running next. This is the real-world complexity that spreadsheets can’t model and that many schedulers ignore entirely.
What if production speed varies based on crew size?
Otto handles variable run rates natively. Define how throughput changes with the crew size and the workstation running the job. Your schedule reflects actual production capacity, not theoretical maximums.
Do we have to let AI run our schedule?
No — and most teams don’t start there. Otto runs on a spectrum. Otto Mate, your AI assistant, answers questions about orders, capacity, and stock, and proposes changes that only take effect when you approve them. Otto Pilot, coming soon, goes further — an AI agent that manages routine scheduling within the guardrails you set. You move along that path at your own pace. We’re not here to replace your planners — we’re giving them an assistant that checks orders, capacity, and stock in seconds.
How long does it take to get up and running?
Import your products, routings, bills of material, workers, shifts, and orders from CSV, add your workstations, define your changeover rules, and you’re ready. No six-month implementation projects. If you can describe your plant, you can configure Otto.
What happens when plans change mid-shift?
That’s the whole point of Otto. When a machine goes down or an order jumps the line, reschedule in one click. Otto rebuilds the plan around the change — respecting machines, tools, changeovers, and shifts — so you see what moves and keep your delivery promises instead of firefighting.
Ready to Stop Firefighting?
See what happens when your schedule adapts to reality instead of breaking on contact with it. We’re looking for up to six plants to shape Otto with us — become a design partner and stop rebuilding your plan by hand.
Free during the pilot. 40% off your first year once we launch.