MLI Enterprises

Management consulting and custom application development for operating businesses.

Software shaped to how your company actually works — built by people who have run the operations it serves.

01

What we do

Operational & management consulting

We work with owners and operators on process, reporting, and systems decisions. Engagements are scoped around a specific operational problem and end when it is solved.

Custom application development

We design and build software for the specifics of your business when off-the-shelf tools don't fit. Typical work includes internal tools, workflow systems, and integrations between the systems you already run.

02

Selected work

Production & scheduling system for a modular manufacturer

A factory running a 15-station production line was scheduling in spreadsheets. We built the system that now plans line capacity, advances modules station by station from the shop floor, and tracks every module by QR code from the line to the job site.

Manufacturing · Scheduling · Field tracking

Estimating platform replacing a spreadsheet workflow

An estimating team was rebuilding every bid by hand in Excel. We built a versioned estimating engine that goes from drawings to a bill of materials to a client-ready proposal, validated against the company's own historical bids before it replaced anything.

Estimating · BOM · Proposals

Month-end close and job-cost automation for a construction group

A controller was closing the books over weeks of manual journal entries. We automated WIP schedules, payroll allocations, and owner billing against the existing ERP — replicating the controller's exact postings rather than asking the team to change how they work.

Accounting · ERP integration · Automation

Client names withheld. References available on request.

Design the system around the company — not the company around the system.
03

How we work

  • Fixed scope, in writing. Engagements run under a signed MSA and SOW — you know what you're getting and what it costs before we start.
  • Your IP, on payment. Deliverable IP assigns to the client when the invoice is paid. No lock-in, no licensing tail.
  • Working software over decks. Clear communication, short feedback loops, and something you can use — not a slide about it.
04

Engagement

01

Scope

A working session on the actual problem, then a written SOW with deliverables, timeline, and price.

02

Build

Short cycles with working software to react to every week or two — not a reveal at the end.

03

Ship

Deployed into your real workflow, alongside the systems you already run, with your data.

04

Handoff

IP assigns on payment. Documentation, training, and optional ongoing support — your call.

05

Who

MLI Enterprises is led by Michael Li, who has spent his career inside operating businesses, most recently in operating roles across modular construction and manufacturing companies. The development practice grew out of software he built to run those businesses — production scheduling, estimating, and accounting systems used daily on factory floors and job sites. He studied Economics and Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara, works in English and Mandarin, and is based in California. More at michaelli.co.

06

Contact

If you have an operational problem that software should be solving, write a few sentences about it. We reply to every serious inquiry.