For project-driven industrial companies

Project management software
for industry

Several projects, the same designers, fitters and machines, plus suppliers on the critical path. Linetrack plans all of this in one system: project management plans at a high level, the departments plan their own part, and suppliers maintain their dates directly in the plan.

10 working days from kick-off to go-live
Import from Excel, MS Project and Primavera
Hosted in Germany or on-premise

Linetrack project management software for industry with schedule and utilisation across several projects

Quick Answer

Project management software for industry keeps the dates, capacity, tasks and suppliers of several parallel projects in one system, in which each department plans its own part. Common tools such as MS Project, Excel, Asana or ERP project modules each cover one slice: a plan, a team or the costs. Linetrack, based in Stuttgart, connects scheduling and capacity planning across all projects and departments. Customers use it to run between 5 and more than 270 parallel projects.

91 %

named Excel and tool
chaos as their starting problem

400+

replaced Excel lists
and planning tools

270+

projects running in parallel
at the largest customer

30+

departments planning together
at the largest customers

Every figure on this page comes from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026.

Challenges

Why standard software reaches its limits in industrial projects

Most project management tools are built for one project, one team or one task list. Industrial projects have more of everything: more projects at the same time, more departments in the plan, more dependencies outside the company. This shows in four places.

Diagram of a typical system landscape: project management with MS Project and Excel, departments with their own lists and detailed planning, staff with task tools such as monday.com, Asana and Trello, plus an ERP without a connection; all links are broken — Typical system landscape before the switch: each level plans in its own tool.

One plan per project, but resources shared by all

Each project plan is consistent on its own. None of them shows that electrical design is booked in three of them at the same time. The conflict surfaces when the first deadline is missed.

Each department plans in its own list

Design, production, assembly and purchasing keep their own Excel files. Project management collects the status by email and in meetings and plans with last week's version. 91 % of Linetrack customers named exactly this as their starting problem.

Suppliers sit outside the plan

A bought-in part arrives three weeks late, and assembly is the last to find out. As long as external dates sit in inboxes, they are missing from the critical path.

The ERP knows the costs, not the dates

ERP project modules handle order accounting cleanly. Who works on which activity and when is not recorded there. Scheduling moves back into Excel.

Features

What project management software needs to do in industry

Every project management tool schedules dates and assigns tasks. For industrial projects that is not enough. These nine features decide whether a system can carry day-to-day work with many projects and departments. What applies specifically to steering many projects is set out in the requirements for multi-project management software.

Gantt scheduling

Activities, dependencies and critical path across all projects, not per file.

Gantt planning for multiple projects

High-level and detailed planning

Project management sets milestones, and the departments plan their activities beneath them.

High-level and detailed planning

Resources and capacity

Utilisation per person, team and department, across projects, with conflict indicators.

Resource and capacity planning

Tasks

Ownership and feedback at the level of the individual activity, also on mobile.

Task management

Planned vs. actual

Baseline against current status, deviations in working days.

Planned vs. actual comparison in projects

Portfolio

All projects with status, priority and bottlenecks in one view for management.

Managing the project portfolio

Suppliers

External partners maintain their own dates through their own login, with visibility of their activities only.

Bringing suppliers into projects

Interfaces

SAP and other ERP systems, time tracking such as AIDA, import from Excel, MS Project and Primavera, REST API.

Interfaces and integrations

AI assistant

Ask about dates, project status and utilisation in a chat, within the permissions of the person asking.

AI in project management

Placement

Project management tools at a glance: what each category is built for

Search for project management software and you will find lists of twenty products. A better first question is what shape of work a tool was built for: how many projects run in parallel and how many departments plan together.

The strengths and limits of each category are set out in detail in the multi-project management software comparison, and all individual comparisons under project management software compared.

The five tool categories – and the field above them

Two axes, deliberately without a scale: the position describes what shape of work a category was built for – not how good it is.

Classic project planning softwareThe plan lives on the project manager's machine.Classic project planning software such as MS Project: one person plans, one project per plan – the plan lives on the project manager's machine, with no link to department planning.
Excel and homegrown solutionsmore than 400 planning tools replacedExcel and homegrown solutions: one person per file, a few projects in parallel – most of the more than 400 planning tools Linetrack replaced were Excel solutions.
Agile PM toolsOne team, no committed delivery date.Agile PM tools: one team plans together, usually on a single initiative – without a committed delivery date and without capacity planning across parallel projects.
APS and finite scheduling systemsDetailed planning for one department, fed from the ERP.APS and finite scheduling systems: one department plans its resources in detail across a few parallel orders – built for manufacturing, not for long-running projects.
ERP project modulesCosting and controlling, barely any scheduling.ERP project modules: controlling sees every order, but the module is built for costing and cost tracking – in practice the schedule moves back into Excel.
Collaborative project and department planningLinetrackup to over 270 parallel projects per customerCollaborative project and department planning: all departments and suppliers plan in the same system across the entire portfolio – in practice from 5 to over 270 projects running in parallel per customer. This is the category Linetrack sits in.

The only field in the top row is the one where all departments and suppliers work on the same plan. Most of the more than 400 planning tools Linetrack replaced were Excel solutions.

Typical tools

Well-known project management tools and where it gets tight in industrial projects

Six categories with their typical tools: what each one is built for and the point at which it stops being enough for projects with many departments. Each card leads to the detailed direct comparison.

Classic project planning

MS Project, Oracle Primavera P6

Built for: one planner, one project per plan
Where it gets tight: departments do not plan along, no utilisation across projects

Direct comparisonMS Project Primavera

Work management and boards

Asana, monday.com, Trello

Built for: teams with tasks and campaigns
Where it gets tight: no reliable schedule, no capacity

Direct comparisonAsana monday.com Trello

Collaboration and task lists

Stackfield, Microsoft To Do

Built for: coordination and getting things done
Where it gets tight: no dependencies, no critical path

Direct comparisonStackfield Microsoft To Do

Excel and homegrown

Excel, Access, SharePoint lists

Built for: one person per file
Where it gets tight: out of date once sent, no shared view

Direct comparisonExcel

ERP project modules

e.g. SAP PS

Built for: costing and invoicing
Where it gets tight: dates and utilisation are missing

Direct comparisonERP project module

APS and finite scheduling

Finite scheduling systems attached to the ERP

Built for: machine allocation in production
Where it gets tight: no long-running projects, no other departments

Direct comparisonFinite scheduling

Solution

Linetrack: project management software for projects with many stakeholders

Linetrack sits in the top right of the matrix. Many projects, many departments, suppliers in the same plan. Three things are built differently from the common tools to make that work.

Each department plans its own part

Design estimates the design work, assembly estimates the assembly work. Project management no longer has to collect the status; it can see it.

Dates and utilisation in one data model

When an activity moves, utilisation changes at the same moment. No reconciliation between the schedule and a capacity list.

Suppliers with their own login

External partners see only their own activities and report dates back directly. If a part is late, assembly sees it the same day.

High-level and detailed

Project management plans at a high level, the departments plan the detail

In many companies one person plans for everyone and asks for the status every week. That works up to about five projects. After that, the plan is always a week old.

In Linetrack, project management sets milestones and delivery dates, and each department plans its own activities beneath them. Roles govern who has which permissions.

Role-based views per department

Changes appear in the portfolio immediately

Feedback on the activity, also via the mobile app

One set of data instead of many files

High-level and detailed planning across several departments in the Linetrack project management software

Dates and utilisation

Dates and utilisation in the same system

The schedule sits in MS Project, utilisation in Excel or the ERP. The two are reconciled by hand.

Linetrack calculates both from the same data: beneath the bar chart sits the capacity histogram for all projects. What that looks like in day-to-day work is shown in scheduling and capacity planning in one system.

Aspect	Classic tool landscape
Schedule	MS Project or Excel	One system
Utilisation	Separate list or ERP	One system
Reconciliation	Manual, with a time lag	Not needed
Bottleneck becomes visible	When the deadline is missed	While planning

Gantt chart with capacity histogram across several industrial projects in Linetrack

Suppliers

Suppliers and external trades on the critical path

Bought-in parts, subcontractors and service providers determine the end date in many projects. In Linetrack they appear as activities in the plan and maintain their own dates. If a part is late, assembly sees the consequences the same day.

How this differs from classic supplier management in projects is covered on a separate page.

Supplier activities in the schedule of the Linetrack project management software

Implementation and operation

Live in ten working days, in the cloud or in your own data centre

The rollout starts in project management and grows from there into the departments. Ongoing projects continue as normal in the meantime.

The full process is described on the page implementing project management software.

Day 1Kick-offRoles, project structure and rollout sequence are defined.
Day 10Go-liveExisting plans from Excel, MS Project and Primavera have been imported, and project management plans in the system.
After thatDepartments joinDesign, production, assembly and purchasing come on board step by step, each with its own part of the planning.

Operation

As a cloud service from a data centre in Germany in line with the GDPR, with a data processing agreement, or in your own data centre.

Comparison

Specialised, not generic: Linetrack alongside common tools

Task tools and classic planning tools are well built for their purpose. For projects in which many departments and suppliers depend on one plan, each of them is missing a different piece.

Requirement	Task tools (Asana, monday.com, Trello)	Classic planning (MS Project, Excel)
Several projects in parallel	yes, without scheduling logic	one project per file	portfolio across all projects
Dependencies, critical path	limited	yes	yes
Utilisation across all projects	no	manual	yes, with conflict indicators
Departments plan themselves	yes, as tasks	no, one person plans	yes, high-level and detailed planning
Suppliers in the plan	as a guest on the board	no	own login per supplier
ERP and time tracking	via third-party tools	import and export	standard interfaces, REST API
Hosting	server location depends on vendor and plan	local or Microsoft cloud	Germany or on-premise

References

How industrial companies plan with Linetrack

Four companies from machine building, special-purpose machinery and automation that started with Excel lists or another system and now plan their projects across departments in Linetrack.

Fit

Who Linetrack is built for – and who it is not

Linetrack is built for project-driven industrial companies in which several projects run in parallel and several departments plan together.

Several projects run in parallel and share the same departments.

Several departments plan themselves instead of feeding a central project manager.

Suppliers and external trades appear as activities in the schedule.

ERP and time tracking are connected instead of forming another silo.

Typical customers have 20 to 300 employees, up to more than 30 departments and 5 to over 270 parallel projects. That is not a hard limit; Linetrack also runs in considerably larger companies. For smaller businesses: project management software for SMEs.

Project portfolio with several parallel industrial projects in the Linetrack project management software

Limits

Two cases where another category is the better fit

No system is right for everything, Linetrack included. In these two cases another category gets there faster:

Pure series production without project character. Finite scheduling out of the ERP is the right tool for that.
Pure task administration. Anyone who only wants to hand out tasks does not need connected scheduling and capacity planning.

Work breakdown structure as an example of plan-driven projects rather than simple task lists

Industries

Project management software by industry

The same platform, tailored to the processes and terminology of each industry.

By audience: project management software for SMEs and Linetrack for design engineers.

Machinery and plant engineering

Long engineering lead times, bought-in parts on the critical path, shared designers and fitters.

Project management software for machinery and plant engineering

Machining centre in special-purpose machine building

Special-purpose machinery

One-off production in which every machine is a project of its own with its own engineering.

Project management in special-purpose machine building

Building and energy systems

Many parallel sites, fitters in the field, trades from external contractors.

Project control in building, energy and automation technology

Building shell with cranes on a construction site

Construction and infrastructure

Crews, equipment and subcontractors across several construction projects.

Project control in construction and infrastructure

Development

Development and internal projects that compete with day-to-day business for the same people.

Project management for development and internal projects

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?

Book a slot with our team.

What is project management software?

Software that keeps the dates, tasks, resources and progress of one or more projects in one system instead of in files, inboxes and meetings. In industrial projects, several departments and suppliers also work in the same plan, and utilisation across all projects is visible.

Which project management software is suitable for industrial companies?

One that connects the schedule and utilisation across several projects, lets departments plan for themselves and connects to the ERP and time tracking. Task tools and single-user planners each cover part of this. Linetrack is built for this kind of work. Examples from practice are in the references.

What project management tools are there?

Roughly six groups: classic planning (MS Project, Primavera P6), work management (Asana, monday.com, Trello), collaboration (Stackfield, Microsoft To Do), Excel and homegrown solutions, ERP project modules and finite scheduling systems. Linetrack belongs to none of them; it connects project and department planning.

How does project management software differ from an ERP project module?

The ERP covers orders, costs and invoicing. Project management software plans who works on what and when, and what a delay sets off. In practice the two run side by side, connected through an interface. The direct comparison: Linetrack vs. ERP project module.

Where is the data stored – cloud or on-premise?

Both are possible: cloud from a data centre in Germany in line with the GDPR, with a data processing agreement, or operation in your own data centre.

Does Excel have to go when project management software is introduced?

No. Excel remains useful for analysis, costing and one-off lists – it becomes a problem only as the shared basis for planning, because every file belongs to one person and is only as current as its last manual update. Existing Excel plans are imported during the switch rather than re-entered, as are schedules from MS Project and Primavera.

Which companies is Linetrack built for – and which is it not built for?

Built for project-driven industrial companies that run several projects in parallel with shared resources and where several departments plan together. The biggest difference is typically felt between 20 and 300 employees and up to more than 30 departments, without that being a hard ceiling. Linetrack is not built for pure series production without project character, or for simple task administration. Interfaces to ERP and time tracking are part of the system landscape. When this pays off for smaller companies is covered on the project management software for SMEs page.

Read on

Linetrack in detail

The features behind connected scheduling and capacity planning:

Portfolio control

Every running project in one place

Resource Management

Plan capacity across projects

Project Planning

Schedules, Gantt charts, and milestones

Task Management

Track progress with task tracking

Project management software for industry