The software that eventually became 4C@SITE was conceived and first developed as a process improvement initiative at Sun Hydraulics Corporation, a global manufacturer of hydraulic valves. Bob Koski, Sun's founder, collaborated with mathematician Dr. Ken Henderson to bring the original prototype to life. The technology was spun off prior to Sun Hydraulics' IPO, leading to the founding of nMetric in 2000.

Sun faced a number of challenges familiar to anyone dealing with a complex manufacturing environment. They had a high mix of small and large volume order quantities; various unique products competing to use specialized equipment and tools; and a high and varying mix of raw materials and purchased parts needed to fabricate and assemble finished products. On Sun's shop floor, various numbers of roving tools could be used on multiple machines. Many of the machines were too large and expensive to be moved or duplicated. Plus, operating those machines also required a specialized workforce.

In their effort to improve the company's manufacturing process, Koski and Henderson developed a breakthrough premise: the Smart Job™. Through the application of probabilistic theory and Boolean principles, each job sent to the floor would have the ability to gather the resources necessary to complete itself, including materials, equipment, tools and labor. Smart Jobs would route themselves, understanding the relationship between resources and order routing. They would know when each operation must be completed to stay on schedule, and what their priority is, based on when the entire order must be completed.

The development of Smart Jobs resulted in another significant benefit. For the first time, it was also possible for manufacturers to get a realistic view of the entire factory floor, in real time. Even more impressively, the software gave them the ability to foresee the future and fix nascent problems before they effected operations. This ability to foresee situations and scenarios led to the software's current name, 4C@SITE.

Koski and Henderson's patented technology later led to the development of 4C's unique "ping pong" scheduling and industry-leading "what if" capabilities. 4C today provides a powerful, integrated combination of Multi-Dimensional Scheduling, a robust Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Operational Manufacturing Intelligence (OMI) and Operational Data Collection.