The Business Had More Orders Than Its Systems Could Handle
I walked into a manufacturing company expecting to talk about computer support.
The company already had help with Microsoft 365, its website, Wi-Fi, and network. I thought it might need someone to support its computers.
After talking with the owner for about 15 minutes, I found a much larger problem. The company had grown faster than the way it tracked and managed its work.
I have left out the company name, financial details, and other private information.
The owner had already looked at ERP software
ERP software can connect orders, inventory, purchasing, production, labor, and billing in one system.
The owner had received several expensive quotes. They were also worried about giving one software company too much control over their data and future costs.
I agreed to research the options, including open-source systems that could give the company more control.
First, I needed to understand how the work moved through the building.
Important information was scattered
The employees were making a good product, but the information they needed was spread across paper, spreadsheets, Word files, conversations, and memory.
I found several problems:
- Materials were pulled in different ways, which made usage and waste hard to track.
- The company did not know how much labor went into each product.
- Purchasing could not always tell when parts would be needed.
- The owner had to ask employees for updates on production.
- Checklists and important knowledge were spread across files and people.
- Most quality checks happened near the end of production.
The owner had to hold much of the process together. Questions, unusual cases, and missing information kept coming back to them.
That made growth harder.
The company already had plenty of demand
I asked the owner how much work the company could handle if it had enough workers and fixed these daily problems.
The owner believed the company could make about twice as much with the demand it already had.
That was the owner’s estimate. It was a goal for the project, not a measured result.
The answer showed why the project mattered. The company already had customers waiting for its products. It needed a better way to plan, track, and complete the work.
Software alone cannot fix the process
An ERP system could connect orders, materials, purchasing, labor, production, quality checks, and work instructions.
But the company first had to agree on how the work should move.
Each step needed an owner. Employees needed clear instructions that fit the real work. Inventory numbers had to be correct. Managers needed reports they could understand and trust.
Buying software before doing that work could move the same confusion onto a more expensive screen.
Find what is holding the business back
A busy company may respond to growth by hiring more people, buying equipment, or asking everyone to work harder.
Those changes can help. But poor information can keep a company from making good use of the people and equipment it already has.
Before buying a large system, ask:
- Where do employees enter the same information more than once?
- Which decisions depend on one person’s memory?
- Can the owner see the status and cost of each job?
- Does purchasing know what production will need and when?
- Are quality checks made during the work or only at the end?
Walking the floor and listening to the owner showed what was slowing this company down. That gave us a clear place to start.