01
Purchase orders are re-keyed
Customer and dealer orders arrive as PDFs and emails and are typed into the ERP.
Manufacturing
Give sales, dealers and planners the same answer, from the same data.
Technology, Software and AI Automation for Manufacturing
Manufacturers rarely lack an ERP. What they lack is a clear line between the ERP, the shop floor and the customer, so planners, sales and dealers keep asking each other the same questions.
- 08:00Purchase orders in the inboxThe sales office types them into the ERP line by line.
- 10:30A dealer asks about stockSales calls the warehouse, the warehouse checks a sheet.
- 12:00A customer wants a delivery dateSales guesses, because the production plan is not visible to them.
- 15:00Material shortageA supplier delay is discovered on the day the line needs it.
- 17:30Dispatch paperworkInvoices and certificates are emailed to customers one by one.
01Strategize
ERP and MES decisions, shop-floor data architecture, and whether to extend the current ERP or replace the spreadsheets growing around it.
Explore 02BuildDealer and distributor portals, production tracking apps, quality and maintenance tools, and quotation systems for configured products.
Explore 03AutomateOrder confirmations, dispatch updates, purchase order processing, quality documentation and supplier follow-ups.
Explore 04RunUptime for plant-facing systems, integration monitoring between ERP and the floor, backups and security patching.
ExploreThe short answer
Where does automation help a manufacturing business most?
Manufacturers get the most from automation in the work around production rather than on the machines: turning customer and dealer purchase orders into ERP orders, confirming delivery dates from the production plan, sending dispatch and invoice updates, chasing suppliers for late materials, and assembling quality documentation. These tasks are repetitive, rule-based and currently depend on people copying data between the ERP, email and spreadsheets.
- Workflows mapped
- 6
- Tasks safe to automate
- 9
- Kept with people
- 6
- Systems we connect
- 12+
What we usually find
Six problems that show up in almost every manufacturing business
02
Nobody can promise a date
Sales cannot see the production plan, so delivery dates are guesses followed by apologies.
03
Dealers call for everything
Stock, price, order status and invoice copies all come through phone calls to the sales office.
04
Supplier delays surface late
A material shortage is found on the day production needs it.
05
Quality records are paper
Inspection sheets and certificates are filled by hand and hard to find when a customer asks.
06
Spreadsheets run the plant
Planning, maintenance and shift reports live in files outside the ERP.
Workflows
What the work looks like once it is automated
Pick a workflow to see each step. Every one reads from your real systems, and hands over to a person where the rules say it should.
Purchase order intake
- 1
Read the PO from email or portal
- 2
Match customer, items and prices
- 3
Create the sales order
- 4
Flag mismatches.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Delivery date confirmation
- 1
Check stock and production plan
- 2
Propose a realistic date
- 3
Confirm to the customer
- 4
Update on changes.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Dealer self-service
- 1
Dealers check stock, prices, order status and download invoices in a portal instead of calling.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Supplier follow-up
- 1
Track open purchase orders
- 2
Remind suppliers before due dates
- 3
Alert planning when a delay is confirmed.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Dispatch and invoice updates
- 1
On dispatch
- 2
Send the invoice, e-way bill or shipping documents and tracking to the customer automatically.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Quality documentation
- 1
Capture inspection results on a tablet
- 2
Generate certificates
- 3
Attach them to the batch and the order.
Every step is logged, and anything outside policy goes to a person.
Reference architecture
How the pieces fit together
Automation is only as good as what it can see. This is the shape we build towards in manufacturing: channels on top, your systems of record underneath, and people where judgement is needed.
External partiesWho asks and sends.
- Customers
- Dealers
- Suppliers
- Transporters
- Auditors
Systems of recordWhat must stay authoritative.
- ERP
- Production plan
- Inventory
- Quality records
- Document store
AutomationRead, match, notify.
- PO extractor
- Date promiser
- Dealer portal
- Supplier chaser
- Certificate builder
PeopleWhere judgement matters.
- Sales office
- Planning
- Quality team
- Purchase team
Where the line sits
What software handles, and what stays with your people
Handled automatically
- Purchase order data entry
- Order acknowledgements
- Delivery date updates
- Dealer stock and price queries
- Invoice and document sharing
- Supplier reminders
- Dispatch notifications
- Certificate generation
- Shift and production summaries
Always a person
- Pricing for custom or large orders
- Credit limit exceptions
- Quality non-conformance decisions
- Production schedule trade-offs
- Supplier negotiations
- Customer complaints and claims
Advice before you spend
Three technology decisions manufacturing businesses often get wrong
Replace the ERP?
Not as a first step. Connecting it to email, dealers and the floor usually solves what people blame the ERP for.
Dealer portal or sales app?
A dealer portal when you have a network ordering regularly. It removes the most calls.
What to automate first?
Purchase order entry or dealer order status. High volume, measurable, and nowhere near production control.
What to measure
Four numbers that tell you whether technology is helping. We take a baseline before any work starts.
Orders entered manually
Time and errors that extraction removes.
On-time delivery against promise
Tests whether dates come from the plan or from hope.
Dealer calls to the sales office
The workload a portal replaces.
Supplier delays found late
Shortages that disrupt the production plan.
Where it fits
Common starting points
Dealer and distributor networks
Self-service ordering and status so the sales office stops acting as a call centre.
Make-to-order manufacturers
Realistic delivery promises based on the actual plan, with updates when it changes.
Regulated or certified production
Inspection records and certificates generated and filed as production happens.
Multi-plant operations
One view of orders, stock and dispatch across plants and warehouses.
Related work
Systems we have built
Case study
B2B Commerce Platform for a Building-Materials Supplier
A B2B ordering platform for a building-materials business: trade catalogues, account-based pricing and an ordering flow built for contractor...
Read the case study Case studyCustom CRM for a Multi-Brand Sales Organization
A purpose-built CRM replacing spreadsheets across brands: lead pipeline, follow-up automation and management reporting in one system the sal...
Read the case study Case studyMulti-Brand Cloud Consolidation & Migration
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Read the case studyDo we need a new ERP to do this?
Almost never as a first step. Most of the value comes from connecting the ERP you have to email, dealers and the shop floor. We look at replacement only if the current system cannot support the business at all.
Can purchase orders from different customers really be read automatically?
Yes, including varied PDF layouts. Extracted orders are matched against customers, items and prices in the ERP, and anything that does not match is shown to a person before it becomes an order.
Will this work with Tally or a smaller ERP?
Often yes, depending on how the system exposes data. We check the integration options first and tell you plainly if a workaround would be fragile.
Where should a manufacturer start?
Usually with dealer or customer order status, or with purchase order entry. Both are high volume, easy to measure, and do not touch production control systems.
Tell us what is slowing your operation down.
One process, one system or one decision. An engineer who understands manufacturing replies within one working day with how we would approach it, and whether it needs building at all.