ERP Implementation Consultancy for Manufacturing & Operations

Problem this solves

You're 6 months into an ERP implementation and the customisation backlog has hit $2M. The real problem isn't the software — it's that nobody mapped how your 15-year-old system encoded business assumptions that your team no longer remembers making. By the time you discover this, it's too late to redesign without derailing the timeline.

Approach

Pre-implementation process archaeology: we run 2-week discovery sprints with your ops, finance, and supply chain teams to surface the decision logic buried in your current system — the workarounds, the exception handling, the things nobody documented. We then map which of these are actual business requirements versus inherited technical debt. This reduces customisation scope by 35-55% on average because we eliminate features you think you need but actually don't. We then build a phased rollout plan that sequences cutover by operational risk, not by module, so you never have more than one business process in flux at once.

Insight

Most ERP consultants ask 'what do you want the new system to do?' You should ask 'what is your current system doing that you don't understand?' The second question reveals constraints. A manufacturing client thought they needed a custom demand-planning module because their old system couldn't forecast. We found the system could — they just didn't know it was running a buried calculation. Removing the 'requirement' saved 8 weeks and $400K in build time. The CFO who says the system doesn't work is usually telling you something the data team has never seen.

In practice

A mid-sized aerospace manufacturer (£180M revenue, 3 plants) was 4 months into a SAP migration. Customisation was at 340 hours outstanding and climbing. We paused the implementation for 10 days to audit their existing system logic against actual business operations. Found that 60% of their 'required' features were workarounds for a single data-quality issue in inventory costing that the legacy system couldn't prevent. Fixed the root cause in the SAP configuration layer — zero custom code. Resumed implementation with 85 hours remaining against the original plan. Go-live hit the original date. The customisation backlog that would have cost £1.8M was eliminated.

Scope and fit

This work is most relevant to operations directors and CFOs in manufacturing, distribution, or processing companies with £50M–£500M revenue who are 2-12 weeks pre-implementation or within the first 2 months of execution. You need access to your process owners and honest data about system behaviour. Out of scope: greenfield implementations where you don't have a legacy system to audit, or organisations where the business hasn't yet committed to process standardisation (if you plan to customise your way around every difference between plants, this work won't help). Also not applicable if your implementation timeline is already locked and you can't pause for discovery.

Expertise

12 years' experience: 8 years as VP of Operations running SAP across 3 continents at a manufacturing company (implemented material management, production planning, finance modules across 7 plants), then 4 years running an advisory firm focused on implementation de-risking. Hands-on with SAP, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics. 18-24 engagements completed, majority in manufacturing and distribution. Signature work: recovering implementations that were 3+ months behind schedule by identifying and eliminating scope.