Do you work on the floor or just in the office?

Both, and the floor is the part that distinguishes us. Process mapping done from a conference room produces the documented process rather than the real one, and the gap between those two is where the useful work is.

Will you tell us to replace our ERP?

Rarely. Manufacturing ERPs are expensive to change and the customisations that block upgrades are usually fixable. We take no commission from any vendor, so keeping yours earns us the same as replacing it.

Can you work around production?

Yes. Onsite work gets scheduled around your shifts rather than ours, including nights and shutdowns where that's what it takes.

We're ISO certified. Does that complicate things?

It usually helps, because the documentation discipline already exists. What's often missing is making it findable and keeping it current between audits, which is a systems problem rather than a compliance one.

AliveCommerce / Industries / Manufacturing

Manufacturing

The ERP was specified when you were a smaller company, customised every year since to keep up, and is now the reason you can't upgrade. Meanwhile the quality records are in binders and the person who knows how line three actually runs is eighteen months from retiring.

Common ERPsEpicor · Business Central · NetSuite · Odoo

Frequent triggerAn ISO or customer audit

OnsiteAvailable nationally

What we see most.

Tick what applies. The count changes what we'd recommend, and sometimes the recommendation is to wait.

What we do here.

Across all three layers, because problems in this sector rarely stay in one.

Knowledge and process

Quality records, work instructions and process capture

Auditors ask for evidence, not intentions. Getting records searchable and instructions current is usually the first project and the one with the clearest deadline.

Onsite conversion of quality and inspection records
Work instructions rebuilt for the station, not the binder
Process mapping by observation on the floor
Certification and competency tracking

Applications

ERP configuration, integration and shop-floor data

The ERP is rarely the problem on its own. The problem is what sits around it — data that can't get in, reports that can't come out, and customisations nobody documented.

ERP administration and upgrade assessment
Shop-floor data capture and integration
Custom applications where no product fits
Production and margin reporting

Web and revenue

Customer-facing ordering and technical content

Manufacturers increasingly sell direct, or at least need distributors and customers to self-serve technical documentation and order status.

Customer portals against live ERP data
Technical documentation and spec sheets online
Distributor and dealer portals
AODA compliance where required

The systems you probably run.

Each has a page on Champion1 covering what typically breaks and what we do about it.

Epicor Kinetic Business Central NetSuite Odoo JobBOSS SolidWorks PDM Power BI QuickBooks

Who we usually work with.

And the sentence that tends to start the conversation.

COO / Plant ManagerOwns throughput and downtime“Why does the same issue keep costing us a shift?”

Quality / QA ManagerOwns audit readiness“Could we produce three years of records this week?”

Owner / PresidentOften the decision maker under 75 staff“What happens when he retires?”

IT DirectorOwns the systems, usually alone“I'm the only one who knows how any of this works.”

What it looks like in practice.

Manufacturing · 140 staff · 7 months

Quality records lived in binders on the floor

An ISO audit forced the issue. Onsite conversion of eleven years of records, then a documentation system the quality team now maintains without us.

First

attempt audit pass

Straight answers.

Related.

The capabilities this sector reaches for most.

Get off paper“Filing cabinets, carbon forms, binders on the shop floor.”Replace a legacy system“It still works. Nobody left knows how.”Onboard and train faster“Six weeks before a new hire is any use.”

Tell us what's breaking.

We'll tell you which part of this we'd put on it, roughly what it costs, and whether it's worth doing at all — including when the honest answer is that you don't need us.

Start the Conversation

Knowledge and process

Applications and data

Customer and web

Browse by symptom instead

The structure

Continuous ownership

Before you commit

Start with one problem

Priority sectors

Also

Or by situation

Not sure you fit?

Reading

Most read

Proof

Nobody owns the application layer