Industry overview
What is shaping manufacturing
Manufacturers sell to distributors, OEMs and industrial buyers, and compete on quality, delivery and service as much as price. Many are also digitising plants, sales and finance processes.
- Distributor networks remain central to reach
- Buyers expect consistent quality and on-time delivery
- Digitisation of operations and reporting is accelerating
Client background
An auto-component manufacturer, working in Pune. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- An auto-component manufacturer
- Sector
- Manufacturing
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- ERP development, API development & integration, Software testing & QA
Client challenge
Orders, production planning and inventory were tracked in spreadsheets. Stock discrepancies caused missed deliveries, and month-end closing took three weeks.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: replacing spreadsheets with an ERP in a growing component factory.
- Design around the real needs of users.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 180 users.
- users180
Audiences we typically reach in manufacturing
Procurement and plant headsDistributors and dealersOEM buyersService engineersFinance and operations teams
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Pune. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Process mapping
- 3Phased implementation
- 4User training
- 5Insight
We mapped processes with each department, implemented finance and inventory first with barcode scanning in stores, then added sales orders, dispatch and production planning. Key users in each team were trained deeply and supported colleagues.
ERP developmentAPI development & integrationSoftware testing & QA
Sampling strategy
- users
- 180
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Stock accuracy improved, on-time delivery rose, and month-end closing became much faster.
Phasing the rollout built confidence and avoided disrupting production.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: phasing the rollout built confidence and avoided disrupting production.
- Track adoption and support tickets, and plan the next release from real usage.
Business impact
- Management could see margins by product for the first time.
Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: where do customers feel service falls short?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.