Machine builders: your jobs are still run from memory

A special machine means a bill of material that moves until the last day, a technical file to compile, and after-sales support starting a ten-year life.

Thirty minutes, no commitment

Describe your workshop. I'll tell you where I would start and what I would leave alone.

You build to order. Every machine differs a little from the last, the design office is still working when assembly has started, and purchasing is released in waves as approvals come through. Volume manufacturing methods do not apply to you, which is why most industrial organisation advice lands wide of the mark.

What I see at builders of 20 to 250 people is that the problem is almost never design or manufacture. It is the flow of information between the design office, purchasing, assembly and after-sales.

What I see in your workshops

The bill of material changes after purchasing has been released

Revision B replaces revision A while three revision-A items are already on order. Stores receives parts that are no longer needed, and nobody finds out before the stocktake. Across a job, those BOM discrepancies often exceed the margin planned on that same job.

Assembly waits for a part nobody knew was missing

The fitter discovers at assembly time that a cylinder or a long-lead electrical component is missing. The order goes out express with a freight surcharge, and two fitters stand idle for three days. The shortage list existed, but it was consolidated nowhere before the need became physical.

The technical file gets compiled at the end, under pressure

Diagrams, manuals, component declarations of conformity, risk assessment, operating manual, spare parts list. All of it exists, scattered between the design office, supplier emails and the network drive. It is pulled together in the week of despatch, by the least available person.

The configuration actually shipped is not retained

Three years later the customer calls about a spare part. The question is simple: which motor was fitted to that machine? Answering means finding the job, checking whether the last-minute change was reflected in the BOM, and often calling the fitter who was on site.

Hours spent per job are known too late

The real cost of the machine emerges two months after delivery, when the next job has already been quoted on the same faulty basis. The builders that make money are the ones who know mid-build that a job is drifting — not the ones who find out afterwards.

Where I would start, in this order

The order matters more than the list. Here it is as I would propose it after the audit, unless the two days on site show otherwise.

1
Rebuilding a traceability file takes you half a day
For you, traceability is not an abstract quality requirement: it is what tells you what was actually fitted to machine no. 214 delivered in 2022. The as-built file, with its last-minute changes, is an after-sales asset for ten years.
automate ISO 9001 traceability and audit preparation
2
You don't know exactly what has gone out to subcontractors
Fabrication, large-part machining and surface treatment go outside while assembly is being prepared. It is the leading cause of commissioning dates slipping, and it is the fastest project to put in place.
track subcontracted parts without a shared spreadsheet
3
Your quotes depend on one person and go out too late
Quoting a special machine means finding what a similar machine cost, and knowing how many hours it actually took. Without actuals feeding back, every quote repeats the errors of the last one.
automate estimating and quote generation
4
Your customer orders are retyped by hand into your ERP
Less central for a builder than for a subcontractor, but spare parts orders are repetitive, numerous and low in unit value — exactly the profile worth automating.
automate customer order entry into the ERP

What I don't do

What I do not do at a machine builder:

I do not build your product configurator. That is a different project, longer, and it only makes sense once your bills of material are clean.
I do not touch the embedded software on your machines or their safety functions. My scope stops at your internal processes.
I do not replace your PDM or PLM if you have one, and I do not sell you one if you don't: between 20 and 250 people the question is worth asking but rarely urgently.
I do not write your risk assessment or your conformity file. I make sure the pieces of that file are gathered as you go rather than the night before despatch.

The questions I get asked

Our jobs are all different — can that be automated?

The jobs are unique, the processes are not. Producing a shortage list, chasing a subcontractor, assembling a technical file: those actions are identical from one machine to the next. That is where the gain is, not in standardising your products.

We run an ERP built for volume, poorly suited to job working.

That is the most common situation at builders. Rather than replace it — a six-figure project — we add the per-job view alongside, drawing on the data it already holds. It is less intellectually satisfying and far more profitable.

What does it cost and how long does it take?

The two-day audit is €1,500 and you leave with a map and a costed plan. The projects that follow are fixed price, between €8,000 and €15,000, delivered in three to four weeks each.

Do you work with our design office?

Necessarily. On a special machine, half the shop-floor problems arise from information that never came down from the design office — not through negligence, but because no channel exists for it.

Who owns the resulting code?

You do, with the documentation and the credentials. The assignment is in the quotation.

Let's talk for thirty minutes

You describe your flow, I tell you what can be automated, what cannot, and where I would start. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so during the call.