Industries
Technology work on the plant floor and the systems above it
A manufacturing project is judged by whether the line keeps running. That makes integration between ERP, MES and equipment the center of most of the work we are asked to do.
What makes this sector different
ERP and the shop floor have to agree. Production orders, confirmations, scrap, consumption and quality results move between ERP and MES or directly from equipment. When that integration is weak, planners work from spreadsheets and inventory stops matching reality.
Warehouse and material flow is its own discipline. SAP EWM, warehouse order creation rules, resource management and radio-frequency processes need consultants who have run them in a plant, not generalists.
Operational technology needs a different security approach from IT. Scanning a production network can stop a line. Our work there starts with passive discovery, segmentation review and remote access control, planned with the engineers who own the equipment.
Where the work usually is
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ERP to MES integration
Order and confirmation flows with no error handling, so a failed message becomes a manual correction the next morning.
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Inventory accuracy
Physical stock that does not match the system because consumption postings are late or wrong.
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Warehouse processes designed on paper
EWM configuration that does not match how people actually move material, so operators work around it.
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Maintenance data
Equipment master data and maintenance plans that were never completed, so planned maintenance is informal.
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Flat production networks
Plant networks with little segmentation and remote vendor access that nobody reviews.
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Unpatchable equipment
Controllers and workstations running software that cannot be updated, which needs controls around it instead.
Systems and platforms we work in
Platform names describe where our consultants have worked. They do not imply a vendor partnership or certification.
How we help
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SAP implementation and conversion
Production, quality, maintenance and warehouse scope with plant-experienced consultants.
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MES and equipment integration
Order, confirmation and quality flows with error handling and operator-visible status.
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Warehouse management
EWM design and implementation: layout, order creation rules, resources and RF processes.
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OT security review
Passive discovery, segmentation, remote access and a plan for equipment that cannot be patched.
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Data and analytics
Production and quality reporting that does not run against the transactional system.
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Specialist staffing
SAP PP, QM, PM and EWM consultants, MES and integration engineers, Basis and ABAP.
Regulatory and contractual context
- Customer quality agreements and standards such as IATF 16949 or AS9100 shape traceability and record requirements.
- OSHA and plant safety rules limit how and when testing may touch operational systems.
- Export control rules can restrict who may access technical data for certain products.
- Environmental reporting duties affect data capture in production and maintenance systems.
- CMMC requirements apply where defense contract information is handled; see our public sector page.
- Product safety and recall duties drive batch and serial traceability through ERP and warehouse systems.
Roles we recruit for this sector
Contract, contract-to-hire and direct hire. We do not sponsor visas: candidates must already be authorized to work in the United States.
Illustrative engagement
Illustrative scenario. Not a real client engagement. No outcomes are claimed.
A components manufacturer runs SAP PP and an MES, and planners keep a parallel spreadsheet because confirmations arrive late and sometimes not at all.
- Starting point
- One-way interface from ERP to MES, confirmations returned in a nightly batch, failures visible only in a log nobody reads.
- Scope
- Rebuild the confirmation path as near real time with retries, surface failures to a named owner, and reconcile consumption daily against physical counts in one line as a pilot.
- Team
- An SAP PP consultant, an integration developer, an MES engineer and a test lead, working with the plant’s process engineers.
- Evidence
- Failure and latency measured before and after on the pilot line, a runbook for the plant team, and a decision point before rolling out to other lines.
- What is not claimed
- An example of how we scope this work. Not a client project, and no improvement figures are claimed.
Questions people ask
Will security testing stop our line?
Not if it is planned properly. On operational networks we start with passive discovery and configuration review, agree exclusions in writing, and do any active testing in a maintenance window with your engineers present.
Do you have consultants who have worked in plants?
For production, quality, maintenance and warehouse roles, plant experience is one of the things we screen for, and we tell you which plants and which modules.
Can you support multiple sites?
Yes. Multi-site rollouts are usually phased with a template and site-specific deviations, and we plan the template before the first site rather than after.
Can you integrate equipment that only speaks older protocols?
Often, through an integration layer or historian. We will say plainly at scoping if a piece of equipment needs a vendor rather than us.
Related
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SAP
S/4HANA implementation and migration, Finance and Supply Chain modules, Fiori, BTP and integration, plus the architects, functional consultants, developers and Basis engineers who do the work.
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Systems integration
Connect enterprise applications using APIs, events, messaging and file exchange, with ownership, monitoring and error handling.
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Legacy modernization
Assess and modernize aging applications and platforms: rehost, replatform, refactor, replace or retire, with a plan that keeps the business running.
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Automotive
Supplier networks, EDI, plant systems and product data.
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