By process
Manufacturing Workflow Automation, From Order to Dispatch
In a factory, the handoffs are the expensive part: sales to production, production to stores, quality to dispatch. Each one is a place where work waits for a person to notice it. Automating those handoffs is usually worth more than optimising any single department.
Who this is for
- Factories where production learns about an order days after it is confirmed
- Plants where material shortages are discovered on the day the line needs material
- Companies where quality clearance and dispatch are coordinated verbally
- Operations with several departments and no automatic handoff between any of them
The problem
The five handoffs that cost a plant the most
- 01
Sales to production
An order is confirmed and communicated by message or meeting. Production plans from a copy, not from the order, so a change in quantity or date does not reliably reach the line.
- 02
Production to purchase
Material need is calculated when the job is about to start rather than when the order is released, which converts a planning problem into an emergency.
- 03
Stores to line
Material is issued without being booked against the job, so consumption, yield and true job cost are unknown until somebody reconciles them later.
- 04
Production to quality
Inspection happens when quality is told, not when production finishes, and the gap between the two is where material occasionally moves without clearance.
- 05
Quality to dispatch
Dispatch works from what it believes is cleared. Without a system-level gate, cleared and uncleared material can be packed on the same day.
How the system works
What gets automated across the plant
Order to production request
A confirmed order generates its production requirement automatically, with quantity, specification and committed date carried across rather than re-typed.
Requirement to material plan
Releasing production explodes the requirement against stock and open purchase orders, and raises shortages while there is still time to act.
Issue booked against the job
Stores issues to a job, not to a cost centre, so consumption against standard is known per job as work happens.
Completion to inspection
Recording production completion creates the inspection, assigns it and blocks the lot from dispatch until a result exists.
Clearance to dispatch
Only inspected, cleared, physically available material can be packed — enforced by the system rather than by memory.
Dispatch to invoice
What left the gate is what gets invoiced, so finance is not reconciling a dispatch register against an invoice register.
Automation
What stops being somebody's job
When this happens
The system does this
A sales order is confirmed
A production request is created with its dates and specification
A production order is released
Material is checked and shortages raised to purchase
Material is issued to a job
Consumption and WIP update against that job
A job reports completion
Inspection is created and the lot is held
Inspection passes
The lot becomes dispatchable and dispatch is notified
A dispatch is recorded
Finance is notified with the exact quantities shipped
None of these need a person to remember them. That is the whole point.
Management visibility
What management can see once this runs
- Where every open order currently sits, by stage
- Which orders are waiting on material and which on capacity
- Handoffs that are ageing — work sitting between two departments
- Inspection backlog and its effect on dispatch
- Orders at risk against their committed date, with the reason
In practice
Situations this is usually bought for
A rush order that does not need a meeting
Confirmed at 11am, production requirement created immediately, shortage flagged to purchase the same hour, line sequence updated and the customer commitment recalculated — without a single call.
Shortage found at planning, not at the machine
Because requirements are exploded at release rather than at start, the shortage arrives as a purchase request days earlier.
Nothing ships without clearance
Dispatch can only pick from cleared stock. The category of dispute that begins with 'it was already loaded' disappears.
Invoicing from actual dispatch
Finance raises invoices from the dispatch record, which removes the reconciliation between what was sent and what was billed.
Before / after
What changes
Before
After
Departments told about work
Departments handed work by the system
Shortages discovered at the line
Shortages raised at release
Verbal quality clearance
A system gate before dispatch
Reconciling dispatch against invoices
Invoices generated from dispatch
How it works
From operational chaos to a connected business system
- 01
Understand
We sit with each department and learn the process as it is actually run — including the workarounds, the informal exceptions and the things people do because the official way does not work. This is where most of the value of the project is decided.
You getA written map of your current processes, departments and bottlenecks
1–2 weeks
- 02
Map
We trace how information moves between people, departments and systems: where it is created, where it is re-entered, where it is lost, and where a decision waits on something nobody can see. The re-entry points are almost always the expensive ones.
You getAn information flow map, with every handoff and duplication marked
1–2 weeks
- 03
Design
We design the target workflow — owners, rules, gates, automations and the screens each role needs — and agree it with the people who will live in it. We also agree what we are deliberately not building yet, and say so plainly.
You getA workflow design, screen list and phased build plan with scope you have signed off
2–3 weeks
- 04
Build
We build in phases, so one department is genuinely using something early rather than waiting for a full system. Each phase is delivered, tested with real data and put into use before the next begins — which is also how the awkward details get found while they are still cheap.
You getWorking software in real use, phase by phase, with integrations and reports
Phased, typically 4–12 weeks per phase
- 05
Optimize
After go-live we look at what is actually being used, which alerts are being acted on and which are being ignored, where people are still keeping a parallel sheet, and what the data now reveals that nobody could see before. Then we improve it.
You getUsage review, workflow refinements, new reports and ongoing support
Ongoing
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Still unsure whether your processes are a fit? Walk us through one of them.
Book an Operations Automation ConsultationWhich handoff should we automate first?
Usually the one that causes the most rework, and in most factories that is order to production, or material issue against the job. We look at where information is re-entered and where delays repeat, and start there — a first project that removes visible pain earns the cooperation the later ones need.
Do we need to automate everything for this to be worthwhile?
No. Each handoff is worth something on its own. The compounding benefit comes from connecting them, but the sequence is deliberately incremental so you are never waiting for a full system before anything improves.
Our plan changes daily. Can automation cope with that?
It should make changing the plan easier, not harder. The point is that when the sequence changes, the downstream effects — material, commitments, dispatch dates — are recalculated rather than left stale. Rigid automation that cannot absorb a re-sequence is automation built by someone who has not stood on a shop floor.
How is this different from a production management system?
A production management system is the record of what is planned and produced. Workflow automation is the movement between departments — the triggers, gates and notifications that carry work forward. They are usually built together, and we describe them separately because companies often need one more urgently than the other.
Keep reading
Related solutions and industries
Manufacturing Systems
Manufacturing software development covering production, material issue, quality, job work and dispatch — built for real shop-floor processes.
Production Management System
A production management system tracking plan against actual output, WIP by stage, job-wise consumption, rejections and rework — updated as work happens.
Workflow Automation
We build workflow automation for approvals, notifications, escalations and handoffs — so purchase, production and quality processes move without anyone chasing them.
Manufacturing
Production, purchase, inventory, quality, dispatch and management workflows in one connected system.
Next step
Your business has a process. Let's turn it into a system.
From manual workflows and disconnected departments to connected operations, automated processes and real-time visibility.