01
The schedule lives in Excel
Production planning runs off one fragile spreadsheet only one person truly understands, and everything stops when they're on leave.
Ref OPS-00 / Positioning
Most developers have never seen a pick list.
Most developers have never seen a pick list.
Most ops managers can't write a webhook handler.
I do both.
Twenty years on the floor, running overall operations, procurement, production scheduling, packaging and dispatch across multiple sites. In that time I've lifted efficiency and output, improved DIFOT, created transparency through automated live reporting, and sharpened customer communication and the overall customer experience. And I write the software that connects it all, for small-to-mid Australian manufacturers still holding it together with spreadsheets and re-keying. Manufacturing is my specialty, not one industry on a long list.
Operator who codes
Ref OPS-01 / The problem
If any of this is you, we should talk.
02
The ERP is half-used
You bought a capable system and use maybe forty percent of it. The rest of the business runs on memory, sticky notes and phone calls.
03
The same data, keyed three times
An order gets typed into the ERP, then a spreadsheet, then an email. Good people burning hours moving numbers between boxes.
Ref OPS-02 / Why this combination is rare
I build software that mirrors the real processes I've run myself.
Not a developer's guess at how a factory should work, but the processes I operated day to day, turned into software. That's the piece that's usually missing, and it's why so many integration projects end up technically correct and unused. There's no agency layer here either. You deal with the person doing the work, not an account manager relaying your job to a team that's learning your business on your budget.
20+
Years in manufacturing operations: procurement, production, dispatch
2
Sites and multiple entities run day-to-day on systems I've built
1
Person who speaks both shop floor and software, with no translation layer
Ref OPS-03 / Start here
It starts with a conversation, not an invoice.
First we talk. A quick call, a Teams meeting, or a coffee if you're nearby, about how your operation runs and where it hurts. No charge and no obligation. If it makes sense to go further, the next step is a fixed-price audit: two or three days mapping your operation, and a written plan you keep either way. And if you decide to go ahead with the build, the audit fee comes off the price.
Ref BUILD / Capabilities
What I build
Together these cover the whole journey, from a customer's first contact through to the product landing at their door. Every one of them is something I've built and run in working factories. Not a slide, not a proposal.
/ 01
ERP integration
Getting data out of the ERP and into the places people actually look: calendars, dashboards, task lists, the shop floor. I work at the database and API level, so the ERP stops being a locked box and starts feeding the rest of the business.
/ 02
Production & dispatch systems
Tracking platforms with capacity limits, warranty workflows, automated dispatch notifications and order linking across multiple sites. The kind of system that tells you what's really happening on the floor without anyone updating a spreadsheet.
/ 03
Workflow automation
The repetitive re-keying and copy-paste between systems, removed. Self-built, code-based automation you own outright, with no monthly fee to a third-party platform, no black box you can't see inside.
/ 04
The unglamorous data work
BOM structuring, part-numbering schemes, data migration, packaging specifications. The work nobody wants to own and everybody needs done properly, by someone who's lived on the receiving end of it.
/ 05
Customer & stakeholder portals
Customer-facing portals and internal web tools that lift the customer experience from day one: live order status, delivery and DIFOT visibility, and self-service instead of phone calls chasing "where's my order?". The same live data your team works from, shared with the people who need to see it.
/ 06
Guided selectors & inspection tools
Interactive tools that guide someone to the right answer. Product selectors and configurators that help a customer or your sales team pick the correct option from a complex range, and inspection or checklist tools that walk a person through a job on site and produce a clean report at the end. The kind of thing that turns knowledge locked in one person's head into something anyone can use.
Ref STACK / Systems I work with
ERP-agnostic. I integrate at the API or the database.
I connect the system you already run. I don't sell you a new one, and I don't rebuild what already works. If your system exposes an API, a database, or even just file exports, I can get data in and out of it. Ostendo is my specialty; here's the ground I cover most often.
Specialty
Ostendo
Cloud accounting & inventory
XeroMYOBUnleashedCin7
Manufacturing / MRP
KatanaMRPeasyinFlowFishbowl
Mid-market ERP
Dynamics 365 Business CentralMYOB AcumaticaNetSuiteSAP Business OnePronto XiEpicor KineticOdoo
No ERP yet
SpreadsheetsAccess / legacy DBCustom build
Don't see yours? If it stores your data, there's almost always a way in. Worth a conversation.
Ref METHOD / How I work
Understand it first. Build it second.
I spent two decades on the operations side before I ever shipped software for it. That order matters.
I've done procurement, production scheduling, packaging and dispatch across multiple sites. I know what a pick list is because I've chased one down at 4pm on a Friday. Somewhere along the way I got tired of watching good people re-key the same data into three systems, so I learned to build the tools myself.
That means when we talk, you're not explaining your business to a developer who's never set foot in a workshop. I already get it. The conversation starts at "here's what's slow and why," not "so, what's a work order?"
Step 01
Talk
A short, no-obligation call, Teams, or in person. We work out what actually hurts and whether I'm the right fit. No charge.
Step 02
Audit
Two to three days mapping how your operation really runs. Fixed price, and it comes off the build if you proceed. You get a written report you keep regardless of what happens next.
Step 03
Build
We pick the change with the best return and I build it properly: documented, and in something you own rather than rent from a platform.
Step 04
Hand over
It runs without me. I'd rather build something your team can live with than make you dependent on me forever.
Ref METHOD / Outcome Realisation Architecture
Start from the outcome. Work back to the fix.
Most projects start with a tool and hope it helps. I start with the result you actually want, then architect the path to it. I call it Outcome Realisation Architecture, and every engagement runs through the same five stages.
- Define.We pin down the business outcome you are chasing: on-time delivery, no more double entry, live visibility, fewer defects. A number, not a vague wish.
- Architect.I design the path to it. Often that means fixing the process first, using Lean and Six Sigma methods, then designing the systems and software that will hold the improvement in place.
- Build.I build it properly: the software, the ERP integration, the process changes. Documented, handed over, and yours to own rather than rent.
- Check.We make sure the outcome is actually landing, with live reporting you can see for yourself rather than a result I promise. If it is hosted with me, I keep it running and watched.
- Improve.Nothing stands still. An ongoing arrangement keeps the system maintained and finds the next outcome worth chasing.
Same discipline whether the fix is a process change, a piece of software, or both. The outcome leads. The tools follow.
Ref WORK / Selected build
Built and running, every day
A representative build. Details kept general, but the systems are live.
Multi-site manufacturer · 2 locations
Production tracking & dispatch, wired straight into the ERP
The situation
Production and dispatch were coordinated across two sites by spreadsheet and phone. The ERP held the data but surfaced almost none of it where the team worked. Follow-ups slipped because nothing reminded anyone.
What I built
- A production tracking platform with capacity limits and warranty workflows
- Automated dispatch notifications and cross-site order linking
- An integration pulling sales and quote data out of the ERP into each salesperson's calendar automatically
The result
The spreadsheets are gone. The floor knows what's happening without anyone maintaining a tracker, and follow-ups surface on their own. It runs live, every day.
Stack
Node.js · ERP schema / SQL · REST + webhooks · calendar integration · automated dispatch alerts
Ref CONTACT / Start a conversation
Tell me what's slow.
A sentence or two about your setup is plenty to start. No obligation, and worst case you get a useful opinion for free.
Opens in your email app, pre-filled and ready to send.
LinkedIn
Based in
Brisbane, QLD
Working with manufacturers Australia-wide
Working with manufacturers Australia-wide
Best fit
SME manufacturers, 10–100 staff, with an under-used ERP and too many spreadsheets.