Writing
pawel – Pawel Jankowski
Why good ERP systems fail in real life
I recently had a conversation with an experienced consultant about ERP systems. He said something simple, but very true: Most ERP software is actually good. The problem is not always the software.The…
From Hours to Minutes: Fix the Data Where It Starts
A 2-3 hour process of creating loading documents, cut to a few minutes. No extra staff. No AI. Just a simple mobile app and a small change to where the data starts.
Takt Time: The Quick Math for a Tight Deadline
If a new order lands with a tight deadline, takt time tells you in two minutes whether the numbers actually work, before you promise a date you can't hit.
Three Questions That Expose a Cash Flow Problem
Optimising cash flow often starts with optimising throughput. If you can't answer these three questions in ten minutes, you don't have a cash flow problem yet, you have a visibility problem.
The Phone Call Every Workshop Owner Knows
"Hi, just checking, any update on my order?" The problem isn't the customer. The problem is that nobody in the building can answer in under ten seconds.
Why Whiteboards and Spreadsheets Eventually Fail
A whiteboard works, until it doesn't. The real issue isn't the board or the spreadsheet, it's that nobody else can see the information, neither the office nor the client.
Excel Rarely Breaks in an Obvious Way
Most of the time Excel keeps working just well enough. That is the risk. Small errors compound quietly, and by the time something feels wrong, the cause is already buried upstream.
The Most Convincing Bottleneck Is Often the Wrong One
A sofa factory automated its carpentry department with an expensive robot. Throughput barely moved. The bottleneck everyone agreed on was never the real problem.
Operational Problems Don’t Announce Themselves
They don't show up as system issues. They show up as small, annoying losses everyone accepts as normal, until projects overlap and the cost is already baked in.
Are You Running Your Operations, or Are They Running You?
If your week is constant firefighting, the fix is rarely "push harder". It's clarity. Here's the five-part framework I use to systemise any operation.