Overview
The first call was short. Their director said, 'I can tell you last month's cost per part, but not today's.' Meridian presses components for three OEMs out of four plants near Chakan. Planning ran on eleven spreadsheets that one person in the Pune office maintained, dispatch got confirmed over phone calls, and month-end costing swallowed nine working days. Nobody was careless — the volume had simply outgrown the way the place was run.
The challenge
- Stock figures for the same part differed by as much as 18% between the plant register and the office sheet.
- Job cards were written by hand on the shift and keyed in the next day, so planning always ran a day behind reality.
- Costing was retrospective — a loss-making SKU could run for two quarters before anyone noticed.
- OEM schedules changed most Mondays and re-sequencing production meant a supervisor with a pencil.
How we approached it
Two weeks on the floor before a line of code
Our PM and one engineer sat through all three shifts, including the 2 a.m. changeover. We drew the actual process on brown paper with the plant heads and argued about it until it matched what really happens, not what the SOP says.
Capture at the machine, not at a desk
Each cell got a tablet in a rubber case. Production, rejection and downtime are four taps. We tested the screens with operators who had never used a smartphone keyboard, and cut every field they hesitated on.
Planning that follows the OEM, not the other way round
Delivery schedules pull in from the OEM portals overnight, re-sequence the plan and flag material shortages before the first shift walks in. The planner still approves — the system just stops him starting from zero.
Costing that closes every morning
Material, labour and machine-hour rates roll up per job as it happens, so margin per part is on screen at 8 a.m. the next day instead of on the 9th of next month.
What we built
Technology stack
Frontend
- React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
Backend
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
Infrastructure
- AWS
- Docker
- GitHub Actions
The results
faster order-to-dispatch
month-end costing close
inventory accuracy
annual wastage recovered
"Two of your people stood on my shop floor at two in the morning. That is why the software fits the way we actually work. We stopped guessing and started planning."
