Still Guessing? Try ECI's Manufacturing Performance Assessment to Find Your Next Step Forward

    Picture this: a job runs over budget, an order ships late, or your inventory count doesn’t match what’s on the books. You can sense something’s not right—but figuring out why is the hard part.

    Do you tighten up inventory control? Or finally get serious about real-time job costing?

    When your operation runs on spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and periodic check-ins, you’re not just wasting time—you’re losing money to the blind spots you can’t see.

    The hidden cost of everyday processes

    Across Australia and New Zealand, we’ve found most small and mid-sized manufacturers fall into one of four maturity levels—and many are stuck at levels one or two.

    Level one: The firefighting phase

    At level one (basic), you’re constantly reacting. Job profitability is calculated after the work’s done, inventory is tracked manually, and scheduling changes are made on the fly. This leads to:

•         Rework and errors: Manual entry mistakes cost both time and money.    
•    Admin overload: Teams spend hours chasing down paperwork for audits or clients.    
•    Lost opportunity: Poor visibility means capital is tied up in unused stock and inaccurate forecasts.    

    Level two: The swivel-chair struggle

    At level two (streamlined), you’ve made some progress—maybe using separate systems for accounting, purchasing, and inventory—but they don’t communicate. Your team still verifies data manually, and decisions are based on outdated or incomplete information. You’ve invested in technology, but you’re not getting the efficiency or visibility you need to scale profitably.

    If this sounds familiar, it’s not a failure of effort—it’s a failure of systems.

    Where to start: Take the free Manufacturing Performance Assessment

    Before you can improve, you need to see where you stand. That’s why we created the Manufacturing Performance Assessment—a quick, five-minute check-up for your business.

    This isn’t a long audit or consultancy process. You’ll simply answer key questions that benchmark your operations across ten critical areas, including:

•         Financial control: Can you track job profitability in real time?    
•    Traceability: How easily can you trace a finished product back to its raw components?    
•    Production agility: How well can you adapt to sudden changes in labour or equipment availability?    

    Here’s what you’ll get instantly:

•         A personalised maturity score showing where your business stands—from Level One (Basic) to Level Four (Optimised).    
•    A gap analysis highlighting areas like scheduling, costing, or inventory that need attention.    
•    A hidden value summary revealing the potential ROI your business could unlock with improved systems and visibility.    

    Many manufacturers who streamline their operations see measurable results—such as up to 20 % more throughput or a 60 % reduction in invoice processing time.

    You can’t fix what you can’t see. Stop guessing and start improving.