Consulting
Operations that run with AI, without losing control of them
We work on the back office of manufacturing SMEs: quotations, order handling, technical documentation, supplier communication, quality non-conformities. Governance comes before automation, and the production line stays out of scope.
Governance comes before automation
AI enters a company through whoever adopts it first, and by the time anyone asks who approved what, the answer no longer exists. We start from the other end: decision rights, risk classes and a verifiable trail first; automation second.
First who decides, then what gets automated
Decision rights, risk classes and approval levels are written before the first automation. A process automated without that table is only faster at being wrong.
The scope is the back office, not the line
Quotations, orders, technical documentation, suppliers, non-conformities: that is where repetitive work costs money and can be governed. We do not touch the production line, and we say so before signing.
It is built on your own tools
Your ERP, your mail, your file storage, the assistants you already license. We install no software of ours and there is nothing to subscribe to afterwards.
Every action leaves a trail
What was done, by what, on whose approval and when. It is the difference between a pilot that demonstrates well and a process an auditor or a customer can follow.
Where it applies
Three fields, and they go in this order: without the first the third is a risk, without the second there is nothing to automate.
Governance and decision rights
Who decides what, which AI uses are high risk and which are routine, which actions require a human approval and at what level. Written against the standards the company is already measured on.
- Decision-rights table: who signs what
- AI risk classification
- Approval levels and escalation rules
- Traceability and audit requirements
- Alignment with ISO 9001, ISO 55001 and the EU AI Act
Back-office processes
The administrative work that holds a manufacturing SME together and that nobody ever designed: quotations, order handling, technical documentation, supplier communication, quality non-conformities.
- Prioritised map of the work AI can take over
- Exclusion list: what it must never touch
- Process redesign before automation
- Business case with estimated cost and return
Agents on your own systems
One process in production with agents doing the repetitive work, human approvals where the table says a person decides, and an action log. On the systems you already have, with no software of ours to install.
- Agent configuration on your own tools
- Human approval gates on the steps that matter
- Verifiable action log
- Runbook and training for your operators
- Training on common AI assistants: effective use, limits and confidentiality
The path we propose, in five steps
These are the steps that, in our experience, carry an engagement through. You enter where it makes sense and stop when the objective is met; if you have already covered a step, we start from the next one.
Diagnostic
Where the margin is and where it is not. Current state, work that can be taken away, work that must be left where it is, interventions scored for impact and feasibility, and numbers that have to hold.
- Prioritised opportunity map
- Exclusion list
- Business case
Architecture
The system, not the patch. Processes, data model, roles, decision authority and the points where a person must be able to say no.
- Processes per ISO and BPMN 2.0
- Decision-rights table
- Risk classes and approval gates
Integration
Building and connecting to the systems you already have. Automations and, where they earn it, agents enter here, inside processes that by now genuinely exist.
- Automations in operation
- Documented integrations
- Testing and validation
Operation
The part usually missing. Monitoring, spend ceilings, approvals that cannot be forged, and a way to notice when something is stuck.
- Monitoring and alerts
- Approval log
- Cost dashboard
Enablement
Your team runs the process without us. Training on the tools you will actually use (your own ERP and the assistants you license), documentation and a periodic review for as long as it helps.
- Training materials
- Runbook
- Scheduled reviews
Who we work for
Manufacturing SMEs with 50 to 500 employees, in Ticino and Lombardy: large enough to have a back office that hurts, small enough that no internal team will ever build the governance it needs.
Not sure where to start?
It is the right question, and the answer is the diagnostic: one or two weeks to know where AI pays in your back office, where it would be reckless, and what the first step costs.