Contact Info
Leeds
How can an ERP business analyst help a Leeds-area producer?
An ERP business analyst turns the way a producer really works into written, testable requirements before any software is chosen. For printers, packaging converters, textile mills and furniture makers around Leeds, that means capturing estimating rules, job tickets, dye lots, product options and delivery runs in process maps and a requirements document. I do this remotely, and visits happen only by arrangement.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
Beyond its offices, the Leeds city region still makes a great deal: printed matter and packaging, yarn and cloth, beds and upholstered furniture, and engineered parts. Much of it is made to order, and no two orders are quite the same.
That is exactly where generic requirement templates fail. They assume a fixed product at a fixed price. I start instead from your real orders, estimates and job tickets, and write requirements that describe how your business varies from one job to the next, so that a vendor's demo has to prove it can cope.
What I Do
Each item below produces a document your team signs off and a vendor can be tested against.
I trace real orders from inquiry to estimate, approval, production, dispatch and invoice, and draw the current process with every handoff, spreadsheet and rekeying step marked so the gaps are visible to everyone.
I write down how your estimators actually price a job: materials, sizes, colors, finishing, setup time, waste allowances and minimum charges, so the rules can be tested in a system rather than living in one person's head.
For goods that vary between batches, I specify how lots, shades, roll lengths, faults and grading must be recorded, reserved and shown on paperwork, so customers receive matching goods every time.
Where customers choose sizes, fabrics, finishes or features, I document which combinations are allowed, how each affects price, materials and lead time, and how the choice reaches the production floor.
I consolidate everything into a prioritized requirements document, then rate each shortlisted system in a fit-gap matrix that distinguishes standard features, configuration, workarounds and custom development.
Each priority requirement gets a test case built from one of your real jobs, so user acceptance testing checks the behavior you need rather than a vendor's sample data.
My Consulting Journey
Business first, technology second. You can hire me for one step - a BRD, a gap analysis, a vendor shortlist - or for the whole journey.
How I Work
Gather real documents first
Recent estimates and job tickets
Delivery notes and invoices
Spreadsheets people rely on
Customer specifications and labels
Walk each area with its owner
Short sessions per department
Video walk-throughs of the floor
Draw current process maps
List exceptions and workarounds
Write it so it can be tested
Prioritized requirements document
Fit-gap scoring of systems
Test cases from real jobs
Sign-off with department heads
Leeds grew on cloth, print and engineering, and those trades have not disappeared. Printers and packaging converters still operate across the city and its neighboring towns, mills in the valleys toward Bradford and Huddersfield produce yarn and fabric, and parts of West Yorkshire have long been associated with bed and upholstered furniture making. Alongside them sit engineering and fabrication firms serving customers across the North.
What these businesses share is variety. A carton maker rarely runs the same job twice without a change. A mill sells cloth from dye lots that differ slightly in shade. A bed maker builds each order from a set of sizes, fabrics and options chosen by the customer or the retailer. The product is defined at the moment of ordering, not in a catalog.
Standard ERP requirement checklists are written for businesses that buy and sell fixed items, so they skip the questions that matter here: how a job is estimated, how variation is recorded, and how the right goods reach the right customer. My business analysis starts from those questions. The UK-wide requirement topics, such as VAT treatments and digital records, sit on the UK ERP business analyst page and stay there.
In print and packaging, the estimate is where margin is won or lost. An estimator combines board or paper grade, sheet or reel size, number of colors, coatings, cutting and gluing, setup time and a waste allowance, then adds minimum charges. Reprints come back with small artwork changes that alter only part of the cost. If those rules live in a spreadsheet or an old estimating package, a new ERP will either duplicate them badly or ignore them.
I document the estimating logic first, then follow the job: artwork approval status, the job ticket that goes to the press hall, materials issued, actual time and waste recorded, and delivery. Several details deserve their own requirements. Cutting forms and plates are often paid for by the customer and must be tracked as their property. Some customers hold printed stock in your warehouse and call it off over time. Delivered quantities can fall within an agreed overs and unders tolerance, and the invoice must follow what was actually shipped.
The output decides a basic question early: whether the ERP should do estimating itself or connect to a specialist estimating tool. Both are reasonable; the requirements show which. My job costing page explains how estimate and actual cost are then compared job by job.
Cloth and yarn are made in lots, and each dye lot can differ slightly in shade from the next. A customer cutting garments or upholstery panels needs every roll in an order to come from the same lot, or the finished product will not match. Rolls themselves vary in length, carry fault notes, and may be graded as firsts or seconds. Some processes, such as commission dyeing or finishing, may be carried out by another mill before the goods come back.
An ERP can handle all of this, but only if the requirements spell it out. I specify that each roll or piece carries its own identity, lot, length and grade; that sales orders reserve by lot rather than by product code alone; that picking cannot mix lots without an explicit override; and that delivery notes show lot and length for each piece. For work sent out to another mill, I define how goods are tracked while they are away and how the outside cost is added to the lot.
I also capture the commercial side: shade approval before bulk production, customer-specific quality standards, and how claims for faults are logged against a lot. These rules come from your existing practice and customer agreements, and they become test cases for any system you consider.
Furniture made to order brings a different problem: the number of possible products is huge. A bed or sofa may combine a frame, a size, a firmness or fill, a fabric, a color, legs, storage and other options, and some combinations are not allowed. Retailers often order on behalf of a consumer, sometimes with the consumer's own fabric, and expect a delivery date at the point of sale.
I document the product option model in plain terms: which choices exist, which depend on others, how each choice changes price, materials and labor, and how the final specification appears on the works order. I then trace the order through cutting, sewing, assembly and dispatch, including how fabric availability affects promised dates.
Delivery is its own process. Many furniture makers run their own vans and crews on regional routes, so I capture how orders are grouped into runs, how customers are told their slot, and how failed deliveries and damage claims are handled. Upholstered furniture in the UK is subject to fire safety and labeling rules; which requirements apply to your products is a matter for your compliance adviser, and I make sure the system can record and print whatever they confirm. The manufacturing ERP page covers the wider production model.
Production supervisors and estimators are busy, and they rarely enjoy long workshops. So each session is brief and covers a single part of the operation: estimating, planning, the press hall or sewing room, warehouse and dispatch, then finance. Before each one I ask for real documents, such as recent estimates, job tickets, delivery notes and the spreadsheets people quietly depend on.
For the physical side, a supervisor walking the floor with a phone camera works well. Seeing where job tickets are pinned, how rolls are labeled or how finished goods are staged answers questions that would take an hour to describe. Where a step happens on a night shift or at an outside processor, a short recorded explanation fills the gap.
Everything ends up in one prioritized document with process maps, requirements and test cases, which department heads sign off before any vendor is invited to demonstrate. That document follows the structure on my BRD consulting page. Visits to a site in or around Leeds can be arranged when there is a clear reason, but the method does not rely on them. For the broader view of ERP work in the city, see the Leeds ERP consultant page.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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FAQ
It depends on how complex your estimating is and how well each candidate system handles it. I document your estimating rules first, then test whether shortlisted ERPs can reproduce real estimates. If they cannot, the requirements specify how a separate estimating tool should pass approved jobs, quantities and prices into the ERP without retyping.
I specify that every roll or piece carries its own lot, length and grade, that orders reserve stock by lot, and that picking blocks mixed lots unless someone approves it. Each rule becomes a test case using one of your real orders, so a vendor has to show the behavior rather than describe it.
Yes, by documenting the rules rather than every combination. I record which choices exist, which ones depend on or exclude others, and how each affects price, materials and lead time. That rule set is what a configurator in the ERP must follow, and it is far easier to test than a list of finished products.
No. That is a question for your compliance adviser or testing body. My part is to make sure the requirements cover whatever they confirm: recording the relevant information per product, printing the right labels and keeping evidence that can be retrieved later. I flag the question early so it does not surface during testing.
Not as a rule. Short video sessions, real documents and a supervisor walking the floor with a phone camera usually give me what I need. If a particular area is hard to understand remotely, a visit to your site near Leeds can be planned by arrangement.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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