Who we help
Businesses that quote, deliver and install
UK businesses turning over £3m–£20m, typically with 20–150 staff, that win work by quote, then specify, buy in, deliver and install it. The shape of the business matters more than the sector.
Signs of a good fit
- Bespoke or semi-bespoke jobs, each with its own drawings, specials and site.
- Products bought in from a few critical suppliers, often consolidated through your own warehouse.
- Installation by your own or subcontract fitters.
- An ERP plus spreadsheets, a workflow tool or WhatsApp holding the real process.
- Customers who punish failure: the NHS and private hospitals, main contractors, the public sector, regulated sites.
Sectors we know
- Healthcare and laboratory furniture
- Joinery and cabinetry
- Doors, ironmongery and hardware
- Fire safety
- Shopfitting and specialist fit-out
- Offsite and modular manufacturing
- Access equipment and specialist distribution with a projects arm
- Construction products
You'll recognise this
- Busy, with a full order book, but margin slipping on jobs you priced correctly.
- Return visits for missing items, and remakes on site.
- Suppliers who keep getting it wrong, and claims that get refused.
- A process that lives in a few people’s heads.
- An ISO 9001 certificate that passes audits but doesn’t stop the same problems coming back.
Probably not a fit
If you want a certificate with the least possible change, or you're looking for software first, we're probably not the right people. We fix the process, then prove it with data.
When owners call us
Most businesses come to us at a particular moment. Find yours; each one links to where we would start.
| The moment | What you’re saying to yourself | Where we’d start |
|---|---|---|
| Full order book, falling margin | “We’re busy but not making money.” | Find and stop the margin leaking after the job is won |
| A spike in rework or return visits | “Install costs have gone through the roof this month.” | Contain it in weeks, then remove the causes |
| New MD, interim or turnaround | “I need to know what’s really going on, fast.” | A fact-based diagnosis in three weeks, from the floor up |
| A key person leaves | “Nobody knows what she used to do.” | Get the process out of people’s heads |
| A new system or ERP | “Will the new system fix this, or make it worse?” | Design the process first, so the system supports it |
| You stopped making and started buying in | “Our suppliers keep getting it wrong.” | Suppliers build what you meant, and pay when they don’t |
| Audit trouble or repeat findings | “We’ve got the certificate, but the same problems keep coming back.” | A system that works, and passes audit as a by-product |
| A serious customer complaint | “We can’t lose this customer.” | Show the customer what you changed, with evidence |
| Preparing for growth, investment or sale | “We need to scale without it falling apart.” | Reliable operations, and numbers a buyer will trust |
What goes wrong in each sector
The pattern differs by sector, so the first thing we establish is what the error looks like from outside, and where it usually starts.
Joinery and cabinetry
What you see: A run of units arrives on site with the wrong hinge position, an incorrect finish, or one door that does not match the others, and it is found by the fitter, not by the workshop.
Where it usually starts: Usually the hand-off between the drawing and the bench: a dimension that was changed after cutting, or a specification that lived in someone’s head rather than on the paperwork the machinist actually uses.
Doors, ironmongery and hardware
What you see: The wrong ironmongery is fitted, or the correct set does not work together, and it is discovered during installation or, worse, at handover.
Where it usually starts: Rarely the fitter. More often an unclear specification, a substitution made in the supply chain without anyone re-checking compatibility, or a door schedule that was never checked against what was ordered.
Fire safety
What you see: A fire door, penetration or compartment line is found to be non-compliant after it has been installed, or a certificate cannot be produced because the evidence was never captured.
Where it usually starts: The evidence trail, not the workmanship. Changes made on site without records, products installed outside their tested scope, or a specification that was correct but never reached the person doing the fitting.
Healthcare and laboratory furniture
What you see: An installation is held up because a component does not fit the room as measured, or a finish does not meet the specification for the environment it is going into.
Where it usually starts: The gap between the survey and the manufacture. Site dimensions taken early, then changed by other trades; or a specification agreed verbally and never written into what the factory actually built.
Construction products and specialist manufacturing
What you see: The same defect keeps recurring across batches, the remedial rate is steady, and nobody can say with confidence where it is being created.
Where it usually starts: Almost always two points rather than one: where the error is made, and where it should have been caught. Fixing only the first leaves the second unchanged, which is why the problem returns.
If none of those is quite your business, the approach still applies wherever work moves through several hands before it reaches a customer: the details change, the discipline does not.
Sound familiar?
Start with what's going wrong. If there's a fit, we'll agree the scope before any work starts.
Free. About an hour. You keep the findings.