AI and IT strategy for industrial manufacturers and industrial-products firms.

OT/IT convergence is the architectural discipline that lets enterprise platforms consume plant data without compromising the safety-instrumented-system integrity that determines whether the plant runs safely. The work begins with a current-state Purdue Model assessment, a network-segmentation audit against IEC 62443 zones and conduits, and a data-flow inventory that distinguishes telemetry suitable for cloud aggregation from control traffic that must remain inside the plant boundary. A senior consultant produces a target-state network architecture aligned to IEC 62443-3-3 system security requirements, a data-diode or unidirectional-gateway design where required by safety case or regulator expectation, an asset inventory that satisfies National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-82 industrial-control-system guidance, and an OT incident-response playbook integrated with the enterprise SOC. Deliverables include the segmentation design, the asset inventory, the data-flow contract between OT and IT platforms, and a vulnerability-management process appropriate to the patch cadence the plant can actually sustain. Successful outcomes look like a plant data-historian feeding an enterprise data platform without an IT-driven incident propagating to OT, a cyber-physical risk register that the plant manager and the CISO both accept, and an audit posture that holds up under customer or insurer scrutiny. An engagement typically runs ten to sixteen weeks, embedded with plant operations, controls engineering, the enterprise security team, and the data-platform engineering function consuming OT telemetry.

Supply-chain visibility platform work is the discipline of building a control tower that produces operable signal rather than another dashboard nobody opens during an actual disruption. The work begins with a tier-1 and tier-2 supplier mapping, a current-state assessment of EDI, Application Programming Interface (API), and event-driven integration, and a data-quality audit that surfaces the gaps the operations team has been working around for years. A senior consultant produces a control-tower target architecture with event-driven supplier integration, a supplier-data-contract framework that defines the signal each tier must provide, a supplier-risk modeling framework that draws from financial, geopolitical, and operational indicators, and an exception-management workflow that surfaces material disruptions to a buyer with sufficient context to act. Deliverables include the architecture decision record, the supplier-data-contract catalog, the integration roadmap, and an operating model for the control-tower team that defines escalation paths and decision rights. Successful outcomes look like a tier-2 supplier outage that produces a buyer alert with mitigation options inside hours rather than weeks, a control-tower view the COO actually consults during a disruption, and a supplier-onboarding cadence that keeps the data-contract base current. An engagement typically runs ten to sixteen weeks, embedded with supply-chain operations, procurement, the supplier-quality function, and the integration platform team.

Factory-floor AI work spans predictive maintenance, vision-based quality control, and edge inference at line speed, with the program sustainability question dominating the technical question. The work begins with an honest cost-of-intervention model, a labelling-strategy assessment, and a current-state evaluation of the data foundation: historian quality, vision-camera placement, network capacity for edge-to-cloud telemetry. A senior consultant produces a use-case prioritization grounded in measurable cost of false-positive and false-negative interventions, an edge-architecture design aligned to the plant's existing PLC and SCADA topology, a labelling operating model with maintenance-technician and quality-inspector involvement built in, and a model-monitoring framework that catches drift before it becomes a missed defect or a nuisance-alarm pattern that erodes operator trust. Deliverables include the use-case decision records, the edge architecture, the labelling operating model, and a measurement framework that ties model output to maintenance and quality outcomes the plant manager already tracks. Successful outcomes look like a vision-QC deployment sustained past its second year, a predictive-maintenance program where technicians act on the alerts because the false-positive rate is defensible, and an edge platform that supports new use cases without bespoke deployment work each time. An engagement typically runs twelve to eighteen weeks, embedded with plant operations, controls engineering, the data-science team, and one or two pilot lines.

ERP modernization, whether to SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion, or a best-of-breed alternative, is the program-design and integration-test discipline that determines whether the stabilization window is six weeks or six months. The work begins with a current-state ERP capability inventory, a process-fit assessment against the target platform's reference model, and an integration map that surfaces every custom interface and shadow-IT workaround the business has accumulated. A senior consultant produces a deployment-strategy decision record (greenfield, brownfield, selective data transition, central finance bridge), a data-migration discipline with cleansing, reconciliation, and cutover-rehearsal plans, an integration-testing strategy that exercises the end-to-end order-to-cash and procure-to-pay flows under realistic volumes, and a change-management plan keyed to the business processes the cutover actually changes. Deliverables include the deployment decision record, the integration-test strategy, the cutover-rehearsal plan, and a hyper-care operating model that staffs the first six weeks post-cutover with the right escalation paths. Successful outcomes look like a cutover that lands inside the planned window with month-end and quarter-end closes completed on schedule, a stabilization period that converges on plan, and a target-state ERP that supports the business roadmap rather than constraining it. An engagement typically runs twelve to twenty weeks for the program-design and pre-cutover phases, embedded with finance, supply-chain, the program management office, and the systems-integrator partner.

Quality-program oversight in regulated manufacturing is the audit-readiness discipline that turns IATF 16949 (automotive), AS9100 (aerospace and defense), or ISO 13485 (medical devices) from a binder of policies into operable evidence the customer or registrar can verify on demand. The work begins with a current-state QMS audit, a corrective-and-preventive-action backlog assessment, and a PPAP or first-article-inspection cycle-time baseline. A senior consultant produces a QMS-tooling target architecture that integrates document control, CAPA, audit management, and supplier quality, an APQP and PPAP automation design that produces audit-grade evidence packages on demand, an integration design between the QMS and the ERP and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that prevents parallel data entry, and a control-plan governance model that survives a customer-source audit. Deliverables include the QMS architecture decision record, the PPAP automation design, the CAPA-backlog burndown plan, and a measurement framework that ties quality metrics to operational outcomes the plant manager tracks. Successful outcomes look like a customer audit closed without a major non-conformance, a PPAP cycle time materially reduced and sustained, and a CAPA discipline where root-cause analysis converges rather than repeats. An engagement typically runs ten to fourteen weeks, embedded with the quality function, plant operations, supplier quality, and the IT team responsible for QMS integration.

Sustainability reporting under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the ISSB's IFRS S1 and S2 standards, and CDP disclosure programs is a data-platform problem disguised as a reporting problem. The work begins with a materiality assessment under the CSRD double-materiality framework or the ISSB single-materiality framework as appropriate, a current-state data inventory across Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions sources, and an audit-readiness assessment against the assurance standard the firm will face. A senior consultant produces a sustainability data-architecture target that integrates utility, fuel, travel, supplier, and product-level data into a controlled disclosure pipeline, a control framework appropriate to limited and reasonable assurance levels, a Scope 3 methodology decision record that distinguishes activity-based from spend-based estimation by category, and a disclosure governance model that keeps the CFO's organization in control of the numbers that go to market. Deliverables include the data-architecture decision record, the control framework, the Scope 3 methodology documentation, and a roadmap that progresses from limited to reasonable assurance over a defined horizon. Successful outcomes look like a CSRD or ISSB disclosure that withstands assurance-provider scrutiny, a CDP submission that scores in the band leadership has committed to, and a sustainability data platform the CFO's team operates rather than an ESG team improvises around. An engagement typically runs twelve to sixteen weeks, embedded with sustainability, finance, and the enterprise data-platform team.