Manual Workarounds: The Hidden Tax on Your Margins
Nathaniel McGrory
Commercial Lead in Technology Strategy, Change & Transformation | Digital Success without Worries or Stress | Enabling Business Transformation
Every manufacturer has them: spreadsheets, double-entry, handwritten trackers. Smart people create them to “get by.” But over time, they become a permanent tax on your margins.
The Operational View (COO / Ops Director)
Manual workarounds drain productivity. Teams duplicate data, reconcile by hand, and spend hours firefighting. That’s capacity lost to low-value admin.
The Financial View (CFO)
Spreadsheets mask real costs. Inventory exposure, overtime, and true margin by product all get buried. Finance wastes time chasing numbers instead of managing cash.
The IT View (CIO / CTO)
Each workaround becomes another backlog item. Integrations grow messier, shadow systems increase security risk, and IT spends time untangling patches instead of enabling new value.
The Leadership View (CEO)
Competitors that eliminate workarounds move faster. They quote sooner, deliver sooner, and win more repeat business. Manual patches erode competitiveness over time.
Why They Persist
Workarounds feel harmless. They’re meant to be temporary fixes. But without redesign, they become entrenched. The real problem isn’t the tool. It’s the lack of process alignment.
Breaking the Cycle
The solution isn’t a full ERP overhaul. It’s a targeted redesign with measurable payoff
Each workaround you retire frees cash, time, and headspace.
👉 NI manufacturers are already running sprints to cut manual patches. If spreadsheets and side systems feel like your real ERP, it’s time to change that.
The good news! Sans Souci can help. Get in touch today to find out how.
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