CHAPTER 02 · DISCOVER
We Learn Your Operation Before We Propose Anything
One day, on-site. The plant manager framed the stakes up front. Then we did what we always do: talk to people, watch the work, map it, and rank what we found — not just run a meeting.
WHAT WE ACTUALLY DID
We Don't Just Run a Meeting
A roadmap session is where it starts, not where discovery ends. Interviews, documentation, the tools already in use — all of it, before we propose anything.
Interviews
25 sessions / 25 stakeholders
We start with the plant manager, then work down through every shift and department that touches the line — not just the people who signed off on the meeting.
Every session recorded, transcribed, and tagged.
Documentation
58 sources reviewed
Historian exports, SOPs, and the audit records the quality team maintains by hand.
Indexed so the agents can reference it directly.
Systems & Tools
7 systems mapped
Everything the floor already touches — no new platform to learn, no rip-and-replace.
All seven connected before we proposed anything.
Floor walkthroughs
We watched the work happen across three shifts and three lines — not just heard about it secondhand.
Process mapping & improvement
Every workflow got mapped end-to-end, then we asked what should change before any of it gets automated.
Adjacent conversations
We talked to the people upstream and downstream of each workflow — not just the person who owns it.
AUTOMATION MAP
Of 165,000 hours a year spent on manual and reactive work, here's how much we can take off the floor's plate
Stays human — first-article sign-off, customer relationships, judgment calls on the line.
Of the 112,200 hrs, here's what each workflow contributes
P1
P2
P3
P4
TOTAL
P1
Predictive Maintenance & Downtime Prevention
46K hrs/yr · $2.6M
P2
Sensor-Data Monitoring & Briefing
31K hrs/yr · $1.7M
P3
Batch-Quality Deviation Tracking
20K hrs/yr · $1.1M
P4
Energy & Utility Cost Monitoring
15K hrs/yr · $0.8M
What we picked to build first
Plant-floor sensor briefing & remediation
Highest-leverage, lowest-risk: the sensor data already existed in the historian, the pain was universal across every line, and a visible catch in the first month would change every later conversation more than a bigger, slower project would.
Committed on the wall. Working session scheduled within 10 days.
16 weeks to the first system live · then ongoing
Discover
Working session, on-site
Sensor briefing & remediation
Wave 1
Predictive maintenance
Wave 1
Batch-quality & energy optimization
Wave 2
THE METHOD
Same Approach, Every Engagement
Most AI roadmaps fail the same way — a list of interesting projects with no way to choose which one matters. Ours turns what we actually find on the floor into a ranked, ownable plan.
Discover
What do you repeat? What frustrates you? What runs on a schedule?
→ A named list of the real, repeated work — across every department.
Map & Improve
How does this actually happen, workarounds included — and what should change before we automate it?
→ An end-to-end picture of each workflow, cleaned up first.
Rank & Commit
What ships first? Who owns it? How do we know it worked?
→ A ranked plan with a named owner and a metric on every line.
UP NEXT · BUILD