AutoDrive/Z: automate the manual work between your ERP, spreadsheets and approvals, and drive decisions on programme, cost, risk, suppliers and delivery.

We find the manual work between your ERP, spreadsheets and approvals, automate it, and put delivery, cost and risk under control.

For engineering, manufacturing, MRO and capital-project businesses of 20+ people that still run on spreadsheets and month-end packs.

Book a free control review Start with the problem

02 The problem

Run by spreadsheets? Firefighting instead of forecasting?

ERP export, weekly tracker, Power BI, PDF pack, Teams thread, email approval, month-end deck. If your numbers live there, this is the problem we fix.

Problem 1 of 3

ERP data ends up wrong in spreadsheets

ERP data is pulled into spreadsheets, wrongly, and that copy becomes the truth. Everyone re-keys it — into the tracker, into Power BI, into the pack, into the deck.

A programme manager working late, buried in exports, trackers and printouts, in front of a blank wall screen
1 · ERP EXPORT → TRACKER → POWER BI → PDF → TEAMS → EMAIL → DECK ERPSAP · IFS · SageSYSTEM OF RECORD ERP export · 4 copies weekly tracker Power BI PDF pack Teams thread email approval month-end deck re-keyed re-keyed re-keyed ×that copy becomes the truth EXPORTED · RE-KEYED · WRONG DesignProcureBuildCommissionHandover today PLAN handover → ? slipped 6 wks FOUND AT THE MILESTONE, NOT BEFORE IT Spreadsheet says31%margin · job 4471 ERP says26%margin · job 4471 Board pack says34%margin · job 4471 ?! cash £0month-end below zero for six weeks · nobody saw it SAME JOB · THREE MARGINS · ONE MEETING 1 / 3
74%of UK manufacturing and engineering firms still run on legacy systems and spreadsheetsIntoware survey of 1,030 firms, 2022
94%of audited business spreadsheets contain at least one errorPanko / EuSpRIG research
67%of UK finance teams still reconcile accounts in Excel, even in firms over 250 staffSixthfin / Odoxa CFO survey 2026
38%of UK manufacturers name legacy systems and processes as a top barrier to improvementMake UK / PwC Executive Survey 2026

03 See it working

One control room. Every exception, owned.

One week on a live programme, in four steps. Scroll and the screen moves with you; the screens are the platform itself, on demonstration data.

Integrations: SAP and CSV imports landing in the platform, import history with rows merged and zero errors Programme control: register with gates, RAG status and confidence; escalation board flags a CRD at risk with the reason Risk register: each risk with a named owner, probability, severity, exposure and mitigation in the same record Weekly programme review pack generated from the live registers: executive summary, key metrics, programme status

03 What changes

TodayWith AutoDrive/Z
On-time delivery Missed Met
Profit & margin Unknown until month-end Tracked live
Risk Unpriced Mitigated, owned
Reporting 2 days Instant

04 How the work changes shape · engineering a solution

We engineer control over the ERP you already own.

No replacement, no rip-out. One accountable engineer maps how your work actually flows, fixes the hand-offs, then puts an automated control layer over the top — the same six-stage model on every engagement.

AutoDrive/Z engineer presenting the six-stage control model to a client team
1 · MAP REALITY · THE PROCESS AS IT ACTUALLY RUNS Design Procure Build Test Deliver owner + sign-off standard applied minimum-point check owner + sign-off nothing moves unowned · the applicable standard at every hand-off ERPSAP · IFS · Sageunchanged · read-only sheets ×4 email chain paper NCR Walked with the people who do it: every extract, hand-off, re-key and wait — from the ERP to the decision it feeds. Can we commit to the date? Where is margin leaking? Which supplier is late? future-state designed around the decisions the business has to make — not around the software AutoDrive/Z automated control layer · over your ERP Cost & margin Schedule Suppliers Risk routine information validated & routed automatically · people only see the exceptions One current view · Finance · Ops · Programme · Customer — the same numbers, trusted by all of them Daily brief · 07:00 Board pack · live Customer status · true ⚑ risk seen & mitigated 3 weeks early 1 / 6

04 How the work changes shape · from chaos to clarity

Everyone talks to everyone. Then everyone talks to the system.

We sit in the room with your teams and map the process as it really runs. The failure points show up on the screen; so do the fixes. Then we design and build one tool around you — linked to your ERP, live dashboards from day one, controlled AI agents keeping the project honest.

Stage 1 of 7 · Map the real workflow

We sit with the people who do the work and map what really happens.

Not the procedure on the wall — the process as it runs. Every extract, hand-off, re-key and wait goes up on the screen, corrected live by the people who live it.

AutoDrive/Z consultant mapping a process with a client team in front of a wall screen
STAGE 1 · PROCESS AS IT ACTUALLY RUNS · MAPPED WITH YOUR TEAM Enquiry Quote Order Build Inspect Invoice “that's not how it runs” → moved Dave's sheet email chain planning sheet phone call re-keyed ×3 6-day queue dead-end leaks to email data lost between departments ✓ auto-routed from ERP ✓ one owner · sign-off gate ✓ captured in the tool ✓ single source of truth ✓ validated on entry FUTURE-STATE · DRAFTED WITH YOUR TEAM · REV B Design Production Suppliers Sales Quality Finance ✓ “that's how we actually work” — screens in your words, your steps AutoDrive/Z one tool · every team · over your ERP owner + standard + sign-off at every hand-off · routine data validated & routed · people only see exceptions ERP read-only · unchanged collated once · nothing re-keyed · sheets retired LIVE · DAILY BRIEF 07:00 ON-TIME0% MARGIN0% RISKS OWNED0/12 one current view · managers · directors · customers ⚠ lead-time slip · flagged by agent ✓ owned · Ops · mitigated · tracker updated Supplier lead-time · PO-1182confirmed Design release · Rev Csigned off Risk R-07 · castingsowned · Ops 1 / 7

05 Proof

Project portfolio — 21 case studies, live demos and documentation.

Nine years as an engineering-led programme and project manager, with a master's in engineering, across aerospace, energy, rotating equipment and heavy industry — small firms and large primes. The same failures show up at every size: information late, in the wrong place, owned by no one. AutoDrive/Z exists to resolve them. The full record sits behind a reviewer sign-in — a link sent to your email, no password.

Aerospace test & MRO9 programmes · test rigs, MRO and aftermarket for tier-1 OEM supply chains
Waste-to-energy7 programmes · Kuwait · Singapore · KSA · PNG
HV rotating equipment20 jobs · Refinery · Marine · Water · Cement

What's inside

✓ Delivery record — sales, margin, on-time, budget✓ 21 project pages with documentation ✓ Live demos: AutoDrive/Z Control, apps, control packs✓ Before-and-after comparisons and measured outcomes ✓ Global delivery map — 7 countries✓ Overruns and loss jobs disclosed, with the control change that followed

Reviewers sign in with the link emailed to them — no password. Access is reviewed and granted manually by the founder, usually within a working day, subject to client confidentiality. Not for onward distribution.

Portfolio access

Ask for the reviewer link

Request access on the portfolio page. Once approved, a sign-in link arrives by email — usually within a working day. No password.

  • ✓ Reviewed and granted personally by the founder
  • ✓ Subject to client confidentiality
  • ✓ Every view is logged; not for onward distribution
Request portfolio access Already approved? Sign in with your emailed link. Requests go through the reviewed, logged access system — not the booking form.

06 Who you're trusting

Built by someone who has carried the margin.

Zach Johnson, MEng MIET — programme and project manager across aerospace test equipment, waste-to-energy installations, rotating-equipment MRO and military aftermarket, and founder of AutoDrive/Z.

Zach Johnson MEng · MIET · Founder, AutoDrive/Z Birmingham, UK · delivering worldwide

Sectors

AerospaceIndustrial manufacturingRotating equipmentCapital projectsEnergy and utilitiesMRO

Approach

Nothing here was designed until someone had spent a fortnight on a shop floor with a notebook. The process comes before the software — every engagement starts with understanding how information actually moves through the business, where it breaks, and what it costs when it arrives too late.

AutoDrive/Z exists because the systems these programmes needed didn't exist — and the ones that did were designed for a different problem. Every solution is shaped around one organisation's operating model, not adapted from a template.

Background

  • ✓Programme and commercial ownership on complex engineering and operational deliveries
  • ✓Cross-functional team leadership across ten-function IPTs
  • ✓Process improvement across engineering, commercial, procurement, production, quality and commissioning
  • ✓Reporting and control systems built because the existing ones didn't answer the question

The process

01 Assess — map one decision-critical flow; options with indicative costs, in writing. 02 Build — the improved process, control model and measures, around your existing systems. 03 Embed — deploy, measure adoption and decision quality, extend only where the value is clear.
AutoDrive/Z is a trading name of Zach Johnson, a sole trader. Correspondence address and professional indemnity details available on request.

07 Start here

Which decision is hardest to make confidently?

First step: a 30-minute call, free, no commitment. The diagnostic itself is fixed-price, quoted before any work starts. Start with one process where information is late, disputed or disconnected.

What the control review covers

  1. 1Map one decision-critical flow
  2. 2Find where data is late, duplicated or disconnected
  3. 3Quantify the manual reporting effort
  4. 4Improvement options, costed, in writing
30 minfirst call, free, no commitment
Fixedprice in writing before any work starts
10 dayssummary delivered, yours to circulate
Read personally. Reply within one working day. Your details are used only to reply to you.

Used only to reply to you — no mailing list, no sharing. Enquiries are answered personally within one working day.

How the work runs · three stages, each quoted before it starts

Stage 01

Assess

One decision. We trace the information behind it and find where it breaks.

Stage 02

Build

The improved process, then the workflows, dashboards or app it needs.

Stage 03

Embed

Deploy, measure decision quality, extend only where it pays.