Are Your Project Manufacturing Processes Holding You Back
- Terri Marello
- May 27
- 5 min read
Five Questions Project Manufacturers Should Ask
For project-oriented manufacturers, managing complexity is part of the job.
Every build is different.
Timelines shift.
Margins are thin.
The stakes are high.
And too often, the business systems and processes in place simply can't keep up.
As a Solution Architect, I work with project manufacturing businesses across industries—machinery, aerospace, custom fabrication—and see the same pattern: legacy systems and fragmented workflows that slow down projects, create hidden costs, and make growth more painful than profitable.
Wondering if it’s time to modernize? Ask yourself these five questions—with real-world examples that may hit close to home.
1. Are We Spending Too Much Time on Manual Tasks?
Manual processes aren’t just time-consuming; they’re risky. In project-based manufacturing, small errors early in the process can create major downstream delays and cost overruns.
Example: One fabrication firm was manually creating BOMs (bills of materials) in Excel and entering them into production schedules by hand.
Every time engineering made a revision, operations had to recheck all entries—and mistakes were common.
In one case, a data entry error for a material spec delayed a $250K build by two weeks, costing thousands in labor and expediting fees.
Another firm had no automated link between project quotes and job costing.
Estimators built complex quotes in spreadsheets, but actuals were tracked in the ERP.
There was no feedback loop—and no learning—so margins kept slipping.
The Pain:
Duplicate data entry between systems
Expensive errors due to version control issues
Delays in production, procurement, and invoicing
Excessive time spent reconciling spreadsheets
With Dynamics 365 Business Central and Project Operations, workflows like job setup, material planning, and change management can be tightly integrated, so your team spends more time building and less time chasing information.
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2. Can We Get Real-Time Insights into Project Manufacturing?
You can’t manage what you can’t see. And in project manufacturing, timing is everything—cash flow, capacity, procurement, and profitability all depend on visibility.
Example: A custom equipment manufacturer had no real-time view into project costs vs. budgets.
They ran job cost reports monthly—by which time budget overruns were already baked in.
One project finished 18% over budget before the CFO even realized the warning signs were missed.
Another manufacturer couldn’t see WIP (Work-in-Progress) in real time across multiple jobs. As a result, they were overproducing certain components and missing others—causing bottlenecks in final assembly and missed delivery milestones.
The Pain:
Surprises at project close
Late detection of margin erosion
Inability to forecast resource capacity
Delayed or incorrect invoicing due to poor job tracking
Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Business Central provides live visibility into WIP, job profitability, resource utilization, and material status—so you can adjust before issues turn into problems.
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3. Do Our Project Manufacturing Processes Talk to Each Other?
In project-based manufacturing environments, engineering, planning, production, and finance need to be in sync.
When systems aren’t integrated, handoffs get sloppy, decisions get delayed, and costs are not calculated correctly.
Example: A manufacturer was using separate systems for CAD, quoting, project management, and finance. Engineering would finalize a design, but purchasing wouldn’t know the BOM was approved for ordering. This led to last-minute material rushes, higher supplier costs, and missed production windows.
In another case, the sales team quoted projects with outdated cost data because they couldn’t see real-time inventory or labor rates—leading to bids that looked profitable but weren’t.
The Pain:
Disconnected departments working from different versions of truth
Material delays due to poor handoffs between design and purchasing
Costly rework from misaligned schedules or specs
Lost time chasing down approvals or updates
Business Central & Project Operations helps unify your workflows—connecting design, production, procurement, and finance so each team works from the same playbook.
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4. Are We Agile Enough to Adapt to Change?
Change is the norm in project manufacturing—design revisions, scope changes, part substitutions, and customer delays.
The question is: can your systems keep up?
Example: One industrial contractor had no formal change order process built into their ERP. Any time the client requested a change, teams were tracking impacts in emails and side documents.
On one project, three change orders totaling $90K weren’t billed until the project had closed—and the client disputed all of them.
Another firm had to reconfigure production mid-project when a supplier failed to deliver a critical component.
But because production plans were static and disconnected from procurement, the team didn’t catch the issue until the build was already behind schedule.
The Pain:
Lost revenue from unbilled scope changes
Production chaos from late design or sourcing changes
Inflexible systems requiring IT intervention for process updates
Project delays caused by poor change communication
Business Central with Project Operations supports dynamic project updates, integrated change orders, and real-time impact analysis—so you can stay agile without losing control.
5. Are Our Processes Designed for Growth—or Just Survival?
Many project manufacturers succeed through grit and hustle—but growth exposes every inefficiency. If you’re scaling up with fragile systems, you’re at risk.
Example: A custom machine builder grew from 20 to 100 employees in under two years—but was still managing job scheduling on a whiteboard. With 25+ active builds and shared resources, conflicts and idle time became unavoidable. They couldn’t prioritize based on margin or client urgency—because there was no central schedule.
Another firm had projects across five locations but lacked standardized processes. Each site had different naming conventions, costing methods, and reporting tools.
Leadership couldn’t consolidate project performance or plan resource allocation across sites—crippling their ability to bid for larger contracts.
The Pain:
Inconsistent execution across teams and locations
No scalable scheduling or resource planning
Growing admin burden that drains margins
Missed opportunities due to operational chaos
With Business Central, manufacturers can standardize job costing, centralize scheduling, and scale processes—so growth becomes sustainable, not overwhelming.
Next Steps: From Awareness to Action
If these examples sound familiar, your processes may be doing more harm than good. The good news? With the right ERP foundation, your systems can support complexity—not create it.
Free Self-Assessment:Â
Project Manufacturing Process Health Check
Still unsure where your biggest gaps are?Start with our free self-assessment.
This checklist walks you through five key areas:
Manual errors
Visibility
Integration
Change agility
Scalability
Use it to identify issues before they stall your next big project.
Ready to Build Smarter?
We help project-based manufacturers streamline operations, connect systems, and take control of project profitability using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central & Project Operations.
When you work with us, you get:
A team that speaks the language of engineers and job shops
Tailored solutions for high-mix, complex production
Greater visibility into WIP, costs, cash flow, and delivery
A platform designed for change, growth, and innovation
You don’t have to choose between complexity and control.
With the right systems in place, your projects can run smarter, faster, and more profitably.
Schedule a no-obligation meeting today No pressure, just insights.
Let’s build what’s next—together.
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About the AuthorÂ
Terri Marello, President of Key Partner Solutions, is a thought leader in the Microsoft Dynamics space and the author of the LinkedIn newsletter "Why Ask Why?", where she explores the intersection of technology and business strategy.
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Key Partner Solutions is an experienced Microsoft VAR with the in-house skills to optimize your business and smoothly migrate to cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.