Engineering better ways of working
Redesigning a process · Materials procurement

Buying materials, today and by design.

Who does what, in what order, where it hands off between people, and where the same information gets typed in again. On the left, how it runs today. On the right, the same nine steps as we would design them.

Steps that re-key the same details
6→1
Item, quantity, supplier, price and dates are entered again at each stage. The design enters them once.
Handovers that wait on an email
5→0
Points on today's map where the job sits in an inbox before it can move.
Where the live status sits
A spreadsheet→One board
Status moves from one person's desk to a board everyone can see.

These figures count the steps drawn below — what the redesign removes on paper, not a measured saving. The right-hand process is a design, not a system that is running.

Today  How it runs now
Designed  How we would design it
Site manager

Raises the request by phone or email — what is needed, how much, which site, by when.

Starts here
Site manager

Submits one structured request.

Entered once
— Handover · by email
Procurement

Copies the request into the tracking spreadsheet.

Re-typed · 1
System

Logs it and generates a quote reference.

Automatic
Procurement

Emails three or four suppliers for quotes, re-typing the spec into each.

Re-typed · 2
System

Sends quote requests to the chosen suppliers.

Automatic
— Handover · by email
Suppliers

Reply by email, in their own formats, over several days.

Wait · days
Suppliers

Submit through a link — captured and compared automatically, with response times.

Automatic
— Handover · by email
Procurement

Copies every quote into a comparison sheet by hand.

Re-typed · 3
Procurement

Reviews the comparison and picks a supplier.

One click
Procurement

Chooses a supplier and types the order into the accounts system.

Re-typed · 4
System

Raises the purchase order for approval.

Automatic
— Handover · by email
Approver

Approves by email or on paper.

Wait
Approver

Approves in the app.

One click
— Handover · by email
Procurement

Records the PO number, updates the spreadsheet, emails the site manager.

Re-typed · 5
System

Updates the board and tells the site manager.

Automatic
Procurement

Chases the delivery by phone and updates the status by hand.

Re-typed · 6
System

Chases overdue deliveries every day and escalates on its own.

Automatic
Re-typing the same detailsDone by the system, by designA human decision we deliberately kept

We do not sell software you have to learn. We map the job you already do, find every place a person is re-typing what a computer already knows, and join it up — so the work flows instead of being carried.

23 Works · Engineering better ways of working steve@23works.co.uk 23 Works Ltd · Company number 16893455 · Registered in England and Wales · Registered office: 26 Waterloo Road, Pudsey, LS28 7UW