Transformation partner reshapes management rhythm with AI
Audit scores up. Agency labour halved. Management back on the floor where it belongs.
Outcome
BRCGS audit: low 80s → mid 90s. Agency mix: 60/40 → 30/70.
The context
A mid-sized UK food manufacturer, around 60 staff across two shifts. Heavy reliance on agency labour, slipping audit performance, and high churn among employed staff. The ops director was running the factory mostly from his office.
Where they were
SOPs were stale. Handovers happened verbally and inconsistently. BRCGS audit prep was a stressful scramble the week before each visit. Most of the floor was agency, and the employed staff who knew the business best were leaving faster than they could be replaced.
The engagement
Transformation — 3 months, working with the ops director, shift leads and the QA lead. Claude Max team seats, plus structured SOP and handover-protocol drafting sessions.
What we built together
Not a software build — a behavioural one. We used Claude to rewrite the core SOPs as living documents that needed weekly floor observation to stay accurate; to structure a daily handover protocol from shift leads’ voice notes; and to generate the weekly audit-prep pack directly from those floor-walk notes — so the pack was only any good if the walks had actually happened.
The moment it got real
In month one, the ops director tried to dictate the handover from his office. The output was visibly thin and the shift leads called it out in the Monday meeting. By month two he was doing the floor walks himself, twice a day — and they’d become the meeting everyone actually prepped for.
The numbers
BRCGS audit score climbed from the low 80s into the mid 90s at the next visit. Agency-to-employed mix shifted from roughly 60/40 to 30/70 over six months. Retention among employed staff roughly doubled. The QA lead now runs the whole protocol without us.
Where they are now
Still on Transformation. The current build days are focused on a supplier scorecard tool — same observational discipline, applied to ingredients goods-in.
Sound like where you are?
Book a free audit. Thirty minutes, no obligation. We’ll tell you honestly whether this is something we can build with you.