Delivery commitments
- Customers frequently ask for updates
- Committed delivery dates keep changing
- Urgent orders disrupt the entire schedule
Production planning consultant · Ahmedabad
Industry 4.0 doesn’t begin with automation, dashboards or AI. It begins with disciplined production planning and control.
I help manufacturers get better delivery, lower inventory and higher productivity. Digital tools speed decisions only when the planning system underneath them is structured, measurable and repeatable.
Planning first. Technology next.
BNI member? Start with a one-to-one. A manufacturing health check is separate work.
- Customer demand
- Production planning
- Material planning
- Scheduling
- Purchase
- Shop-floor execution
One planning gap can trigger problems at every later step.
The plant
Does this sound familiar?
If several of these feel familiar, the factory may not have a production problem. It may have a production planning and control challenge.
Inventory
- Inventory keeps increasing year after year
- Shortages still occur despite high inventory
- Dead stock and slow-moving items grow
Purchase and vendors
- Emergency purchases become routine
- Vendors receive frequent changes
- Material arrives too early or too late
Shop floor
- Daily priorities keep changing
- Machines wait idle for material
- Assembly is delayed, and overtime becomes normal
Management reviews
- Meetings discuss problems rather than the plan
- Decisions depend on individuals
- Numbers arrive in spreadsheets nobody has verified
Consequences of poor planning
- Late deliveries
- Material shortages
- Excess inventory
- Frequent rescheduling
- Higher cost
- Lower productivity
- Low equipment utilisation
- Daily firefighting
- Unhappy customers
- Better planning
- Optimized inventory
- Efficient production
- Improved performance
Manufacturing health score
How mature is the planning system?
Eight questions from the Navigator-PPC profile. Tick yes or no. Before investing in smarter machines, make sure the planning is smarter.
We prepare and follow a realistic production plan in Excel or ERP.
Daily production review meetings are data-driven.
Production priorities are clearly communicated.
We consistently achieve our committed delivery schedule.
Purchase planning is aligned with production requirements.
Material shortages are identified before production is affected.
Inventory levels are regularly reviewed and optimized.
Machine capacities are planned and monitored.
Answer all eight. Count the yes responses — this stays in your browser and is not saved.
How I work
Planning first. Technology next.
Most Industry 4.0 projects focus on technology. I focus on the planning system that makes technology successful.
- 1
Manufacturing health check
A walk through orders, planning, purchase, stores and the shop floor, against the questions above.
- 2
Gap assessment
Where dates, material, capacity and reviews diverge from a plan the team can actually run.
- 3
Improvement roadmap
What to change first, and what can wait — including what not to buy yet.
- 4
Implementation support
The routine stays with your planners, buyers and supervisors, not in a report.
- 5
Continuous improvement
Short reviews on delivery, WIP, inventory and output, using numbers the plant trusts.
Software comes after that routine. Navigator-PPC for planning and control. Navigator ERP, including a no-code tool that can export source code, for components, machines, projects and special-purpose equipment. Navigator-DMS when drawings and records are hard to find.
Where the work applies
- Make to stock
- Make to order
- Engineer to order
- Special-purpose machines
- Project-based manufacturing
- Mixed-mode manufacturing
- Component manufacturers
- Machine and equipment manufacturers
- Project and turnkey manufacturers
- EPC, MEP and HVAC contractors
- Special-purpose machine manufacturers
Brochures
Read the detail after a short note
Leave your name, company, mobile and email. The note goes to Navigator, and the PDF links appear here.
Navigator-PPC Profile
Why Industry 4.0 starts with a disciplined planning system: the challenges plants already recognise, a manufacturing health score, and how a PPC engagement proceeds from assessment to implementation.
Navigator No-Code ERP
A ready-to-use manufacturing ERP covering planning and quality, procurement and inventory, sales and dispatch, and finance — with a no-code tool that can export the source code.
Navigator-DMS
Find a document by its content, project, customer, creator, or date. The brochure’s own claim: save 80% of the time spent searching, with tagging, linking, OCR, and versioning.
Record
Trusted by 2,300+ manufacturing businesses since 1997
- Experience
- 29 years of manufacturing ERP
- Since
- 1997, with UniMak Software
- Customers
- 2,300+ manufacturing businesses
- Focus
- Production planning and control
- Study
- Pursuing a PhD in PPC
- BNI
- Member since about 2016
Cloud and mobile. PPC, ERP, a vendor portal and AI agents, once the planning system is in place.
- Manufacturing consulting
- PPC process assessment
- Manufacturing health check
- Factory improvement roadmap
- Production planning and scheduling
- Capacity planning and shop-floor execution
Where the work has reached
- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Karnataka
- Illinois, Texas and California
- Abu Dhabi and Dubai
Two conversations
Don’t book a one-to-one to hear a pitch
A BNI one-to-one
We learn how each business makes money, what a good introduction looks like, and where our networks overlap. It is not a software demonstration.
Schedule a BNI one-to-oneA manufacturing health check
When you want your own plant examined — delivery, inventory, productivity — that is separate work. Navigator-PPC consulting is charged on success fees, against a baseline from your data.
Navigator-PPCBNI, Ahmedabad
Everything you’d want before our one-to-one
Chapter name on this page is BNI, Ahmedabad, until the specific chapter is confirmed. Category: production planning consultant.
Goals
Introductions to automobile OEMs, engineering-equipment makers, machinery builders and other manufacturers who need planning discipline, ERP or custom software.
Accomplishments
Working with factories since 1997. Navigator is used by 2,300+ manufacturing businesses. The work covers PPC, ERP, a document system, and a no-code tool that can export source code.
Interests
Production planning as the foundation of smart manufacturing. A PhD in PPC is in progress. Industry 4.0, after the plan is structured, measurable and repeatable.
Networks
Manufacturers across Gujarat and the rest of India, with work in the USA and the UAE. Useful overlaps with machine suppliers, industrial consultants, bankers and CAs who sit with plant owners.
Skills
Planning-system design, shop-floor execution, inventory and purchase alignment, and manufacturing ERP for make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-to-order, projects and special-purpose machines.
Ideal referral
The owner or plant head of an engineering manufacturer — components, machines, equipment, special-purpose machines, or a project workshop — whose delivery dates move, whose inventory grows while shortages continue, or whose shop floor is busy without more dispatch.
This week’s 60 seconds
I help manufacturers improve delivery, inventory and productivity. Planning first, technology next. I am looking for introductions to owners of engineering plants who are about to spend on a new machine, a new ERP or an Industry 4.0 project, and are not sure the planning system is ready.
When you hear
- We need a new ERP.
- Our delivery dates keep changing.
- Inventory is high, but we still have shortages.
- The machines are busy and dispatch is not.
- We want Industry 4.0, dashboards or AI on the shop floor.
How to introduce me
I’d like you to meet Bhavik Makwana. He works with engineering manufacturers on production planning and control. He looks at delivery, inventory and how the shop floor is planned before anyone talks about new software or new machines.
You probably need one good conversation.
If you’re a BNI member, let’s understand each other’s businesses first. No pitch deck required.
Schedule a BNI one-to-one+91 98795 48635 · +91 93486 93486 · info@navigator-ppc.com
i-Hub Gujarat, KCG Campus, Nr. L. D. College of Engineering, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380015