- 3 min read
Case Study: How a Custom Web + Mobile App Super-Charged a Regional Manufacturer’s Productivity by 66 %
Contents
- 3 min read
Written by Digital One Agency, July 2025
Executive Summary
A mid-sized Australian manufacturer (let’s call them “Precision FabCo”) was drowning in paper job cards, siloed spreadsheets and endless email chains. By partnering with Digital One Agency we delivered a cross-platform application—running in any browser and on iOS/Android—that plugs straight into the company’s MYOB AccountRight ERP.
The result: real-time production dashboards, encrypted staff-only messaging, task & scheduling boards, voice-memo hand-overs and granular role-based access. Within nine months of go-live the plant posted a 66 % lift in effective production throughput, slashing downtime and surfacing insights the team had never seen before.
About the Client
- Industry: Precision metal-component manufacturing
- Size: ~120 employees across two sites in regional NSW
- Systems in place: MYOB AccountRight Premier for finance, payroll & inventory; legacy Access database for work orders; Excel for scheduling
Pain-Points We Uncovered
| Challenge | Impact on the Floor |
|---|---|
| Data silos across ERP, legacy DB and spreadsheets | Managers couldn’t trust “one version of truth”; daily stand-ups burnt 45 min reconciling numbers |
| Paper job travellers & walk-around approvals | Operators waited for sign-offs; lost sheets = re-keying |
| Email/WhatsApp chatter for internal comms | No audit trail, no encryption, and frontline staff lacked licence seats |
| Voice-only instructions from supervisors | “Chinese whispers” and no historical context |
| No granular permissions | Sensitive margin data visible to shop-floor users or, worse, hidden from those who needed it |
Our Solution at a Glance
| Layer | Tech Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | Flutter Web + Mobile | Single code-base, snappy UI on the shop floor, offline-first |
| Backend API | .NET 8 (C#) on Azure App Service | Native support for MYOB SDK, enterprise-grade security |
| Data | PostgreSQL & Redis cache | Fast dashboard queries, audit logging |
| ERP Integration | MYOB AccountRight Live API (OAuth 2 + webhooks) | Real-time sync of sales orders, inventory, general ledger |
| Auth & RBAC | Azure AD B2C + JWT scopes | MFA, SSO, role-based features down to field level |
| Messaging | NaCl + WebRTC (Signal-inspired)** | End-to-end encryption, no third-party servers |
| DevOps | GitHub Actions, Terraform IaC | Blue–green deployments, zero-downtime releases |
Key metric: Average dashboard query returns in <300 ms, even on the factory’s patchy Wi-Fi.
Feature Deep-Dive
- Real-Time Production Dashboard
- Live WIP, OEE, scrap rates and machine load graphs
- “Traffic-light” widgets alert supervisors when cycle times drift
- Encrypted Team Messenger
- 256-bit end-to-end encryption
- Threaded conversations under each work order
- Supports text, images, PDFs and push-to-talk voice memos (compressed Opus codec)
- Task & Scheduling Board
- Kanban + calendar view synced to ERP production orders
- Drag-drop rescheduling auto-updates MYOB “Promised Date”
- Role-Based Access Control
- Six default roles (Operator → CEO) plus per-module overrides
- Field-level masking (e.g., hide unit cost for non-finance staff)
- Voice Memo Handover
- One-tap voice capture (60-sec limit to encourage concise notes)
- Speech-to-text transcript indexed for global search
- Offline-First Mobile Ops
- Local queueing of job updates during black-spots
- Conflict-resolution rules favour latest timestamp + supervisor tie-break
Implementation Timeline
| Sprint | Milestone | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Discovery & UX workshops | 2 weeks |
| 1–2 | ERP API connector & auth | 4 weeks |
| 3–4 | Dashboard MVP & Ops pilot | 4 weeks |
| 5–6 | Messaging + role-matrix | 4 weeks |
| 7 | UAT & Go-Live | 2 weeks |
| 8 | Hyper-care, training & optimisations | 2 weeks |
Total 18 weeks from kickoff to factory-floor adoption.
Business Outcomes
| KPI | Baseline (pre-app) | 6 Months Post-Launch |
|---|---|---|
| Effective Production Throughput | 480 units / shift | 797 units / shift (+66 %) |
| Paper forms generated / week | 220 | 0 |
| Average supervisor approval time | 53 min | 12 min |
| Unplanned downtime | 7.4 hrs / week | 3.1 hrs / week |
| Employee Satisfaction (Pulse survey) | 6.3 / 10 | 8.7 / 10 |
ROI: Project recouped full cap-ex in 8 months through labour savings and reduced scrap alone.
Why the 66 % Productivity Spike Happened
- Instant data parity—operators stop waiting for updated travellers.
- Single source of truth—dashboard KPIs reduce “he-said-she-said” meetings.
- Frictionless comms—voice memos replace walk-ups; encrypted chat keeps IP in-house.
- Granular permissions—staff see only what they need, encouraging ownership without leaking sensitive intel.
Lessons Learnt
- Buy-in beats tech: Early operator workshops shaped UI ergonomics.
- Keep IT involved: We leveraged MYOB’s webhooks to push updates instead of polling, cutting API calls by 82 %.
- Security first: Rolling our own Signal-inspired layer avoided third-party chat fees and met ISO 27001.
What’s Next for Precision FabCo
- Predictive Maintenance using machine telemetry and ML models
- AI-driven stock optimisation tied to MYOB purchase orders
- External portal for B2B clients to track order status live
Thinking of Upgrading Your Factory Stack?
Digital One Agency has delivered ERP-integrated apps for manufacturers, miners and logistics groups across Australia and beyond. Whether you’re on MYOB, SAP Business One, SYSPRO or a legacy Excel jungle, we can surface the numbers that matter and automate the grunt work.
Let’s unlock your hidden capacity.
📞 Call us 24/7 globally: +61 2 9057 9079
📧 Email: contact@digitaloneagency.com.au
“We didn’t just get an app; we got a culture shift. The floor feels ten years younger.” — Operations Manager, Precision FabCo
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