The Hidden Cost of Operational Workarounds in Manufacturing

Over the years, I’ve worked with many businesses where a workaround that was originally introduced as a temporary fix gradually became part of the everyday process. Nobody deliberately designed it that way. Someone needed information that wasn’t readily available, so they created a spreadsheet. An approval was taking too long, so people started using email. Two systems didn’t communicate, so somebody began copying information from one into the other.

It solved the immediate problem.

Then six months became two years. The spreadsheet became essential. The email process became “how we do it”. The manual entry became somebody’s daily responsibility. Eventually, nobody calls it a workaround anymore.

It has simply become the process.

In my experience, this is where manufacturers can accumulate a significant amount of hidden operational cost without necessarily seeing it on a profit and loss statement. The individual workaround might only consume a few minutes. The real question is what happens when dozens of them are repeated hundreds or thousands of times across a business.

Key Takeaway: What is an operational workaround in manufacturing?

An operational workaround is a manual, unofficial or additional process used to overcome a gap in an existing business process or system.

In manufacturing, this might include spreadsheets maintained alongside ERP, duplicate data entry, email approvals, offline trackers or manually moving information between systems.

Workarounds aren’t always a problem. The risk comes when a temporary solution becomes part of the everyday process, adding hidden time, errors, delays and dependency that increase as the business grows.

What is an operational workaround?

An operational workaround is an unofficial or manual process used to compensate for a limitation, gap or problem in the way a business process or system currently works. In manufacturing, common examples include:

• Re-entering information from one system into another
• Maintaining spreadsheets alongside the ERP system
• Emailing people for routine approvals
• Manually producing reports from several data sources
• Keeping separate production or purchasing trackers
• Exporting ERP information into Excel before it can be used
• Relying on an experienced employee to know the “real” process
• Making offline adjustments before updating the ERP later
• Manually checking information that should already be available

A workaround isn’t automatically a bad thing. Manufacturing businesses need to be pragmatic. Situations change, customers have unusual requirements and systems cannot anticipate every exception. The problem is when an exception becomes the normal way of working. That distinction is important.

Why do manufacturing workarounds develop?

One thing I’ve learned during my career in ERP is that people generally create workarounds for perfectly sensible reasons. They are trying to get their job done.

Perhaps the ERP system was configured around a process that has since changed. Perhaps two applications were never integrated. Perhaps a particular screen requires too many steps. Perhaps a report doesn’t provide the information somebody needs. Or perhaps the business has simply grown.

A process designed when the organisation had 20 employees, one site and a relatively simple product range may not work nearly as well when the organisation has expanded. The employee closest to the problem finds a solution, and quite often, it works. That is why simply telling people to “stop using spreadsheets” or “use the ERP properly” misses the point.

Before removing a workaround, you need to understand why it exists.

The workaround may be highlighting a genuine process, data, integration, training or system-design issue.

The real cost of a workaround is rarely the five minutes it takes

Suppose somebody manually copies information from one application into Epicor ERP. It takes five minutes. Looked at individually, there probably isn’t a compelling business case for changing it. But what if it happens 30 times every day?

Five minutes × 30 transactions × approximately 250 working days is 625 hours a year.

And that is only the visible time. What happens when:

• The information is entered incorrectly?
• Somebody forgets to enter it?
• The original information changes?
• The employee responsible is absent?
• Another department works from the old information?
• Someone has to investigate a discrepancy later?

This is where the economics of workarounds become more interesting.

The cost isn’t just the time required to perform the workaround. It is the additional effort and risk created around it.

7 hidden costs manufacturers should consider

1. Lost time

The most obvious cost is employee time. Five minutes copying an order, ten minutes preparing a spreadsheet, another five minutes emailing it, fifteen minutes checking whether someone has approved something. None sounds particularly significant. Repeated every day across multiple departments, however, they become a substantial amount of non-value-adding activity.

The important question isn’t: “How long does this task take?”

It’s: “How often does this task happen, and how many people does it involve?”

2. Rework and errors

Every manual hand-off creates another opportunity for something to go wrong. A quantity is mistyped, a spreadsheet formula changes, the wrong attachment is used, a revision isn’t updated, a customer reference is copied incorrectly. The initial error may take seconds to make and hours to find. The same issue can contribute to inventory discrepancies, particularly where transactions are recorded late or outside the ERP process. This is why I believe businesses should look at the downstream cost of manual processing, not simply the time spent entering the information.

3. Delayed decisions

Some workarounds don’t create obvious errors at all. They create delays.

1. A production manager waits for somebody to update a spreadsheet.
2. Purchasing waits for confirmation from production.
3. Finance waits for operational information.
4. Customer service waits for somebody to confirm the latest status.

The business eventually gets the answer, but later than it should. That can affect purchasing, scheduling, customer communication, cash flow and management decisions.

4. Reduced visibility

One of the biggest problems with processes operating outside the ERP is that the wider organisation may not be able to see them. If a critical part of a process exists in somebody’s spreadsheet or inbox, the ERP may only contain part of the story. This can lead to a familiar situation:

The system says one thing, but the people running the process know something else.

Once that happens frequently enough, confidence in the system begins to fall. We’ve explored this reporting-confidence problem in more detail in why manufacturing reports disagree. And when people stop trusting the system, they tend to create more workarounds. The problem becomes self-reinforcing.

5. Dependency on individuals

I’ve encountered many processes where one person knows exactly what needs to happen. They know which spreadsheet to update, which field needs correcting, which report isn’t quite right and which customer requires an extra step. That knowledge is valuable.

But from a business perspective, it also represents a risk if the process depends entirely upon it. A well-designed process should make people’s expertise more valuable, not require them to spend their time compensating for weaknesses in the process.

6. Poor scalability

Workarounds often function reasonably well at low volume. That is one reason they survive. Ten manual transactions a week may be manageable, one hundred a day is very different. As a manufacturer grows, adds customers, expands its product range or introduces another site, processes that previously appeared harmless can become bottlenecks. Businesses sometimes respond by adding more people, but before adding resource, I think it is worth asking:

Are we increasing capacity, or are we employing more people to maintain an inefficient process?

7. Management blind spots

Perhaps the most hidden cost is that senior management may not know the workaround exists. A process map says:

Sales Order → Planning → Production → Dispatch → Invoice

The reality might involve:

Sales Order → ERP → Export → Spreadsheet → Email → Manual approval → Re-entry → ERP → Production

At board level, both can appear to be the same process. However, operationally, they are very different. That is why understanding how work is actually performed, rather than how the procedure says it should be performed, is so important.

The Blue Sky ERP Operational Workaround Audit

When reviewing a process, I wouldn’t start by asking: “What can we automate?” I would start with: “Where are people compensating for the process?”

Those points often reveal the most useful improvement opportunities. A simple audit can help. For every significant workaround, assess five things:

1. Frequency
How often does it happen? Once a month may not matter. Fifty times a day probably does.

2. Effort
How much total employee time does it consume? Include everyone involved, not just the person performing the original task.

3. Error and rework risk
What happens when the process goes wrong? Consider the likelihood of an error and the effort required to correct it.

4. Dependency
Does the process rely on one person, one spreadsheet, one inbox or undocumented knowledge? What happens when that person or resource isn’t available?

5. Business impact
What does the workaround affect? Consider:

• Production
• Inventory
• Purchasing
• Finance
• Customer service
• Reporting
• Compliance
• Decision-making

The workarounds worth addressing first aren’t necessarily those that are most annoying. They are the ones that combine high frequency, high effort, high risk and meaningful business impact.

A simple way to calculate the visible cost

You don’t need a complicated financial model to begin identifying opportunities. Start with: Annual Workaround Hours = Minutes per occurrence × occurrences per day × working days ÷ 60

Then: Indicative Annual Labour Cost = Annual Workaround Hours × relevant hourly employment cost

For example: 5 minutes × 30 times per day × 250 days ÷ 60 = 625 hours. At an illustrative employment cost of £25 per hour, that is £15,625 of employee time each year.

That doesn’t automatically mean spending £15,000 on automation is justified, but it gives you a much better basis for asking whether the process deserves attention. And remember: that calculation still excludes mistakes, rework, delays and opportunity cost.

Don’t automate a bad workaround

This is probably one of the most important lessons. Once businesses identify manual activity, there can be an understandable temptation to automate it immediately. I would resist that.

Automation makes a process faster. It doesn’t necessarily make the process better.

If a process contains unnecessary steps, unclear ownership or poor-quality data, automating it may simply allow the same problems to happen more quickly. Before automating a workaround, ask:

• Why does this step exist?
• Is it still necessary?
• Could the process be simplified?
• Should the ERP already be handling it?
• Is an integration missing?
• Is the underlying issue poor data?
• Is additional training required?
• Is the process itself wrong?

Sometimes the best automation project is the one you decide you don’t need because you’ve removed the unnecessary process first.

Remove, redesign, integrate or automate?

Once you’ve understood the workaround, I find it useful to consider four possible responses.

Remove

Does the activity need to happen at all? Processes accumulate steps over time. Some exist because of requirements that disappeared years ago. Removing a step is often better than automating it.

Redesign

Is the underlying process unnecessarily complicated? Changing responsibilities, sequence or information flow may solve the issue without additional technology.

Integrate

Are employees manually moving information between systems? If two systems both have a legitimate role, integration may remove duplicate entry while allowing each application to perform the function it was designed for.

Automate

Is the process necessary, repeatable, rules-based and currently consuming significant manual effort? That’s where automation can create substantial value. The important point is that automation is one possible outcome of process improvement, not the starting assumption.

When is the ERP actually the problem?

It would be easy for an ERP consultant to say the system is never the problem. That wouldn’t be realistic. Sometimes the configuration no longer reflects how the business operates, sometimes a process wasn’t designed particularly well during implementation. Sometimes users weren’t given the right training, sometimes an integration is required, sometimes the organisation has simply outgrown a particular way of working. And occasionally, a system genuinely doesn’t provide what the business now requires.

The objective of a process review shouldn’t be to defend the ERP. It should be to understand the business requirement and determine the most appropriate solution. In some cases that will mean changing Epicor ERP, in others it may mean changing the business process. And sometimes the existing functionality is perfectly capable of solving the problem once it is configured or used differently.

Why process review should come before technology

My background is in ERP solutions, but some of the most useful conversations I have with businesses happen before we discuss software.

• How does the process actually work?
• Where does it slow down?
• Where is information entered twice?
• Where do people leave the system?
• What happens when something goes wrong?
• Which tasks depend on somebody remembering to do something?
• Which spreadsheets would cause a problem if they disappeared tomorrow?

Those questions tell you far more about improvement opportunities than starting with a list of software features. This is also why an ERP Process Review can be valuable even when an organisation has no intention of replacing its ERP. The objective isn’t necessarily to implement more software. It’s to understand whether the systems and processes already in place are supporting the business as effectively as they could.

Ten questions to ask your team this week

If you’re wondering whether workarounds have become embedded in your organisation, ask:

1. What information do we regularly enter more than once?
2. Which spreadsheets are essential to running the business?
3. Which routine approvals still depend on email?
4. Where do employees export data from the ERP before they can use it?
5. Which processes depend heavily on one person’s knowledge?
6. Where do teams manually reconcile information between systems?
7. Which reports require manual preparation every week or month?
8. What tasks cause the most frustration because “the system doesn’t do it”?
9. Which temporary fixes have existed for more than a year?
10. If transaction volumes doubled tomorrow, which manual processes would struggle first?

You don’t need to fix everything immediately. Start by understanding where the workarounds are and why they exist. That alone can reveal a great deal about where operational improvement will deliver the greatest value.

Final Thoughts

After many years working with ERP systems, one thing I continue to find interesting is how rarely businesses deliberately create inefficient processes. They evolve. A temporary solution works so it stays, another problem appears, so another step is added. Eventually, the organisation can be spending a significant amount of time maintaining processes that nobody would design that way if they were starting again today. That doesn’t mean every spreadsheet needs removing or every manual task needs automating. It means they’re worth questioning.

If a workaround is helping your people work around the system every day, it may be telling you something important about the process underneath it.

At Blue Sky ERP, we work with manufacturing and distribution businesses to review how their processes and Epicor environments operate in practice, identify areas of unnecessary manual effort and determine where process changes, existing ERP functionality, integration or automation can deliver practical improvements. If you’re unsure how much time your organisation is spending maintaining operational workarounds, an ERP Process Review can be a useful place to start.

Talk to the Blue Sky ERP team about an ERP Process Review.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an operational workaround in manufacturing?

An operational workaround is a manual, unofficial or additional process used to overcome a gap in an existing system or business process. Examples include spreadsheets, duplicate data entry, email approvals, offline trackers and manual reconciliation between systems.

Why do manufacturers rely on spreadsheets when they already have ERP?

Often because the spreadsheet solves a specific operational need more quickly or conveniently than the current ERP process. This can indicate a reporting gap, poor configuration, missing integration, inadequate training or a business process that has changed since the ERP was implemented.

Are all manual processes inefficient?

No. Some low-volume or highly variable processes are perfectly reasonable to perform manually. The business case for improvement depends on frequency, effort, risk and impact.

Should every workaround be automated?

No. A workaround should first be understood. The best solution may be to remove the activity, redesign the process, integrate systems, improve training or use existing ERP functionality differently. Automation should only be considered once the process itself makes sense.

How do you calculate the cost of a manual process?

Begin by multiplying the time per occurrence by its frequency and the number of working days. This provides annual labour hours. You can then apply an appropriate employment cost, while separately considering error, rework, delay and business-risk costs.

What are the signs that a workaround has become a business risk?

Warning signs include dependence on one employee, duplicate data entry, essential offline spreadsheets, repeated reconciliation, inconsistent information, delayed decisions and a process that would struggle significantly if transaction volumes increased.

Can Epicor Kinetic reduce manual workarounds?

Epicor Kinetic provides functionality across manufacturing, supply chain, finance and other business processes, but whether a particular workaround can be removed depends on its cause. Existing functionality, configuration, integration, process redesign or automation may all be possible solutions.

What is an ERP Process Review?

An ERP Process Review examines how business processes actually operate, how the ERP supports them, where manual workarounds exist and where improvements may be possible. The objective is to identify practical opportunities to improve efficiency, information flow, system utilisation and operational control.