IT · Financial · Manufacturing
Meridian Polymers — Turning eleven spreadsheets into one operating system
A three-plant polymer manufacturer with a 47-day cash cycle rebuilt its operating backbone and its credit structure at the same time.
Client overview
Meridian Polymers operates in manufacturing. The engagement ran across our IT · Financial practices.
Problem statement
Meridian ran three plants on eleven spreadsheets maintained by five people. Stock figures disagreed between production and finance, margin was calculated monthly and retrospectively, and a 47-day order-to-cash cycle meant every rupee of sanctioned working capital was permanently drawn. Growth was capped not by demand but by cash.
Research
- Two weeks on site across all three plants, shadowing dispatch, stores and accounts to document the process as it actually ran rather than as the SOP described it.
- Ninety days of transaction data analysed to locate where the cash cycle was actually lost — 19 of the 47 days sat between dispatch and invoice generation.
- Existing bank facilities reviewed against a properly computed MPBF working, which showed the limit had been sized on a formula rather than on the operating cycle.
- Interviews with eight floor supervisors established which data they would realistically enter, which shaped every screen we later built.
Planning and approach
- A phased custom ERP rather than an off-the-shelf rollout, so the plant did not have to re-engineer itself around software during a growth year.
- Phase one targeted dispatch-to-invoice — the single largest cash-cycle loss — and went live in six weeks.
- Two-way Tally integration preserved the finance team's existing workflow instead of forcing an accounting migration mid-year.
- In parallel, an ₹18 Cr working capital facility was restructured with limits sized to the measured cycle and a monthly stock-statement discipline attached.
Execution
Phase 1 · Dispatch & invoicing
Live in six weeks. Invoice generation moved from a two-day manual process to same-shift automatic generation on dispatch confirmation.
Phase 2 · Inventory & BOM
Stores digitised across three plants with barcode issue and receipt. Physical and system stock reconciled within 1.2%.
Phase 3 · Production & quality
Shop-floor scheduling, batch traceability and quality logs replaced paper travellers.
Phase 4 · Finance & analytics
Tally sync, GST reconciliation and live margin, ageing and plant dashboards delivered to management.
Timeline
Weeks 1–2
On-site process mapping and data analysis
Weeks 3–8
Phase 1 build and go-live; parallel credit restructuring begins
Weeks 9–14
Inventory and production modules rolled out plant by plant
Weeks 15–18
Finance module, dashboards, training and hypercare through first close
Month 6
Post-implementation review; cash cycle measured at 21 days
Results
Return on the engagement.
Total engagement cost was recovered within five months on released working capital alone, before counting the reduction in reconciliation effort or the margin visibility that changed pricing decisions in the second half of the year.
4.2x
Return in year one
26 days
Removed from cash cycle
₹2.4 Cr
Working capital released
1.2%
Stock variance, from 9%
“We had been told for years that we needed SAP. What we actually needed was someone to sit on our floor for two weeks and then build only what mattered. One team, one point of contact, zero excuses.”
Conclusion
What we would tell a similar business.
The gain here came from sequencing — fixing the measurable constraint first, then building around it. If your business shows the same symptoms Meridian Polymers did, the diagnosis usually takes one conversation and a look at ninety days of data.
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