Your Processes Are Manual.
They Don't Have To Be.
MDI builds Power Platform automation for manufacturing, FMCG, and supply chain operations. Approval workflows, mobile shop floor apps, document intelligence, and Copilot Studio agents — connected to SAP and your existing systems. First automation live in 3 weeks, not 18 months.
Trusted by operations teams at
The Problem
Why manual processes survive in otherwise modern operations
These four patterns show up in virtually every manufacturing, FMCG, and supply chain company we walk into. Not because people are not aware of them — but because the IT queue is full and nobody owns the fix.
Month-end close still runs on email chains and shared spreadsheets.
Finance sends a template to 12 cost centre owners. Eight come back on time, three come back with wrong formats, one does not come back at all. The consolidation is manual, the version control is a folder named "FINAL_v3_amended_USE_THIS_ONE". This is not a people problem. It is a process that has never been automated because IT have bigger priorities.
Approval workflows live in WhatsApp and email — nobody can audit them.
A procurement approval that should take two hours takes two days because the approver is travelling, the backup approver does not know they are the backup, and the requestor is chasing via a group chat. When the auditors ask for the approval trail, someone has to scroll through six months of WhatsApp messages. Automated approval workflows with proper audit trails are not a luxury — they are a compliance requirement.
Shop floor workers fill in paper forms. Someone types the data into a system later.
Quality checks, maintenance logs, shift handover reports, cycle counts — all done on paper in most manufacturing plants I visit. The data gets typed into SAP or a spreadsheet by a clerk, hours or days after the event. By the time the quality exception is visible in any system, the batch has shipped. Mobile Power Apps on a tablet or phone solve this entirely — the data goes straight into the system at the point of capture.
IT has an 18-month backlog. Every automation request dies in the queue.
The IT team is not the problem. The problem is that every automation request, no matter how simple, goes into the same queue as complex integration work. A basic leave approval workflow competes with an ERP upgrade for developer time. Power Platform exists precisely to get simple, high-frequency workflows out of that queue and delivered in days — not quarters.
What we build
Five automations. Each one replaces a named manual process.
Not a platform rollout. Not a digital transformation project. Specific automations — each scoped to replace something your team is currently doing by hand, with a delivery timeline measured in weeks.
Approval Workflow Automation — Power Automate
Replaces
The email chain with six replies, three follow-up WhatsApp messages, and no audit trail your compliance team can produce on request.
- Capex requests, purchase requisitions, quality exception sign-offs, leave approvals, and supplier onboarding — built in Power Automate with delegated authority matrix enforced automatically
- The right approver gets the request based on amount, category, and org level. Escalation fires automatically when SLA is breached — no manual chasing.
- Full audit trail stored in Dataverse — every approval, rejection, comment, and escalation timestamped and searchable in seconds, not scrolled through in WhatsApp
- Teams notifications and email reminders with action buttons inline — approvers act from the notification without logging into a separate system
Approval cycle time: days to hours. Compliance audit prep: weeks to minutes. Typical first workflow live in 2–3 weeks.
Mobile Shop Floor & Field Applications — Power Apps
Replaces
Paper forms, clipboards, and the data entry clerk who transcribes the handwritten notes into SAP two hours after the shift ends — if the handwriting is legible.
- Canvas Power Apps on tablet or phone for quality inspections, maintenance requests, shift handover reports, cycle counts, and daily production logs
- Data goes directly into Dataverse or SAP at the point of capture — no transcription, no delay, no data entry errors from manual keying
- Offline-capable — apps continue working in areas with poor connectivity and sync automatically when signal is restored. No lost records.
- Photo capture, barcode scanning, and digital signature built in — a full quality inspection report with photos completes in 4 minutes on a tablet
Data latency from hours to seconds. Quality exceptions visible in Power BI within minutes of being logged on the shop floor.
Conversational AI Agents — Copilot Studio
Replaces
The IT support ticket queue, the HR email inbox, and the analyst who spends half their day answering operational data questions via Teams messages.
- Custom agents built in Copilot Studio and deployed in Microsoft Teams — where your employees already work, no new interface to log into
- HR agent answers leave balance, policy, and payroll queries from SharePoint and the HR system — 24/7, no ticket required, no email to chase
- IT agent handles standard service requests, password resets, and access queries via your ITSM connector — deflects 40–60% of first-line volume
- Ops agent answers operational KPI questions from live Power BI datasets in plain English — "What is our OTIF this week?" gets an answer in Teams in seconds
40–60% reduction in first-line support queries on first deployment. Employees get accurate answers in seconds from the tools they already use.
Document Intelligence — AI Builder
Replaces
The accounts payable team manually keying supplier invoice line items into SAP for three hours every morning.
- AI Builder document processing models trained on your specific invoice, delivery note, and quality certificate layouts — not a generic template
- Scanned or emailed documents processed automatically — supplier name, PO number, line items, unit prices, and totals extracted and validated against SAP data
- Matched invoices post automatically. Discrepancies and exceptions route to AP via Power Automate for human review — with context, not just a flag
- Works with PDFs, scanned images, and email attachments. No supplier portal changes required, no new submission process for your vendors.
90%+ extraction accuracy on structured documents. Typical AP processing time reduced by 60–70%.
SAP & ERP Integration Workflows — Native Connectors
Replaces
Duplicate data entry between SAP and non-SAP systems — the same purchase order number typed into three different places by three different people.
- Power Automate native SAP connectors via RFC, BAPI, and OData — no middleware platform, no custom integration code, no third-party licence
- GRN confirmation in SAP triggers a payment approval workflow automatically — AP does not need to manually cross-reference the delivery
- Quality hold raised in a Power Apps form creates a SAP B1 material block within seconds — no manual SAP transaction, no delay between floor and system
- New supplier approved through Teams workflow creates the vendor master record in SAP automatically — one entry point, one system of record
Data entry errors eliminated on connected workflows. Typical SAP-adjacent manual steps reduced from 3–5 clicks per transaction to zero.
How we work
From process audit to first automation in 3 weeks
We start by finding the work that is easy to automate and high-value to the business. Not the most technically interesting problem — the one that saves the most time immediately.
01
Process audit — find the high-volume, low-complexity manual work first
We spend the first week talking to operations, finance, HR, and the plant floor. We are looking for the same three things in every organisation: approval workflows done over email, paper-based data capture, and Excel-based reporting that gets emailed to a distribution list. These are the quick wins — automatable in 2-4 weeks each. We rank them by business impact and start with the one that saves the most time immediately.
02
Quick win deployment — first automation live within 3 weeks
We build the first automated workflow, test it with real users, and hand it over with documentation and a trained internal owner. Getting something live quickly is deliberate — it builds confidence with the business, demonstrates tangible ROI, and creates momentum for the automation programme. One working approval workflow on day 21 is worth more than a comprehensive roadmap on day 60.
03
Scale and govern — from one automation to an automation portfolio
After the first delivery, we set up the Power Platform CoE, run a maker enablement session with your team, and establish the governance model. We then work through the prioritised backlog — typically 6-12 automations over a 3-6 month programme. By the end, your team is building and maintaining automations independently. We are not needed to keep the lights on.
Technology stack
Automation
Applications
AI & Agents
Data & Integration
Governance
Source Systems
Common questions
What buyers ask us
How is Power Platform different from RPA tools like UiPath or Blue Prism?
Traditional RPA tools automate UI interactions — they mimic a human clicking through screens. Power Automate works at the API and connector layer, which is faster and far more stable. For manufacturing and FMCG companies already on Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365, Power Platform has 600+ pre-built connectors including native SAP integration. Licensing is included with most Microsoft 365 plans. You are not paying for a separate RPA platform on top of your existing Microsoft estate. Power Automate Desktop handles the screen-based automation where you genuinely need it.
Can Power Platform connect to SAP Business One or SAP S/4HANA?
Yes. Power Automate has native SAP ERP connectors and supports RFC, BAPI, and OData connections for SAP B1, SAP S/4HANA, SAP ByDesign, and SAP ECC. A common pattern: a quality exception raised in a Power Apps mobile form on the shop floor triggers a workflow in Power Automate that creates a notification in SAP, updates a Power BI dataset, and sends an alert to the plant manager in Teams — without any manual data entry. We have built this pattern across multiple manufacturing sites.
Do our business users need to code to use Power Apps?
Canvas Power Apps uses a formula language similar to Excel — most operations managers pick it up in a few hours of training. Model-driven apps use forms and views configured in Dataverse, with no coding required at all. We build the initial applications, document the logic, and train a named internal owner to maintain and extend them. The goal is not permanent dependency on MDI — it is giving your team the capability to build the next app themselves.
How do we govern Power Platform once people start building their own apps?
This is the question every IT director asks after the first 20 apps get built without them knowing. We set up the Power Platform CoE (Centre of Excellence) Starter Kit as part of every engagement — it gives your IT team visibility of every flow, app, and connector in the tenant, DLP policies to prevent unapproved connectors, an app inventory, and a maker onboarding process. Governance is not optional. We include it because ungoverned Power Platform estates become a security and compliance problem inside 12 months.
We already have IT and a development team — why use Power Platform at all?
Your IT backlog is probably 12-18 months long. Power Platform is not a replacement for your development team — it handles the 80% of workflow and mobile app requests that are straightforward enough to build in days rather than months. Your developers stay focused on complex, custom-built systems. Operations teams stop waiting 18 months for a basic approval workflow or a shop floor data capture app. The two work in parallel, not in competition.
Ready to move
Start with a process audit — not a platform licence
First call is 45 minutes. Walk us through three or four processes that are currently done manually. We will tell you exactly which ones Power Platform can automate, what the build timeline looks like, and what you already have in your Microsoft licence that you are not using.