Margin Visibility Through Data
Sage 200 Overhaul in a Manufacturing Environment
The Challenge:
No visibility over product profitability
The business had limited visibility over product margins and lacked the analytical tools needed to support growth.
With 76 high level SKUs with multiple configurations, profitability was hard to track, and production often focused on high-volume products that delivered limited contribution.
Reporting was manual, fragmented, and not integrated with the operational systems.
The Approach:
Leveraging ERP to drive SKU rationalisation
I led the overhaul and setup of Sage 200 and built a reporting structure powered by dynamic SQL integration.
I redesigned the nominal coding structure to enable margin tracking by product line and introduced real-time dashboards for key financial and operational KPIs.
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Using the 80/20 principle, I worked with the production and sales teams to analyse profitability by SKU and customer segment.
Low-margin or slow-moving products were phased out, and standardisation was introduced across remaining lines to enable stockholding and reduce lead times.
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Key steps included:
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Consolidating product lines from 76 to ~40 with fewer configurable options.
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Introducing live dashboards on production efficiency, stock movement, and gross margin.
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Creating a margin hierarchy to support pricing strategy and inventory planning
The Result:
SKU count halved and margins optimised through insight
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Product margin visibility enabled focus on high-value items, improving average margin and profitability.
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Lead times reduced due to standard stockholding and better planning.
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Finance became a strategic partner in production decisions, moving from reactive reporting to proactive insight