Manufacturing makes the things, and a great many of the jobs
Workshops and factories turn raw material into goods, and small makers supply the big ones. Their margins sit in purchasing, stock and getting paid on time.
Manufacturing supports a long chain of work: suppliers, transport, repairs, packaging and sales. Much of that chain is made of smaller firms making parts and goods for larger ones.
In India, the Ministry of MSME reports that MSME products made up 45.7% of exports in 2023-24, and that MSMEs contributed 30.1% of GDP in 2022-23.
Workshops and factories where margins live in purchasing, stock and payment terms.
Forces
What is changing the sector
Four pressures, in plain words. Where a published figure backs one up, we show it with its source.
Demand
Buyers order smaller and faster
Wholesale buyers and distributors order more often and in smaller batches, and expect quotes and credit terms on request.
Skills
Machines change, people retrain
The WEF expects a large share of core skills to change by 2030. On the shop floor that means new machines, new quality checks and new software for the same team.
Purchase orders, goods received notes and bills that live on paper hold up payment on both sides of the deal.
Climate
A changing grid
The IEA expects a very large amount of new renewable capacity to come online between 2024 and 2030. Knowing what you use, and wasting less material, is the part every factory controls today.
5,500 GW of new renewable capacity is expected to come online between 2024 and 2030. IEA, Renewables 2024, 2024
Everyday problems
What gets in the way, at both ends of the scale
The small operator and the large one share the same trade, but not the same headaches.
Small operators
One owner, too many jobs
Purchase requests on WhatsApp with no approval trail
Raw material running out halfway through a run
Distributor orders by phone, credit limits by memory
Supplier bills that do not match what arrived
Machines and tools with no service history
Large organisations
Many sites, too many systems
Several plants and warehouses with separate stock systems
Matching orders, deliveries and bills by hand
Price lists and schemes that differ by distributor
Hundreds of workers on shifts with statutory payroll
Assets depreciating on a spreadsheet nobody trusts
What good looks like
The standard worth aiming for
01
Buy with approvals
Purchase requests, orders and goods received notes, matched to bills before anyone pays.
02
Stock that warns you first
Batches, reorder points and transfers between plants and warehouses.
03
Sell to the trade properly
Price lists by customer group, quotes, credit limits and a distributor ordering app.
04
Know your equipment
An asset register with QR tags, service reminders and depreciation.
How Intersink fits
A first set, priced from real app prices
A plant or product brand is a channel. Purchasing, Inventory and Wholesale are apps on it, and Accounting receives the bills. Wholesale is currently in beta.
