AI automation & logistics systems for Hull businesses
By the time the office sees what happened on the floor or in the yard, the data's already a day old, half re-keyed by hand, and the job that slipped quietly cost you margin you'll only spot at month-end. That's where an AI automation agency in Hull like Propel earns its place — capturing field, yard and shop-floor data once and making it flow to the office, so your ERP and your operation finally tell the same story.
We sit alongside the ERP and the kit you already run, work with any age of plant, and never stop the line for a rollout.
When the floor and the office can't agree on what happened
Hull and the Humber run on real operations — the docks and logistics traffic, the offshore-wind cluster around the Siemens Gamesa blade factory at Alexandra Dock, cold-chain along the bank, and a deep base of manufacturing and field service. On most of those sites the production, downtime, movements and field jobs still get captured on paper, label printers, radio or a legacy MES, then typed into the ERP later by someone who'd rather be doing the actual work. So your systems don't talk to each other, which means your people are the integration — and every hour they spend re-keying is an hour they're not on the job you hired them for. Worse, the numbers still disagree, so operators improvise against records that don't match the floor, you find out a line went down after it's already cost you, and the next audit turns skilled staff into clerks for a week. Hire another admin and you've just added overhead to paper over the gap. Propel closes that gap instead — starting with the one workflow bleeding the most time and making the data flow once, no retrofit, no rip-out.
What we build for across Hull and the Humber
- Ports, logistics & cold-chain
- Offshore wind & renewables
- Steel, metals & heavy industry
- Manufacturing & engineering
- Field service & maintenance
- Wholesale & distribution
- Construction & trades
Where the hours and the margin quietly leak out
Four places the gap between floor and office costs you time, money and trust — and the first one Propel closes.
By the time the office sees it, it's wrong
Production, downtime, movements and field jobs get scribbled on paper or radioed in, then re-keyed into the ERP hours later. The data the office plans from is old, partial and second-hand, so decisions get made on a picture that no longer matches the floor.
The same job entered twice, and the numbers still don't agree
ERP and shop-floor formats don't line up, so a job gets keyed in more than once and the totals still disagree. Operators end up working around records that don't reflect reality, and nobody fully trusts either number.
You find out where it went wrong too late to fix it
When output slips or a line goes down, you can't see where the delay actually started. Bottlenecks, scheduling clashes and asset movements stay invisible until they've already eaten the margin, and you're explaining it after the fact instead of catching it in time.
Every audit turns your best people into clerks
Production, maintenance and quality reports get stitched together by hand whenever a customer or regulator comes asking. Skilled staff lose days to paperwork, and the report is only as current as the last manual update.
How we close the gap for Hull operations
Capture the floor and the yard once, keep the ERP in step, and let the reporting build itself — no retrofit, no line stoppage.
Capture it once, on any age of plant
Stop the re-keying at source: operators log production, downtime, quality, movements and field jobs on a tablet, phone or scanner at the point of work. No sensors to retrofit, no machine to stop, old kit and new treated alike — the data flows to the office from gear you already own.
ERP and shop floor finally telling the same story
Your production and financial figures stay in sync, so nobody enters the same job twice and the numbers stop disagreeing. We deliver MES ERP integration built for an SME budget, joining what you run rather than ripping it out.
See where it's going wrong while you can still act
One live view of output, downtime, scheduling and asset movements means you spot the bottleneck as it forms, not at month-end. Real-time dashboards turn delays you used to explain after the fact into ones you can head off.
Audit-ready reporting without the week of paperwork
Production, maintenance and quality reports generate themselves from the data you already capture, so a customer or regulator audit no longer eats days of skilled time. The report is current because it's built from the live record, not stitched together by hand.
A job that moves itself through the business
Connect dispatch, scheduling, delivery and invoicing so a job flows from yard to office without anyone re-typing it — useful for cold-chain, distribution and field service along the Humber. The ai automation that quietly removes the admin tax between steps.
Bespoke software for the shop floor you actually have
When off-the-shelf MES or ERP assumes a plant you don't run, we build around how your operation really works. Custom software development in Hull on a fixed scope and fixed price, agreed before we start — bespoke software in Hull built by people who've stood on a floor.
You've never heard of us — so here's a system we built and run, not a pitch
Plenty of local firms claim integration without showing you a single working system. We'd rather show you ours. Atlas is a full operating system our founder built from scratch to run That Works, a 26-person agency — clients, contracts, tasks, hours, delivery, sales, finance, reporting, portals, permissions, audit trails and governed AI in one platform, in production every working day. We didn't pitch it and walk away; we built it and we run the business on it. That's the same discipline we bring to a shop floor or a yard in Hull: capture the work once, keep the numbers in sync, and make the record govern itself. When you're judging whether a builder actually understands a live operation, a system running daily beats a slide every time.
1 platform
replacing a stack of disconnected tools
26-person
agency runs on it in production, daily
15+
business functions unified in one system
Built from scratch
not a template or a wrapper
Why Hull operations trust us with it
The fair objection is that you've never heard of us, and plenty of local firms claim integration without showing a thing. So here's our proof. Atlas is a full operating system our founder built from scratch to run That Works, a 26-person agency — clients, contracts, tasks, hours, delivery, finance, reporting and governed AI in one platform, in production every working day. We didn't pitch it, we built it and we run it. We're not an offshore web shop or a London consultancy that's never stood on a shop floor, and we won't stop your line or blow the budget on an open-ended rollout: we start with one workflow, scope it at a fixed price before any work begins, sit alongside your ERP and only replace what you've genuinely outgrown. Permissions, audit trails and UK data-protection are built in by default, so your production and audit data stay governed and visible. We work with operations across Hull and the towns around it — Beverley, Cottingham, Hessle, Hedon and Brough — as an ai consultancy in Hull that talks like a builder, not a deck.
Where we cover
We work with operations across Hull and the towns around it, from the docks and the bank out into East Yorkshire.
- Beverley
- Cottingham
- Hessle
- Hedon
- Brough
- Works with any age of plant — operator-led capture on a tablet, phone or scanner, no sensors to retrofit and no machine to stop
- Sits alongside your ERP rather than ripping it out — fixed scope and fixed price agreed before any work begins
- Governed by default — permissions, audit trails and UK data-protection, so your production and audit data stay visible the day a customer or regulator asks
From audit to live system without stopping the line
One workflow at a time, scoped and priced before any work starts, delivered alongside a running operation.
AI Opportunity Audit
A free, no-obligation 30 minutes on where the re-keying, blind spots and manual reporting are draining your floor, yard or field — and where capturing the data once would pay back fastest. An honest recommendation either way, no slides.
Scope and design
We map the one workflow bleeding the most time and design it around how your operation actually runs — old kit and new, the ERP you keep, the way your operators log work. Fixed scope and fixed price agreed before anything is built.
Build and integrate
We build the capture and the integration alongside live operations, joining what you run rather than replacing it. No big-bang rollout, no line stoppage — your team keeps working while the data starts flowing once.
Launch and support
We launch with your operators, tune it to the realities of the floor and yard, and stay on hand. Permissions, audit trails and UK data-protection stay built in, so the system keeps governing itself as it grows.
What Hull operations want to know before they commit
Our kit is old — can you capture data without retrofitting every machine?+
Yes. We lead with operator-led capture that works with any age of plant — a tablet, phone or scanner at the point of work — so you don't need to wire up sensors or replace machines. Off-the-shelf MES assumes you can retrofit everything; we don't. The data flows to the office from the kit you already have.
ERP projects take forever and blow the budget, and we can't stop the line — how is this different?+
We don't do big-bang rollouts. We start with the one workflow bleeding the most time, scope it at a fixed price before any work begins, and deliver it alongside live operations without stopping the line. Most builds run from a couple of weeks to around six, depending on scope, so you see payback in weeks, not a budget disappearing into a multi-year project.
Will this integrate with the ERP and accounting we already keep, or become another silo?+
It integrates. The whole point is ERP/MES integration so production and financial data stay in sync and nobody enters the same job twice. We connect to the systems you run and only replace what you've genuinely outgrown — no rebuild, and no need to stop the line for it.
Offshore web shops and London consultancies don't get a shop floor — do you, and why should we believe you?+
We're a Hull-grade builder, not a reseller or a distant consultancy. Our proof is Atlas, a real operating system our founder built and runs daily for a 26-person agency — not a claim, a system in production. We design around how your operation actually works: ports, cold-chain and renewables along the Humber, and the steel and heavy industry across the bank.
What does custom software development in Hull actually cost with you?+
Every build is scoped from the free AI Opportunity Audit and quoted at a fixed price before any work starts. No packages, no open-ended day rates, no surprises — you see the price and the likely payback before you commit a penny.
Is our production and audit data secure, and can we see what the AI does?+
Yes. Everything is governed and visible by design — clear permissions, full audit trails, human-in-the-loop and UK data-protection standards, with no black box. You always know what an agent did and why, which matters the day a customer or regulator audit lands.
Operational automation across Hull, East Yorkshire and the wider region
See where the admin is quietly costing you
Book a free, no-obligation 30-minute AI Opportunity Audit. We map where the re-keying, the blind spots and the manual reporting are draining your floor, yard or field — and where capturing the data once would pay back fastest — with an honest recommendation either way.
No obligation, no slides, no line stoppage — just an honest read on where capturing the data once would pay back, whether or not you build with us.