Let's start with one factory

The article discusses the experience of automating procurement in an industrial enterprise. Initially, the team planned to launch a pilot project at one factory to scale the solution to other sites. However, an expert assessment by the procurement director revealed that processes at different plants overlap by only 40–60%. It turned out that no factory is an exact copy of another, and automating the local specifics of one plant would have necessitated a complete redesign of the system during replication. The author emphasizes the importance of deep business process analysis before implementing IT solutions to avoid the 'local pilot' trap. The article is useful for project managers and IT architects involved in the digital transformation of large manufacturing holdings, as it clearly demonstrates the risks of a simplified approach to scaling enterprise software.