Business outcome
Use this capability when the framework identifies repeatable work, approvals, exceptions, or handoffs that should move faster without losing evidence, ownership, or human control.
Services
Workflow & Exception Automation · Process Automation · Workflows
Workflow & Approval Automation
Route manufacturing approvals by rules, ownership, and escalation.
Purchase orders, price exceptions, engineering changes, quality decisions, capital requests, and customer commitments cannot depend on inbox visibility. We build governed workflows with accountable approvers, evidence, deadlines, escalation, and audit history.
A strong fit when
- Approval requests buried in email inboxes with no visibility into where they are in the queue
- No escalation rules -- urgent requests sit for days when the approver is out or overloaded
- Approval authority unclear or inconsistent -- different people approve the same thing depending on who asks
- No audit trail connecting the approval decision to the person who made it and when
Why this service exists
Connect the technology decision to the work the manufacturing business must control.
System responsibility
Workflow engineering connects governed records, business rules, decisions, approvals, alerts, and exception paths to the systems where accountable work occurs.
Ownership and control
The manufacturer must control the process rules, decision rights, evidence, review thresholds, exception response, measures, and change path rather than burying them inside an automation tool.
01
The Problem
Manufacturing decisions are waiting in inboxes without clear ownership or escalation.
Automation problems begin when a tool is introduced before the normal path, exception path, decision rights, evidence, and human-control points are explicit.
What leaders see
Routine work still waits for individual follow-up.
Documents, orders, approvals, alerts, and exceptions remain trapped in inboxes and personal work queues.
What is actually happening
Rules and ownership are not executable.
Inputs, thresholds, approvers, escalation, evidence, and closure conditions vary by person or situation.
What gets worse
Automation scales an undefined process.
Work moves faster without becoming more reliable, explainable, or accountable.
02
What changes
Make the operating responsibility visible and governable.
Purchase orders, price exceptions, engineering changes, quality decisions, capital requests, and customer commitments cannot depend on inbox visibility. We build governed workflows with.
01
Operating outcome
Route manufacturing approvals by rules, ownership, and escalation.
02
Work, decisions, and evidence involved
requests, documents, approvals
03
Decision and exception path
Which repeatable work can move automatically, which decisions require review, and how exceptions are assigned and closed.
04
Ownership and continuity
Automation needs stable rules, trusted inputs, accountable owners, human-control points, and a defined response when conditions fall outside the normal path.
03
Architecture
Build the service around the business record and decision.
Which repeatable work can move automatically, which decisions require review, and how exceptions are assigned and closed.
01Source record
02Governed connection
03Validation
04Business system
05Accountable owner
Work, decisions, and evidence involved
requestsdocumentsapprovalsalertsexceptions and audit history
04
Engineering scope
What Metrotechs engineers for Workflow & Approval Automation.
The exact scope follows the approved business objective, source records, dependencies, controls, and delivery sequence.
01
Role-Based Routing
Route approval requests based on type, amount, department, and customer tier. The right approver gets the request without the requester needing to know the org chart.
02
Escalation & SLA Tracking
Define service expectations, reminders, escalation, and alternate ownership for each approval type. Overdue and unassigned work remains visible to accountable owners.
03
Multi-Level Approvals
Sequential and parallel approval chains for requests that need multiple sign-offs -- purchasing above threshold, pricing exceptions, capital expenditures, and customer credit changes.
04
Mobile & Email Approval
Approvers can receive secure email or mobile notifications and complete the decision through an authenticated path with the required evidence, authority, and audit context.
05
Delegation & Coverage
Use approved delegation and coverage rules for absences, shifts, and role changes while preserving authority limits and recording who acted for whom.
06
Audit Trail & Reporting
Record the request, evidence, routing, decision, escalation, delegation, timestamp, and identity required by the workflow's audit and retention rules.
05
Delivery sequence
From operating reality to a solution the business can own.
Approval Process Inventory
Catalog the approval workflows in scope -- purchasing, pricing, credit, returns, capital, engineering, quality, or operating decisions -- with current authority, evidence, routing, and bottlenecks.
Workflow Design
Design digital workflows with routing rules, approval thresholds, escalation timers, and delegation policies. Get stakeholder sign-off on authority levels and SLAs.
Build & Integrate
Build workflows and integrate with your ERP, email, and mobile platforms. Connect approval outcomes to downstream system actions -- PO release, price override posting, credit limit change.
Pilot & Refine
Deploy high-volume workflows first, measure cycle time and compliance, and refine routing and escalation rules based on real usage patterns.
Rollout & Monitoring
Expand to remaining workflows with SLA dashboards, bottleneck reporting, and compliance audit reporting. Continuous refinement as organizational roles and policies evolve.
Related services and systems
Continue through the connected operating environment.
Use these connected services and references to understand the records, workflows, and systems surrounding this work.
06
FAQ
Questions to answer before implementation begins.
Clear answers for manufacturing leaders evaluating the work, operating responsibility, and delivery path.
Where the ERP exposes a supported approval boundary, we can use or extend it without bypassing its transaction controls. External workflow is justified only for decisions the ERP cannot govern cleanly and must still reconcile approved outcomes back to the authoritative record.