Supply chain software that handles the bad day
Any system can move a pallet that arrives on time and complete. The value sits in what happens when it does not, and that is the part most builds leave until last.
What makes this work different
5 things that decide this
- 01The exception is the product. A delivery that is short, late or partly damaged is the normal case at scale, and a system that only models the clean version pushes every real event back onto email.
- 02Two sites will run the same process differently within a year unless something enforces it. WAIQ exists because standard procedure written in a document is not the same as standard procedure people follow.
- 03Warehouses, depots and yards have poor signal, so field software has to work offline and record the time work happened rather than the time it uploaded.
- 04Who is allowed to do the job is part of the schedule. Shift Link checks worker eligibility before a shift is offered, which cut manual compliance checking by 70%.
- 05Your existing system of record wins any argument about data. New software should be the operational layer around it, not a second version of the truth.
Software that only knows the happy path
Ask an operations manager where the day goes and the answer is rarely the plan. It goes on the load that turned up with three pallets instead of four. On the driver who ran out of hours. On the site that has been offline since lunchtime.
Most systems model the clean version and route everything else to a person. That person then works in a spreadsheet or a group chat, which is where your data goes to die. Six months on, the software describes a business nobody recognises.
We build the exception in first. What a short delivery is, who confirms it, what the count becomes, and what happens to the invoice. Handle those and the ordinary path is easy work.
- 01Model partial as a state, not as a failure someone resolves by hand.
- 02Give every count a source and a timestamp. Two people counting the same shelf is a reconciliation, not an argument.
- 03Decide who can override the system before launch, and record it when they do.
Relevant work
70%
less manual compliance verification, reported by Shift Link
5
permission tiers on the TankAware multi-site build
22
production systems across the firm
- PlanThe version everyone agrees on.
- DispatchWho is eligible, not just available.
- CaptureOffline, timestamped at the point of work.
- ExceptionShort, late, damaged, refused.
- ReconcileCount against record, with a source.
- SettleInvoice matches what actually moved.
Steps one and two are what gets demoed. Steps four and five are where a project succeeds or turns into a spreadsheet with a login page.
Where we are useful
Multi-site standardisation
WAIQ puts procedures, workflows and training in one multi-tenant platform, with an organisational model of sites, departments and roles deciding who sees what. Leaders watch task completion across every location in real time.
Workforce compliance and scheduling
Shift Link onboards workers, validates documents, checks right-to-work against a UK government service and then schedules only eligible people. Documents are tracked for expiry, so gaps surface before they become findings.
Field capture that works offline
TankAware captures inspections across petroleum sites on React Native, with role-based access across five tiers and audit logs. Built for places where the connection is not a given.
Sensor data you can act on
IoT pipelines with predictive alerts on AWS, built on TankAware. The engineering is in telling a missing reading apart from a reading of zero.
A count is a claim, and claims need a source
Inventory disagreements are the ordinary weather of this industry. The shelf says forty, the system says forty-three, and the last person to touch either is on a different shift.
Storing a single number guarantees the argument. Store the count, who made it, when and how, and your difference becomes a question with an answer. TankAware applies the same discipline to inspections. Raw readings and derived values stay apart, so a recalibration reinterprets history instead of rewriting it.
It costs almost nothing at design time. Retrofitting it into two years of bare numbers means the history is gone for good.
- Never let a correction overwrite the original. A new entry keeps both.
- A gap in the data is not a zero. Model absence as its own state.
- Record the time work happened and the time it synced, separately.
“TankAware has revolutionized how we manage petroleum sites. The real-time data and automation have exceeded expectations.”
Blake Sutherland · President, Sutherland Excavating Ltd.
The stack behind these builds
Built with
Field and site work
Integrations we have shipped
Questions buyers ask us first
01Do we replace our ERP or build around it?
Build around it, in almost every case. Your existing system stays the financial record and wins any data conflict, while the new software handles the operational layer it was never good at. That also keeps the project scoped to a problem rather than to a migration nobody asked for.
02How do you handle warehouses and yards with no signal?
The app works fully offline rather than in a read-only mode, and it stamps the time work happened. Sync time is stored separately. Get that wrong and honest work done at seven in the morning lands in the record as an evening entry. Accurate data then looks falsified.
03Can software enforce that every site follows the same process?
Yes, and that is exactly what WAIQ was built to do. Procedures live under version control, a workflow builder walks staff through each task, and quizzes confirm people are trained before they run it. Leaders see completion and readiness by site. Writing a better document does not do this on its own.
04How do you keep unqualified people off a job?
Make eligibility a condition of the schedule instead of a check afterwards. Shift Link validates documents, tracks expiry dates and verifies right-to-work through a UK government service before a shift is offered. Manual compliance verification fell 70%. The same pattern works for licences and equipment certifications.
05What is the first thing you would look at in our operation?
Where your team leaves the software. Every spreadsheet, group chat and paper form in daily use marks a case your system does not handle. Those cases are usually the expensive ones. That map is normally the scope of the first release.
06How do you scope a supply chain build?
Scoping calls are free. Where we have to go into an existing codebase first, there is a paid two-week diagnostic that ends in a fixed price. We will not put a schedule on it before we know how many systems hold a copy of your stock figures.
