Operations Value Capture Through Software Rationalization.

The Diagnostic

The High Cost of ERP Friction

In the glass manufacturing industry—where furnaces operate on a volatile, 24/7 continuous production cycle—protecting supply chain velocity is paramount. A delay in the warehouse doesn't just stall a shipment; it creates immediate, cascading physical bottlenecks across the entire plant floor.

For the Glass Division of this conglomerate, a global rollout of a new Tier-1 ERP system across 20+ production sites triggered a critical operational crisis. Although the new ERP was intended to centralize global production management, its highly complex UI left employees unable to properly execute workflows without extensive training. Navigational friction resulted in a significant loss of productivity, with workers wasting an average of two hours per day attempting to navigate the system, leading to a severe drop in global order fulfillment. Traditional HR change management teams lacked the bandwidth to scale training efficiently across a global workforce of 40,000 employees. A digital solution was necessary to help resolve the issue, but the selected tooling was expensive and eating into efficiency gains.

The Implementation

Replacing Bloat with Bespoke GenAI

They initially attempted to resolve this user adoption crisis by purchasing a traditional Digital Adoption Platform (DAP). However, the overlay was rigid. Its linear tutorials failed to accommodate the complex, nuanced scenarios unique to continuous glass manufacturing, and a lack of business context limited its impact. Furthermore, the system cost approximately $400K in its first year, with costs expected to climb continuously in proportion to the user base.

Operating inside the client's architecture, our Forward-Deployed Engineering (FDE) team co-developed a proprietary Generative AI solution to fully replace the legacy DAP. Powered by a fine-tuned Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture, an intelligent engine was built directly into the workflow. Instead of clicking through static menus, users now receive highly accurate, context-specific responses to bespoke operational questions. The AI intelligently guides the user, providing immediate shortcuts and deep-linking directly to key functionalities required to complete the task.

The Value

Software Rationalization & Scaling Margins

By circumventing the limitations of traditional HR training and discarding bloated SaaS overlays, Condensed Matter crystallized immediate financial and operational value. The proprietary RAG engine required a one-time build cost of $150,000, with only $30,000 required for ongoing annual maintenance—a fraction of the recurring licensing fees demanded by traditional platforms. Overall, it increased plant employee productivity by 35% compared to the initial DAP system. We achieved over $3,000,000 in total cost savings, a 1,600% ROI (across a 3-Year NPV) and an 8x financial lift compared to the initial DAP implementation.