Before starting On The Hill AI, I spent over a decade in operations management. At one multi-site food and hospitality business in London, I identified that the operations team was losing a significant portion of every week to manual processes that could be automated. So I built the automation myself.
The business operated across multiple sites in London with a central production facility and a fleet of delivery vehicles. Daily operations involved coordinating production schedules, managing deliveries across sites, tracking stock levels, handling supplier communications, and processing a high volume of orders.
As Deputy Head of Operations, I could see the bottlenecks clearly. The team was spending hours every day on tasks that followed predictable, repeatable patterns — exactly the kind of work that automation handles well.
Delivery tracking was manual: Drivers would complete rounds and report back verbally or via messaging. There was no centralised view of what had been delivered, what was outstanding, or where delays were occurring.
Stock management was reactive: Sites would call or message when they ran low on product. By the time the information reached the production team, it was often too late for that day's schedule.
Reporting was assembled by hand: Weekly performance data was pulled from multiple sources and compiled manually. It took hours and was often out of date by the time it reached decision-makers.
Communication overhead: Coordinating across multiple sites meant constant phone calls, messages, and emails to keep everyone aligned. Information got lost or delayed regularly.
I taught myself Python and built custom automation systems tailored to the business's specific workflows:
Barcode-based delivery tracking: A scanning system that let drivers confirm deliveries at each site in real time. Management could see exactly where every delivery stood without a single phone call.
Automated stock alerts: Integrated with existing inventory systems to flag low stock levels and trigger reorder notifications automatically, before sites had to chase.
Centralised reporting: Automated daily and weekly report generation pulling from operational data. Reports were compiled and distributed without manual intervention.
Route optimisation: Built planning tools that factored in delivery windows, traffic patterns, and load capacity to reduce wasted time on the road.
The combined effect of these four systems transformed daily operations. The team went from spending a substantial part of every day on coordination and data entry to focusing on the operational decisions and customer interactions that actually moved the business forward. Delivery errors dropped significantly, stock-outs became rare instead of routine, and management had real-time visibility they'd never had before.
I didn't build these systems as a consultant parachuting in for six weeks. I built them as someone who was living inside the operation every day, feeling the same frustrations the team felt. That's the perspective I bring to every client engagement now — I've been on your side of the counter, and I know what actually works under pressure versus what looks good in a slide deck.
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll map where your team's time goes and I'll tell you honestly what's worth automating.
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