Steel Manufacturing Company overcomes ERP failure, transforming to digital excellence with Kinetech's agile custom software and system integration solutions. Learn how tech boosts sales and efficiency.
Client: Pacific Coast Producers
Industry: Private-label manufacturing
Size: Six production facilities, and a Distribution Center with up to 4,000 employees on three separate payroll cycles using two different time applications.
Core Business: Integrated solutions and high-scale manufacturing for complex industrial applications.
Challenge Timeline: A rapid, two-phase digital transformation designed to automate fragmented, manual payroll reconciliation and mitigate critical financial risks.
Pacific Coast Producers faced significant data integrity risks across its payroll operations. Weekly payroll across four production locations relied on manual, offline reconciliation, forcing managers to hand-extract data from ADP payroll reports to find discrepancies. Meanwhile, for the headquarters’ biweekly payroll, no formal reconciliation existed between ADP Team Time Card data and the payroll report. This lack of visibility led to a major payroll error, highlighting the urgent need for a systematic way to validate hours and pay before processing.
A two-phase automated reconciliation platform tailored to different operational needs. Phase 1 introduced a multi-site validation tool that allows location managers to resolve local discrepancies independently before HR finalization. Phase 2 implemented a specialized biweekly reconciliation engine that integrates ADP timecard data with payroll reports, creating a preventative check that ensures employees are paid accurately for their recorded hours.
The Kinetech team delivered a comprehensive payroll integrity solution that integrated seamlessly with the ADP Team Time Card API and existing manufacturing workflows. In two phases, Kinetech institutionalized a fragmented process, protecting the company from costly payroll errors without disrupting the established operational rhythm of the site managers.
In the demanding world of industrial manufacturing, operational success is built upon precision. For years, the payroll team operated in a state of "good enough," but as the workforce expanded across four locations, the cracks in this manual foundation began to manifest as administrative fatigue and operational chaos.
The manufacturer faced a critical operational blind spot. Each facility generated independent weekly reports, but there was no centralized mechanism to verify these against the ADP master record. This forced a small team to perform manual "data hunting" on a massive scale. Payroll administrators were drowning in spreadsheets, and the risk of a significant financial oversight grew with every pay period.
Location managers spent time every week hand-extracting their specific employees from a master list of 2,000+ line items. This process was repetitive, taxing, and highly susceptible to human error.
The Breaking Point
The chaos reached a climax during a biweekly payroll cycle for the headquarters staff. Because no formal reconciliation process existed between the ADP Time Card data and the final payroll report, a significant discrepancy went unnoticed until after the checks were issued. This error resulted in a massive administrative headache, requiring hours of corrective labor. It became clear that the organization required a disciplined, digital transformation to restore order to its financial processes.
Kinetech utilized the Mendix low-code platform to bridge the gap between ADP’s payroll data and the manufacturer’s local reporting needs. The objective was not to force the HR team to change their fundamental workflows, but to amplify their effectiveness through automation. The Kinetech team developed a custom application built on the Mendix platform to serve as a single source of truth for all payroll reconciliation activities.
Kinetech utilized a phased strategy to provide immediate relief while building toward a comprehensive solution.
When the application was first demonstrated to site managers, the impact was immediate. After years of navigating dense, huge spreadsheets, managers saw a digital interface that highlighted only the records requiring their attention. The software did not feel like a new burden; it felt like a professional partner. By reflecting their exact daily processes in a digital environment, the Kinetech team achieved immediate buy-in. The fatigue of the manual era was replaced by the confidence of digital precision.
The transition to an integrated digital solution has redefined the organization’s relationship with its data. By replacing manual extraction with automated logic, Kinetech moved the payroll team from constant "data hunting" to strategic oversight.
This payroll reconciliation tool represents more than a temporary fix; it establishes a permanent digital foundation for the organization’s future. The Mendix platform provides a scalable foundation for additional modules, such as labor performance analytics or tighter integration with other systems.
Even the most complex operations can be transformed quickly without disrupting proven processes. The key is finding a partner who understands that the best software does not force change; it amplifies what already works.