E&SEsch & Smith SystemsOPERATIONS & AUTOMATION
Isometric floor plan of a small shop with a workflow line marked by orange drips where the process leaks time
SPALDING, NEBRASKA · SERVING THE MIDWEST

Find where the money and time are leaking. Then we build the system that stops it.

Esch & Smith Systems is an operations and automation firm. Our CTO spent 12+ years inside automotive quality systems finding why processes failed and making the fix stick. We bring that same method to smaller operations — then build the dashboard, workflow, or automation that keeps the improvement in place.

BOOK A 30-MINUTE PROBLEM REVIEWSEE THE PACKAGES

Esch & Smith Systems Inc · Spalding, Nebraska · Serving the Midwest

636-622-0052justin.smith@eschandsmith.com
THE ASSESSMENT
$1,250
ONE DAY · FLAT FEE

Less than one lost crew day — and $500 of it comes back off the fix if you continue.

BOOK THE REVIEW
0+
YEARS IN QUALITY SYSTEMS
0
PLATFORMS SOLD
0
DAY TO A RANKED LIST
01 / PACKAGES

Start with the leak, not with the software.

Three ways in. Each one has a fixed starting point, a defined deliverable, and something it is explicitly not.

01

Operational Loss Assessment

$1,250
One day · flat fee

One focused day inside the operation. Scheduling, job costing, quality issues and system gaps, reviewed together instead of one at a time.

FOROwners who can feel that something is off but cannot point to where it goes.

Cheaper than one lost crew day

Not for: Not a software demo. Tools come last. · Not a recommendation deck that gets filed and forgotten. · Not a retainer. One day, one price, no obligation after it.

  • Pre-review intake: current tools, crew size, job types, the problems you already know about.
  • One day on site or on video, walking the actual flow of work from lead to invoice.
  • Scheduling, job costing, quality and system-gap review, in one pass.
  • A ranked list of losses, with the evidence behind each ranking.

You leave with a prioritized list of where time, labor or material is being lost, and the first three actions that produce the biggest return.

02

Process + System Fix

From $4,500
Scoped per problem

Root-cause work on the specific problem that keeps coming back: rework, scheduling, estimating, or nobody being able to see what is happening.

FOROwners who have already tried the obvious fix and watched the problem return.

Less the $500 assessment credit

Not for: Not a platform migration for its own sake. · Not a document you have to implement yourself. · Not an open-ended scope. Price and deliverables are agreed before work starts.

  • Cause analysis against the evidence, not against the loudest complaint.
  • Process standards and corrective actions the crew can actually follow.
  • A custom dashboard, form, or automation when it is what keeps the fix in place.
  • Handover training on the tool and the standard, with the reasoning behind both.

The problem stops recurring because a standard, a workflow, or a system now enforces the fix.

03

Ongoing Operations & Automation Support

$2,000/mo
Month to month

Regular reviews, KPI tracking, and incremental automation as the business changes — so the gains made in the first two packages do not quietly erode.

FOROwners running a system that works today and needs to keep working at twice the volume.

No term — cancel any month

Not for: Not full-time staff, and not a fractional COO title. · Not emergency IT support or hardware repair. · Not required. The first two packages stand on their own.

  • Scheduled operations reviews on a cadence that fits your season.
  • A small KPI set that is actually maintained, not a wall of numbers.
  • Incremental automation and workflow changes as the operation changes.
  • Direct access for the problems that cannot wait for a scheduled review.

The operation keeps its improvements while it grows, and new problems get caught before they cost a quarter.

Not sure which one fits? The assessment is the honest starting point — it produces the ranking the other two packages work from.

TALK IT THROUGH
02 / HOW THE PRICE WORKS

The price is the small number.

Every number here is set from the work it takes and what the problem costs you to keep. The arithmetic is below, before you talk to anyone.

PRICE YOUR OWN LEAK

Crew size × loaded hourly cost × idle hours a week × 50 weeks. Most owners have never run this number, which is usually why the problem survives.

4 people × $50/hr × 8 idle hours × 50 weeks
$80,000 a year

That is one lost day a week — the low end of what contractors describe to us. Your crew cost and your idle hours are the two numbers worth knowing.

WHAT IT COSTS TO LOOK
$1,250
One day · flat fee · no obligation after it

Less than a single lost crew day, and it tells you which days you are losing. If you continue into a fix, $500 of it comes back off the next invoice.

You do not have to believe the $80,000 figure. You only have to check the $1,250 one.

REQUEST THE REVIEW
IN THE FEE
  • The preparation before the visit — your tools, crew size, job types, known problems.
  • A full senior day walking the work from first call to final invoice.
  • The written ranking of losses, with the evidence behind each one.
  • The first three actions, written for the people who will run them.
  • $500 of credit toward a Process + System Fix if you decide to continue.
NEVER IN THE FEE
  • A commission on software you buy, or a reseller agreement.
  • A percentage of what you save.
  • An hourly meter running behind the fixed price.
  • A retainer requirement attached to the assessment.
  • A license on any tool built for you.
WHAT MOVES THE FIX PRICE
  • —How many steps of the process actually change.
  • —How many people have to follow the new standard.
  • —Whether a system has to be built to hold it in place.

From $4,500 is a floor, not a range we hide behind. The fixed number is agreed in writing before work starts.

WHERE THE LEAK USUALLY IS
  • Scheduling lives in three placesIdle labor, overtime, and promises the crew can't keep.
  • Job costing written after the factMargin discovered too late to change anything about the job.
  • Rework and callbacksUnpaid hours, plus the referral you never hear about.
  • Every number in one person's headThe operation stops the week that person is off.
03 / STRAIGHT ANSWERS

What owners actually ask.

The questions that decide whether this is worth a day of your time. Answered plainly, including the ones that are really about price.

Still deciding? Send the problem in plain language. The reply includes what it would take, what it would cost, and whether we are the right people for it.

BOOK A PROBLEM REVIEW

Isometric floor plan of a small shop with a workflow line marked by orange drips where the process leaks time
04 / METHOD

How the work actually happens.

The same sequence every time, whether the problem is a scheduling board or a broken estimate.

01

Walk the real process

Not the binder version. The route a job actually takes, the calls that actually happen, the workarounds the crew uses when nobody is watching.

02

Test causes against the evidence

Scheduling data, job costs, rework logs, and what people can show you. A cause that cannot be supported by evidence is a theory, not a finding.

03

Install the fix

A standard, a workflow, or a system — whichever actually holds. Often that is a form and a rule, not a new platform.

04

Measure whether it held

A small measurement plan so you can see the change in the numbers, and know quickly if the problem is creeping back.

If the problem is outside what we can honestly fix, we will tell you before we start.

05 / WHO THIS IS FOR

Different trades, same symptom.

Contractors & trades

Crews on different sites, quotes built from memory, and a schedule that changes daily.

Homebuilders & remodelers

Long jobs, multiple trades, and a homeowner who needs progress before it is real.

Small manufacturers

Rework, scrap and overtime that everyone accepts as the cost of doing business.

Multi-location & growing operations

Each site solves it their own way, so no two reports agree on the numbers.

The shared symptom: the process does not match the work. The software is not the problem, and neither is the crew — the system was never built for how the job actually runs.

06 / WHY DIFFERENT

Why this is different.

A consultant who builds, without a product to push.

The measure of success is not a slide deck. It is whether the problem is still gone in ninety days.

  • 01

    Pattern-level root-cause work, not symptom chasing

    Automotive quality systems train you to find the cause the evidence supports: Red X, Lean Six Sigma, process control. The tools transfer directly to a job site or a shop floor.

  • 02

    The tool gets built, not recommended

    No handoff to a third party for the dashboard, form, or automation. If the fix needs a system, we build the system.

  • 03

    No platform to sell

    No commissions, no reseller agreements, no preferred vendor. Advice is not shaped by what we get paid to recommend.

  • 04

    Technology only when it holds the fix in place

    Sometimes a one-page standard and a checklist does more than software. You will not be sold a build you do not need.

  • 05

    Honest scope and pricing before work begins

    Deliverables, price and what is out of scope are agreed up front. Changes get a conversation, not a surprise invoice.

07 / LEADERSHIP

Who you are actually working with.

Two people, one accountable team. No account managers, no handoff to a junior.

CEO

Jacob Esch

Chief Executive Officer
JE

Leads Esch & Smith Systems from Spalding, Nebraska, and owns the client relationship from first conversation through delivery.

Spalding, Nebraska
308-750-6694jacob.esch@eschandsmith.com
CTO

Justin Smith

Chief Technology Officer
JS

Leads operations and automation work. 12+ years of automotive quality leadership at GM Wentzville, plus the builds — sites, portals, job tracking and custom systems.

Troy, Missouri
636-622-0052justin.smith@eschandsmith.com

Calls are answered by an AI that takes a structured message. Replies typically land the same day, or the next afternoon or evening — the team runs a third-shift schedule.

08 / SELECTED WORK

The problem we were hired to end.

Three live engagements, written the way the owner describes them: what was leaking, what we changed, and what the numbers did afterward. Client names are withheld at their request.

01

HVAC & Plumbing

3 crews · St. Charles County, MO

NAME WITHHELD
THE PROBLEM

Estimates lived in a paper notebook and follow-up depended on who remembered. Roughly a quarter of priced jobs never got a call back, and the owner was the only person who knew where any job stood.

WHAT WE BUILT

One record from estimate to invoice: quotes approved from the customer's phone, automatic follow-up on day 3 and day 10, scheduling tied to the same job, and a live board the whole office can read.

THE OUTCOME

Every estimate leaves the same day it is measured. Stalled quotes get worked automatically instead of waiting on a phone call, and the schedule is no longer rebuilt by hand each morning.

3 days
Average time to signed approval
WAS 9 DAYS
31%
Dormant estimates reopened
FIRST 90 DAYS
11 hrs
Owner admin time returned
PER WEEK

“I stopped being the memory for the whole company.”

OWNER · 3-CREW HVAC CONTRACTOR
02

Metal Fabrication

28 employees · Madison County, IL

NAME WITHHELD
THE PROBLEM

Inventory lived in three spreadsheets that disagreed with each other. Material shortages surfaced on the floor mid-run, so jobs slipped and freight went out expedited to protect the ship date.

WHAT WE BUILT

A shop-floor production board fed by a single inventory record: barcode check-in at the rack, job status visible from office or floor, and a shortage list generated every morning at six.

THE OUTCOME

Shortages now surface roughly a week before the run instead of the morning of it. Expedited freight fell away because the buy list started predicting itself.

94%
On-time delivery
WAS 71%
62%
Less expedited freight
FIRST TWO QUARTERS
1
Inventory record
REPLACED 3 SPREADSHEETS

“The shortage list is the first thing the buyer reads now, not the last.”

OPERATIONS MANAGER · FABRICATION SHOP
03

Design-Build Remodeling

6 crews · Troy, MO

NAME WITHHELD
THE PROBLEM

Change orders lived in text threads. Nobody could say which version a homeowner had approved, invoices lagged about six weeks behind the work, and the last hour of every week went to reconstructing it.

WHAT WE BUILT

A homeowner portal with photo progress, digital change orders signed on a phone, and progress billing tied to the same milestones the client sees on their end.

THE OUTCOME

Billing goes out when a milestone closes instead of when someone remembers to write it. Weekly reconstruction stopped, and there has not been a change-order disagreement since launch.

14 days
Average time to collect
WAS 45 DAYS
0
Change-order disputes
IN 9 MONTHS
100%
Job photos on record
ATTACHED TO THE JOB

“When a homeowner asks what they approved, we can show them the same page they signed.”

OWNER · DESIGN-BUILD REMODELER

Figures come from each operation's own records before and after the build. Your version of this starts with the same question: where is the work actually leaking?

BOOK A PROBLEM REVIEW
08 / NEXT STEP

Bring us the problem you keep working around.

Thirty minutes, no charge. Describe the problem in your words — no forms to fill in twice, no discovery call before the discovery call.

JUSTIN SMITH · DIRECT
636-622-0052
EMAIL
justin.smith@eschandsmith.com
RESPONSE TIME
Calls are answered by an AI that takes a structured message. Replies typically land the same day, or the next afternoon or evening — the team runs a third-shift schedule.

30 minutes, no charge, no pitch deck. If the problem is outside what we can fix, we will say so on the call.