Real Manufacturers. Real Impact.
Every business on this page started in the same place you might be now: paper procedures nobody could find, tribal knowledge walking out the door with experienced staff, or training that took too long.
See how that changed with GembaDocs.
the results
We looked at a sample of 15 customers that completed our 2026 impact survey – the data says it all…*
Scale – SOPs created
6,842
SOPs
documented across the set
Scale – time saved
16,383
hours
Scale – Value Saved
$494,616
Saved
in production time
One Customers Impact
2,805
SOPS
Fat American Mfg created in their first 2 years
One Customers Impact
6 HRS
TO 10 MIN
One Customers Impact
$19,724
Saved
by Brooks Utility Products in production time
CUSTOMER
Applied Concepts
Applied Concepts, an Ireland-based manufacturer, struggled to keep standards up to date and consistently followed across the shop floor and the sales office. Since adopting GembaDocs, the time to document a typical SOP has dropped from around 6 hours to roughly 10 minutes.
Problem
Applied Concepts had no consistent way to capture how work was actually done. Welding times for the same part varied by double depending on who was on the job, and processes like hose assembly relied on whoever happened to know the steps that day. SOPs, where they existed at all, lived in Word and Excel. Kevin Brady, who leads continuous improvement at Applied Concepts, said writing SOPs that way is a waste of time and energy, because the people doing the work on the floor are the ones who need to create and use the standard, not office staff working from a desktop.
Solution
Applied Concepts moved every SOP onto GembaDocs and put a QR code at the point of use for each part and process, from hose assembly to welding to pallet packing. Anyone on the floor can scan the code, see the standard, and follow it without searching for a document or asking a colleague. The same approach was extended into the sales office, where day-to-day tasks like setting up a new customer are now documented and shared so the whole team works the same way.
Results
A typical SOP now takes about 10 minutes to document, down from roughly 6 hours. When a key team member was on leave during a busy dispatch day, the rest of the team worked straight from his documented SOPs without missing a step. Brady sums it up simply: Applied Concepts went from having no real standards for anything to a business where consistency is built in and ready to scale.
Before GembaDocs
SOPs written in Word, often out of date and buy office team:
6 hrs
to write one SOP
After GembaDocs
SOPs built and updated directly on the shop floor:
10 mins
to write one SOP
Return on Investment
250 SOPs created, saving of 1,480 man-hours, plus a
saving of €50,264
in 27 months
CUSTOMER
Fat American Manufacturing
Michigan-based Fat American Manufacturing had no SOPs at all before GembaDocs. Everything ran on tribal knowledge, and that meant constant variation in how the same job got done. In 18 months on GembaDocs, the team has built over 2,800 SOPs.
Problem
Fat American Manufacturing wasn’t writing SOPs in the wrong tool, they weren’t writing them at all. Everything that kept the business running lived in people’s heads. That meant heavy variation from job to job and constant firefighting whenever someone was out or a process needed to be repeated by someone new.
Solution
The team signed up to GembaDocs and started building SOPs directly from the floor instead of trying to document everything from an office desk after the fact. The app-based format removed the barrier that had stopped them documenting anything in the first place: SOPs could now be created on a phone, evolve as the process changed, and stay accessible to everyone doing the work.
Results
In 18 months, Fat American Manufacturing has gone from zero documented SOPs to 2,803. Where a process used to take 3 or more hours to document, when it happened at all, it now takes 10 minutes or less.
Owner Brian Meyers put it directly: GembaDocs completely changed the business, taking it from a culture of constant firefighting to one built around standard work and maintaining it.
Before GembaDocs
Constant firefighting and variation of product build
3+ hrs
to write an SOP “when it happened at all”
After GembaDocs
A company-wide culture of standard work
10 mins
to write one SOP
Return on Investment
2,800 SOPs created, saving of 7,940 man-hours, plus a
saving of $239,935
in 24 months
CUSTOMER
Seating matters
Seating Matters builds advanced seating solutions, and knowledge of complex machinery like the wood CNC used to sit with one experienced operator.
Using GembaDocs, that operator documented a simple six-step SOP, and a team member with just three weeks of training started the machine on her own. The same approach now covers packaging, keeping every operator working to the same standard regardless of who’s on the line.
Operators also move between 7 to 8 stations across the factory, and because each one has an up-to-date SOP at the point of use, they can step into a new area without stopping a colleague to ask.
As one operator put it, the guide on the wall is always current, so he doesn’t have to stop anyone to ask.
CUSTOMER
AOC Commercials
A.O’C Commercials, Cork’s authorized Scania dealer and service partner, uses GembaDocs to run SOPs and Kanban across a 40-person workshop, with 382 documented improvements and 172 days without a safety incident.
A.O’C Commercials has served commercial vehicle operators in southern Ireland since 1980, running a 24/7 call-out service as Cork’s authorized Scania dealer and Schmitz Cargobull service partner. With a 40-person team, director Padraig O’Connor built a workshop culture around eliminating waste and respecting the individual, using visual systems, tool tracking, and clear standards so technicians stay focused on fixing trucks instead of searching for parts.
GembaDocs sits at the center of that system, running over 50 SOPs and 80 Kanban cards across the workshop. Two-bin Kanban systems are paired with detailed SOPs at the point of use, and QR codes on pull cards make reordering quick and visual, so compliance with the standard comes from clarity rather than enforcement.
GembaDocs in Action
We’ve a host of “Inside” company tours, from American motorcycle manufacturer Buell Motorcycles to Irish conservatory designers and manufacturers Hampton Conservatories. Grab a brew and dig into the world of GembaDocs and lean manufacturing.
Discover GembaDocs
SOP
Create, manage, and share standard operating procedures your operators will actually use. Built for the shop floor, accessible on any device.
Kanban cards
Skills matrix
On-premise
All data is self-reported from an impact survey to clients in 2026.
Value calculations are made based on industry standards for workforce.
*Time-saved calculations in this document use per/hour as the standard hourly rate, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ figure for average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees in manufacturing (May 2026, seasonally adjusted). The federal minimum has been unchanged since 2009 and represents a legal floor, not what manufacturing workers are actually paid. Using it would understate the real value of time saved and misrepresent the workforce GembaDocs customers employ. The BLS manufacturing figure reflects real average earnings for the shop floor roles most relevant to our customer base, making it a more accurate and defensible basis for these calculations.