Jua Kali
Software written for the workshop that exists, not the one in the brochure.
Kenya's small manufacturers employ most of the country's industrial workforce. Almost none of them use production software, and the reason is not that they do not care about efficiency. It is that the software assumes conditions they do not have.
Assumptions we dropped
Four things most systems take for granted.
Assumed
Everyone has a smartphone with data
Actually
Most of the floor has a feature phone and a tight airtime budget
So we did this
The worker surface is USSD. It runs on the signalling channel, needs no data bundle, no install and no updates. The oldest handset in the workshop can use it.
Assumed
People will learn a new interface
Actually
They will learn a menu with seven options and nothing else
So we did this
Every branch is under thirty seconds and four keypresses. Nobody trains anybody. A supervisor shows a welder once and it sticks.
Assumed
The internet is always up
Actually
Power and connectivity both cut out, sometimes for hours
So we did this
USSD works whenever the mobile network works, which is far more of the time than broadband. The dashboard is the only piece that needs a proper connection.
Assumed
The office is the source of truth
Actually
The floor knows first, and the office finds out later
So we did this
Reporting starts where the work happens. Stock, faults and production all originate from the person holding the tool, not from a clerk transcribing a notebook.
A Tuesday in Kamukunji
What actually changes.
The value is not in having records. It is in the gap between something going wrong and somebody who can fix it finding out.
-
09:12
The grinder starts smoking. Peter switches to another bench and mentions it at lunch.
Peter dials in, four keypresses. The machine is marked down, a ticket opens, the managers get a text.
-
09:40
—
The office reassigns the two runs that depended on it before the morning is lost.
-
11:30
The last aluminium sheet goes into a gate. Nobody notices.
Stock hits zero on the issue, an alert fires, a draft purchase order is waiting for approval.
-
16:00
The afternoon run stops. The steel yard has closed.
The steel arrived at two because the order went out at half eleven.
Try it with your own numbers
Set up a plant, add three workers and a handful of materials, and see whether the Pulse tells you anything you did not already suspect.