Who this is for
Directors of UK engineering and fabrication businesses
You run an engineering or fabrication business. Typically 10 to 80 people. You deliver bespoke or fixed-price projects. The order book is full. The business looks busy. But margin is not landing where it should and you are not sure why.
Or the business depends on you for too much. Decisions queue behind you. You are involved in conversations that should not need you. The business is not scaling because everything runs through you.
This advisory work is for directors who want to understand the real problem and fix it. Not for those who want a framework, a model, or a report that sits on a shelf.
You might recognise this
The order book is full but margin is not landing
Scope changes get absorbed rather than recovered
Job cost visibility is poor until it is too late
The sales-to-engineering handover is not tight enough
Change control is informal and inconsistent
Decisions queue behind the director
The business depends on you for too much
You are busy but not profitable
The problems I address
Structural and commercial problems in engineering businesses
Profit is leaking from bespoke and fixed-price work
The jobs are there. The order book is full. But margin is not landing where it should. The problem is usually in the gap between sales and engineering: inadequate handover, no formal cost plan, scope changes absorbed without variation orders, and job cost reviews happening too late to take corrective action.
The director is the bottleneck
Decisions queue behind you. The business depends on you for too much. You are involved in conversations that should not need you, and the things that actually need your attention are not getting it. The business looks busy but does not scale or convert effort into margin.
Commercial control is inconsistent
Live cost visibility is weak. Change events are managed informally. Scope creep is absorbed rather than recovered. The commercial result of a job is often not known until it is finished, by which point it is too late to do anything about it.
The business is busy but not profitable
Turnover is strong. The team is working hard. But the profit is not there. This is almost always a structural problem: in how work is handed over, how costs are tracked, how changes are managed, and how commercial performance is reviewed.
The quote went out and the confidence disappeared
The job was won but nobody is certain it was priced correctly. The scope assumptions are not documented. The risk is not named. By the time the true position becomes clear it is too late to recover it.
Delivery depends on people, not process
When the right person is available the job runs. When they are not, it stalls. The knowledge lives in individuals rather than in the structure of the business. One resignation or one absence and the exposure becomes visible.
The handover from sales to engineering is broken
Work arrives in engineering incomplete. Assumptions made at quote stage are not documented. The engineering team is solving problems that should have been resolved before the job was won, and absorbing cost that was never priced.
Final accounts take too long to close
Snagging lists drag on. Retentions sit unclaimed for months. The job is functionally complete but the cash is not in the bank and nobody has formal ownership of closing it out.
How it works
The offer structure
Diagnostic
30-minute diagnostic call
A direct conversation about where the problem is. No pitch, no framework, no pre-prepared slides. I will ask direct questions and give you a direct view of what I think is happening and what needs to change.
You will leave with a clear finding. Not a list of things to consider.
Book the callAssessment
Commercial and operational assessment
A structured review of how work is won, handed over, costed, and delivered. I identify where margin is being lost and why, and give you a clear picture of what needs to change and in what order.
You will know exactly where your margin is going before the engagement closes.
Improvement
Practical improvement work
Working with you and your team to implement the changes identified. This is not a report and a handover. It is practical work: improving handover processes, establishing change control, building live commercial visibility, and reducing the director bottleneck.
The changes are implemented, not documented. The difference is visible in the next job that runs through the business.
What this looks like in practice
Real problems. Specific outcomes.
Programme rescued from a loss position.
A conveyor programme inherited under OEM escalation with three years of scope drift and no formal change control. Scope reset in days. £300k in unrecovered variations identified and claimed before engineering work restarted. Cycle time failures resolved. Programme delivered on time. Client into production on day one. Contract closed at £1.5m against a £1.2m award.
Final account defended under dispute.
A fixed-price modification programme delivered through full national lockdown. At final account the client disputed a significant portion of the contract value. A forensic scope separation was built and presented. The position was held under pressure. Final account closed at 50% profit margin. The credit issued was a fraction of the amount originally withheld.
Margin improved on a major infrastructure contract.
32km steel monorail into live underground infrastructure beneath central London. Six separate variations raised and won. £24k material shortfall recovered through supplier negotiation. Delivered ahead of original schedule on a programme that had started delayed. Contract closed at £5.5m against a £5m award. Margin improved from 17% at award to 20% at final account close.
"His advice has materially strengthened how we structure and present our quotations. He helped us correctly allocate and draft commercial clauses to protect margin, manage scope creep and deal properly with change requests, without damaging client relationships. He also showed us how to structure quotations across simultaneous engineering and delivery phases in a way that keeps the client aligned, controls scope and manages expectations from the outset."
Grant Bond, Managing Director, Gabitie Group
Free Resources
Two checklists. Free to download.
Practical commercial tools for directors of UK engineering and fabrication businesses running fixed-price projects. Enter your email and both land in your inbox immediately.
Questions I can help answer
The questions directors are actually asking
Why does a fixed-price engineering job lose margin even when it was quoted correctly?
How do I find out where profit is disappearing on bespoke projects before it is too late?
How do I stop my engineering business depending on me for every decision?
What does a good sales-to-engineering handover look like on bespoke project work?
How do I recover a programme that is heading for a commercial loss?
How do I manage scope change on fixed-price work without damaging the client relationship?
About EPD Engineering Solutions
EPD Engineering Solutions Ltd is the advisory practice through which Matthew Millward delivers structured commercial and operational improvement work for UK engineering and fabrication businesses. It is distinct from Matthew's interim and contract work, which is engaged directly.