Turning manufacturing ambition into operational results.
Independent advice for manufacturers navigating digital transformation, smart manufacturing and industrial technology.
We help you identify where digital can genuinely create value, build a pragmatic roadmap, and turn strategy into something that works in the real world — from the boardroom to the shop floor..
Who is Anraed
Anraed Advisory Services sits under Wardle & Co, our family holding company. We're a small, senior practice — not a bench of juniors running someone else's framework.
We built this because manufacturing transformation keeps failing in the same place — not at the pilot, but at the point where it needs to scale across a real plant, a real supply chain, real people on the floor. Big consultancies sell a methodology. We bring people who've actually sat inside the ERP go-live, run the MES rollout, and owned the P&L consequences when it didn't work.
Anraed is a two-person practice by design. Alan leads the manufacturing and digital transformation advisory; Lauren brings the commercial and property/asset side of the business under the same holding structure. Everything client-facing runs through this small, accountable core.
Alan Wardle
Two decades in industrial enterprise architecture and manufacturing transformation, starting at Rolls-Royce leading a £500M+ transformation portfolio, then building Siemens Digital Industries Software's UK Insights Hub IIoT business from scratch.
Technical depth across ISA-95/Purdue architecture, OPC-UA, SCADA/HMI/PLC integration, MES/MoM platforms, Industrial Edge, and enterprise architecture for brownfield and greenfield environments. MBCS and TOGAF 9.1 certified.
Lauren
How we engage, and why it's different
Most manufacturing consultancies scale by adding headcount. We scale by staying small and hands-on — the person who scopes the engagement is the person who does the work.
What we offer
Engagements are structured around how you actually want to buy advisory — day rate, fixed price, or a single focused session.
Advisory Retainer
Ongoing senior counsel on enterprise architecture, ERP/PLM/MES strategy and OT/IT convergence — a fractional advisor without the fractional handoffs.
Fixed-Price Engagements
Defined-scope projects — architecture reviews, vendor selection, roadmap design — priced upfront, no time-and-materials drift.
Strategy Workshops
Focused sessions to align leadership on digitalisation priorities, using the Manufacturing Hierarchy of Needs to find the real starting point.
Enterprise Architecture Review
TOGAF-based assessment of your current systems landscape — where ERP, PLM, MES and IIoT actually connect, and where they don't.
Vendor & Platform Selection
Independent, vendor-neutral evaluation across the MES/MoM and IIoT landscape, grounded in what we've actually implemented.
Scale-Beyond-Pilot Support
Hands-on support to take a proven pilot to full plant or multi-site rollout — the stage where most transformations stall.
Where this has worked
A mix of engagement outcomes and the thinking behind them.
Scaling an IIoT pilot from one line to a full site
A single-line condition-monitoring pilot had proven value but stalled for eighteen months. Re-scoped the rollout around ISA-95 boundaries and existing SCADA integration points rather than a rip-and-replace.
Vendor-neutral MES selection across three plants
Existing MES landscape had grown inconsistently across sites through separate procurement decisions. Built a single evaluation framework and architecture-first business case ahead of vendor selection.
Articles & Writing
Who we work with
We work as part of an ecosystem, not in competition with it. Most engagements sit alongside your existing systems integrators, technology vendors and internal teams — our job is to make sure the architecture holds together, not to own every part of the delivery.
That means we're comfortable advising independently, plugging into an SI-led programme, or working pre- and post-sale with technology partners on the vendor side. The right structure depends on where you already are.
Systems Integrators
Independent architecture and domain input alongside SI-led delivery teams.
Technology Vendors
Pre- and post-sale advisory support for ERP, PLM, MES and IIoT platform partners.
Internal Teams
Working directly alongside your own IT, OT and engineering functions, not around them.
Let's talk about what's actually stalling.
Whether it's a stalled pilot, a vendor decision, or an architecture that's grown without a plan — start with a conversation, not a proposal.
alan@anraed.co.uk