Sample War Map
Cement, aggregates and ready-mix War Map
Cement, aggregates and ready-mix producer · 1 cement plant, 4 quarries, 6 batching plants · 310 employees
Trucks wait at the weighbridge while someone phones sales admin or credit to confirm an order. The map follows each delivery note from the gate to the invoice and shows which manual steps keep trucks parked.
A War Map is an operating map built from real cases and expert interviews. It shows where the business is fragile, what that costs, and what to fix first.
What you receive
- 01Operational Reality
How the work really runs: people, systems, handoffs and exceptions.
- 02Findings
What it costs: quantified problems, process gaps and key-person risks.
- 03Implementation plan
What to fix first: prioritized systems, timeline and value drivers.
30 minutes. We recommend the right starting point.
Cement, aggregates and ready-mix producer · 1 cement plant, 4 quarries, 6 batching plants · 310 employeesThis War Map shows how we turn an operational review into an implementation plan. The dates show a possible sequence; the scope and schedule of a real engagement are agreed with you.
Operational Reality
This is what we deliver: a map of where the business is fragile, what it costs, what to automate first, and which systems should exist so leadership can stop carrying the operation by hand.
Illustrative five-week work plan, September 14 to October 16, 2026: eleven interview roles across eight departments, seven systems, the cement plant, two of the four quarries and the ready-mix dispatch office, with the final week used for synthesis and handover.
Five-week sample timeline · five work blocks
One row per week. Open a week to see each working day.
- Week 1Sep 14 to Sep 18
Gate, sales admin and dispatch
Scope set. The weighbridge, delivery-note corrections, ready-mix dispatch and credit checks shadowed on live shifts.
People: Hervé Delorme, Laetitia Morel, Karim Benali, Sandrine Pelletier, Julien Masson, Émilie Garnier
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 14Kickoff and scopeAgreed scope: the path of a load from order to invoice, plus maintenance and quarry reporting. Chose the cement plant gate and two quarries for shadowing.
Hervé Delorme · Managing DirectorSage X3ExcelSep 15Weighbridge shadow from the 5:30 openingLogged 63 trucks over the morning shift. 8 were held for an order or credit question. Longest hold: 1 h 20 for a new site missing from the printed order list.
Karim Benali · Weighbridge LeadWeighbridgeSage X3ExcelSep 16Order intake and delivery-note correctionsFollowed 9 corrections from the customer's call to the corrected invoice. Each one needed the paper copy, a call to the plant and a manual edit in Sage X3.
Sandrine Pelletier · Head of Sales AdministrationSage X3MessagingSep 17Ready-mix dispatch shadowCounted 19 same-day changes on 44 concrete orders. Every change was retyped into a batching PC and relayed to drivers by phone or WhatsApp.
Julien Masson · Ready-mix DispatcherBatchingGPSExcelMessagingSep 18Customer credit and holdsReviewed the morning credit list and the calls from the gate. Delivered tonnage not yet invoiced is missing from the exposure she sees.
Émilie Garnier · Credit ControllerSage X3Excel - Week 2Sep 21 to Sep 25
Quarries, plant and systems
Quarry loading, crusher maintenance, environmental reporting and the system links mapped.
People: Bruno Caron, Thierry Vasseur, Olivier Maréchal, Claire Lefebvre, Mathieu Perrin
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 21Quarry weighbridge and loadingShadowed the morning peak at quarry 2. Same pattern as the cement plant: weighing is quick, the order match is done by hand.
Bruno Caron · Quarry ManagerWeighbridgeExcelSep 22Crusher breakdowns and repair historyReviewed 6 months of crusher stops. Most were entered in GMAO days later, without a cause. Parts are tracked in a separate Excel list.
Thierry Vasseur · Maintenance ManagerGMAOExcelSep 23Cement plant and kiln planningKiln preventive plans are well kept in GMAO. Dispatch and gate issues reach the plant manager as phone calls during the day.
Olivier Maréchal · Cement Plant ManagerGMAOSage X3Sep 24Quarry environmental reportingWalked through the monthly report: weighbridge tonnage, dust and water results, blast vibration. About 24 hours a month of collection and copying.
Claire Lefebvre · Environment and Quarry Compliance ManagerExcelWeighbridgeSep 25System links and data flowsMapped the nightly weighbridge import into Sage X3. Amended or cancelled notes fail the import and land in an error file that sales admin clears by hand.
Mathieu Perrin · IT ManagerSage X3WeighbridgeBatching - Week 3Sep 28 to Oct 2
Second shadow and evidence
Six months of tickets, corrections and credit releases analysed. Friction register built.
People: Karim Benali
Daily detail · 5 days
Sep 28Second gate shadow on a peak morningConfirmed the first count on a busier day: 71 trucks, 9 held. Recorded which questions Karim answers from memory.
Karim Benali · Weighbridge LeadWeighbridgeExcelSep 29Weighbridge ticket analysisAnalysed 6 months of tickets across 5 weighbridges. About 11% of trucks needed a call before loading; average hold 38 minutes.
WeighbridgeSage X3Sep 30Correction trail sampleTraced 240 amended notes. Average 3.4 days from reported error to corrected invoice. Typing errors on site and product codes were the main cause.
Sage X3ExcelOct 1Credit release sampleFound 41 loads released over the customer's credit limit in 6 months, mostly to clear a queue at the gate.
Sage X3ExcelOct 2Time allocation and friction registerBuilt the time allocation for the 11 roles and the friction register, with each row scoped to avoid double counting.
- Week 4Oct 5 to Oct 9
Internal analysis
8 initiatives scored, human decision points defined, roadmap and value model drafted.
People: No interviews this week
Daily detail · 5 days
Oct 5Opportunity scoringScored 8 initiatives by effort, value and dependency. The gate pre-check needs the credit watch first.
Oct 6Human decision pointsListed, for each initiative, which decisions stay with a named person: credit release, price changes on a note, environmental sign-off.
Oct 7Roadmap designSequenced the work so that the first pilots run on one weighbridge and two batching plants before rollout.
Oct 8Value modelSeparated staff time, truck time and cash timing so that no euro is counted twice.
Oct 9Internal QAChecked every figure against interview notes, ticket data and the correction sample.
- Week 5 · HandoverOct 12 to Oct 16
Synthesis and handover
Findings validated with the people who run the gate and dispatch. War Map delivered.
People: Sandrine Pelletier, Karim Benali, Julien Masson, Hervé Delorme, Laetitia Morel, Olivier Maréchal
Daily detail · 5 days
Oct 12Deliverable assemblyAssembled the three chapters: operational reality, findings, implementation plan.
Oct 13Validation with team leadsReviewed process maps and the friction register line by line. One correction: same-day changes average 18 a day, below the 19 observed.
Sandrine Pelletier · Head of Sales AdministrationOct 14Final QAFinal check of numbers, dependencies and the order of the roadmap.
Oct 15Pre-handover reviewWalked through findings and value assumptions. Agreed which initiatives to start in month 1.
Hervé Delorme · Managing DirectorOct 16War Map handoverDelivered the War Map and the 16-week plan. Named an owner for each initiative.
Hervé Delorme · Managing Director
What We Heard
“When the order isn't on my list, I call sales admin. If they're on another call, the truck waits and the queue grows behind it.”
“A wrong site address on one note can take me a morning. Find the paper copy, call the plant, fix Sage, then explain it to the customer.”
“Almost half my concrete orders change on the day. The batching PC doesn't know, so I retype everything and ring the drivers.”
“The weighbridge can't see a credit block in Sage. So they call me, or they let the truck go.”
“The monthly quarry report is three days of copying numbers from five places. I sign it, so I check every line again.”
Team Members Interviewed
Systems Accessed
Strategy Session · 30 min
A real engagement is scoped in the Strategy Session and may begin with a War Map or a bounded Feasibility Sprint.