AI and Automation Services for Manufacturing, Engineering and Construction Firms
Practical AI for the office that keeps the shop floor moving.
Based in Essex, working with firms across London, the South East and the UK, on site or on Google Meet.
We build automation and AI-assisted workflows for industrial companies - businesses with five or more people in the back office, where the real work happens on the shop floor or on site, and a small office team keeps enquiries, quotes, orders and paperwork moving for everyone else.
Margins are already tight. National insurance has gone up for everyone. Energy and raw materials have gone up harder still for firms that make, cut, form or supply things. The last place capacity should be wasted is re-keying, chasing and chasing again.
The tools you already use stay. The admin drag goes.
Who this is for
We work with companies where most people are out on the shop floor, on site or on the road, and a small office keeps everything moving. Typically that is 50 to 100 people in total, with somewhere between 5 and 20 in the office. Larger groups with the same shape, thousands in the field and a lean central office, get the same benefit.
Owners, finance leads and operations managers in:
- manufacturing, fabrication and machining
- plastics, materials and food processing
- electrical, mechanical and general engineering
- marine and specialist engineering
- construction, contracting and building supplies
- facilities management, maintenance and building services
- installation, field service and repair
- distribution, wholesale, logistics and transport
- security, cleaning and other site-based services
- the trades and suppliers that keep those firms running
If one person in the office "knows how it all fits together" and never gets a day off, you are in the right place.
Hear it from a customer
From James's implementation work before Lawton Consulting International Ltd. Below is a video interview with one of those clients.
You don't see or hear James, but he is the one asking Vanessa the questions.
Where we take the friction out
Enquiries
Inbound enquiries land in email, forms or the phone. We help you capture them once, route them to the right person, and stop them sitting in one inbox while the clock runs.
Quotes
Quotes take days when drawings, material prices and machine time are pulled together by hand. We tighten the path from enquiry to quote so the number goes out faster, with the checks that still need a person left with a named person.
Orders
Orders arrive by email and get typed into the system a second time. We cut the re-keying so what the customer sent is what the system holds, without someone copying it line by line.
Stock and materials
When stock, cut lists or material availability sit in spreadsheets and people's heads, orders wait. We connect the points you already trust so the office can answer "have we got it?" without a walk to the stores.
Tenders
Tender responses need the same facts gathered again and again under a deadline. We organise the pack, the chasing and the checklist so the submission is ready before five o'clock, not after.
Supplier chasing
Suppliers have to be chased for delivery dates, and customers for purchase orders. We put the chase on a repeatable track with a clear owner, so it does not depend on whoever remembers.
Compliance paperwork
Certificates, inspection records and compliance packs are assembled job by job. We make the assembly routine, logged, and ready when the customer or auditor asks.
Credit control
Credit control happens when somebody finds the time. We put the reminders, the aged list and the follow-up in a controlled workflow so cash does not wait on spare capacity.
How we sell the work
The first conversation is the same whether you have no IT function at all or a well-staffed one. Where is work getting stuck? What would it be worth to unstick it? And which decisions must stay with a person?
1. Find the friction
We sit with the people who do the work and follow one process from the moment an enquiry lands to the moment the job is invoiced. We write down where it waits, where it is copied, and where it is checked twice.
2. Design the change
You get a short, plain-English description of what would change, what would not, and which approvals stay with a named person in your team. No jargon and no product pitch.
3. Build, test and hand over
We build inside the systems you already use, run it on real jobs alongside the old way, and hand it over to someone in your business who owns it from then on.
Proof
Our own back office, run the way we would run yours
Lawton Consulting's prospect research, CRM, compliance screening, diary and reporting are handled by 27 specialist AI agents that James built and governs himself. Three examples from one week in October 2026, each taken from the system's own logs:
- 2,989 phone numbers screened against the TPS and CTPS registers in 75 minutes. 302 flagged. Every check logged, and not one CRM record changed until James had reviewed the list himself.
- 54 members of a business networking group researched, profiled and loaded into the CRM in under an hour, each with a note on fit, before his first visit.
- 2 times a new click-to-call feature was stopped by the system's own review gates before it was allowed to go live. The controls are real, and they bite.
Source: LCI operating logs, 6 to 13 October 2026. Happy to walk you through them.
Fifteen years of implementations before AI
Before LCI Ltd, James spent more than 20 years in sales and 15 in digital and SaaS, much of it implementing software on the Salesforce platform for organisations with thousands of employees.
Companies often paid six figures just to implement these solutions.
The lesson from those years is the one LCI Ltd is built on: the technology is rarely the hard part. Getting a process to work for the people who actually run it is, and that is a people job before it is a software job.
Every LCI engagement starts with a measured baseline, so the gain at the end is a number you can check rather than a claim we make.
Client case studies will appear here as engagements complete, with the figures measured before and after. We will not publish one before it has been.
Pricing
Two ways to start are free. After that, clear starting figures so you can judge fit before you commit. All prices exclude VAT and are confirmed in writing before any work starts.
- AI Readiness Scorecard (eight quick questions with the Bee, about two minutes, no call needed; your score, what it means and a first step in each of four areas, as a PDF by email): free
- AI Report (after a free one-hour call with James: where AI would pay back in your business, the opportunities ranked and the first move he would make, within two working days of the call): free
- Research brief (for one opportunity from your AI Report: the ways it could be done, off-the-shelf tools, a bespoke build or open source, compared side by side, with a recommendation): £500
- Scoping and statement of work (fixed scope, acceptance criteria and a clear implementation price; this fee comes off the final invoice if you go ahead with a build or programme): £1,500 to £3,000
- Build project (from a focused first workflow to a full build): £5,000 to £30,000
- Programme (ongoing, multi-workstream delivery across the business): from £30,000
- Ongoing support (optional monthly care and change, scoped to what you need, or we hand everything over to your own IT team): from £500 a month
A focused first workflow usually takes a few weeks from the first conversation to hand-over, and the build is scoped and priced before any work starts.
About Lawton Consulting International
What changes outcomes
- One narrow workflow at a time, chosen with the person who owns it.
- The build is scoped and priced before any work starts.
- Every AI-assisted step has a review point, a named owner and limits on what it can do without a person checking.
- We test on real cases before anything touches a customer or a payment.
- We run our own business on the same approach, including the website assistant.
- We do not show client logos we do not have or savings we have not measured.
What we will not do
- We will not sell you a plan built on cutting your staff. Judgement, relationships and responsibility stay with people.
- We will not show you client logos we do not have or savings we have not measured.
- We will not put an AI-assisted process live without clear review points, a named owner, and limits on what it may do without a person checking.
The Bee
The Bee is our website assistant. Ask it how we work, or describe where work is sticking in your operation: it will ask a few questions, write you a short brief and, if you want one, offer a first call with James. It is built the way we build for clients - one narrow job, clear limits, and a person at the end of it.
Why a bee? Steady, useful work, done quietly and well. The honeycomb is capacity, built one cell at a time.
Straight answers
Do I need an IT department?
No. Most of what we build sits on top of the email, spreadsheets, CRM and document tools a business already has. What you need is someone in your team who owns the process. If you do have an IT function, we work alongside it.
Will AI replace my staff?
No. We remove repetitive steps so capable people have more capacity.
How do I keep it safe?
Clear review points, a named owner, limits without a person checking, logs, and a test on real cases before it touches a customer or a payment. That is how we run our own system.
What does it cost?
The AI Readiness Scorecard is free, and so is a first one-hour call with James and the AI Report that follows it. A research brief is £500, scoping £1,500 to £3,000 (taken off the final invoice if a build or programme follows), and builds start at £5,000. See Pricing above.
How long does a project take?
A focused first workflow usually takes a few weeks from first conversation to hand-over. Larger builds and programmes are scoped individually.
What happens to my data?
We work inside the tools you already use wherever we can. We only ask for access to what a workflow needs, agree it with you before starting, and you can remove access at any time. Specific data terms are set out in the statement of work.
What happens in the first meeting?
A conversation on Google Meet, about an hour. We talk about where work is sticking. There is no charge.
What does a typical engagement look like?
Optional research brief (£500). Scoping and statement of work (£1,500 to £3,000). Then a build project (£5,000 to £30,000), with ongoing support from £500 a month if you want it. All prices exclude VAT.
Do you have case studies?
Not yet. Lawton is a new business and we will not publish results we have not measured.