Who we serve
Kaipability works for the people about to commit money, plant or people to something that has to be made. The firm is paid by whoever takes that decision, and its findings answer one question: will the thing run at rate, at cost, by people who did not design it.
Clients are grouped by the decision in front of them rather than by sector. The same method applies whether the product is a battery cell, a turbine blade or a robotic cell. The work is done by Manufacturing Engineers and Modern Industrialists who have built, bought and backed production at scale, and every finding is signed by the person who reached it.
Investors and allocators: is the making as far along as the technology story says?
Venture and growth funds, private equity, family offices and sovereign funds.
Usually it is not, and the distance is rarely reported to the people paying for it. Companies are funded and valued on the technology gate they have passed, while the manufacturing gate sits several levels behind it. We read that distance directly, and what closing it costs in money and months.
Operational and technical due diligence on hard-technology companies. Which constraint binds first, what the evidence behind each claim is actually worth, and where the plan assumes a step that has never been run.
A verdict you can act on: what is true, what is optimistic, what could not be established, and the ramp the evidence supports. We take the view; you take the decision.
Read next · The Modern Industrialist
Acquirers and corporate development: will the asset run on day one under new ownership?
Industrial groups, corporate M&A teams and buy-and-build investors.
That turns on things a data room does not hold: the condition of the equipment, the tolerance the process actually holds rather than the one on the drawing, and how much of the know-how sits with people who may not stay. We go and look, then report what the line will face the morning after completion.
Manufacturing due diligence on targets and their plants, acquisition target screening, and supplier qualification. The questions we ask are the ones the line will ask on day one.
A read on what the line, the tooling and the people can deliver, and what it will take to close the gaps after completion, sequenced and costed.
Read next · Manufacturing Technical Due Diligence
Operators, founders and boards: will it run at rate, at cost, by people who did not design it?
Scale-ups moving from pilot line to volume, and established manufacturers modernising.
One good part shows that something can be made once. Thirty consecutive units down one route, at cost, at rate, by people who did not design it, is the smallest sample that separates a process from luck. Deployment readiness is the measure of that distance, and the work is closing it.
Deployment readiness assessment, and the engineering that puts machine tools, robotic cells, cobots and AGVs into production and keeps them running.
A plan the shop floor recognises, with an owner and a date against every line of it, and the know-how left with your team when we leave.
Read next · Deployment Readiness
Government and regional programmes: where does the manufacturing know-how actually sit?
Government departments, agencies and regional business programmes.
Rarely where the reporting says. The knowledge that makes a process repeatable sits with a small number of people, often near retirement, and is rarely written down. An audit done on the floor finds it and a survey does not, which is the difference between money spent and plant that runs.
Digital and manufacturing audits for small firms through regional programmes, and evidence for industrial policy taken from the floor rather than from the survey return.
Findings written from what was seen on site, usable by the business that was visited and by the programme that funds it.
Read next · The joints are nobody’s job.
How the findings stay straight
A firm that grades other people’s work is only worth reading if the grading cannot be bought. These are the rules the work runs under, published rather than promised.
- Each note is signed by a named person and recorded on an append-only register.
- A review board can hold or lower a finding. No finding is raised by negotiation.
- Where a company commissions its own assessment, the fee is fixed before scoring begins and the method is unchanged.
- Gap-closure work is not sold to a company assessed in the same cycle.
- The best outcome of an engagement is a client that no longer needs us.
Talk to us.
Tell us which of the four decisions you are facing, what the plan assumes, and when you need to know. You will get a straight answer about whether the question is one worth paying us to ask.
Start a conversationOr email info@kaipability.com directly. Case studies are available on request.
Questions
Who does Kaipability work for?
Four groups, each defined by the decision in front of them rather than by sector. Backed: investors and allocators, before the cheque. Bought: acquirers and corporate development, before signing. Built: operators, founders and boards, before scaling. Public: government departments and regional programmes, before public money becomes plant. The same method applies whether the product is a battery cell, a turbine blade or a robotic cell.
Why group clients by decision rather than by sector?
Because the question being asked travels further than the industry does. An investor reading a battery company and an acquirer reading a machining group are asking the same thing in different words: can this be made at rate, at cost, by people who did not design it. Sector knowledge is assumed. The decision is what sets the scope, the evidence and the form the answer takes.
Can you assess a company that has not built anything at volume yet?
Yes, and that is where the distance is widest. With no production record to read, the assessment turns on process evidence: whether the design can be qualified, whether a supplier base exists for the critical steps, and how far the highest technology gate the company has passed sits ahead of the lowest manufacturing gate it has actually cleared.
How do you stay independent when a company pays for its own assessment?
The fee is fixed before scoring begins and the method does not change. A review board can hold or lower a finding but no finding is raised by negotiation, every note is signed by a named person, and gap-closure work is not sold to a company assessed in the same cycle. The rules are published rather than promised.