I'm Dan Mindlin. I learned this trade in my youth, bringing systems back to life on steel mill floors where failure wasn't an option — and four decades later I'm still a student of manufacturing. The work is the same at every scale: clean data, integrations that hold, reporting that tells the truth, with AI as the force multiplier. When a fix should outlive the engagement, it becomes Clairvient.
Not features. The specific, expensive things that go wrong in a plant when the systems have drifted for a decade and nobody left fully understands them.
Item masters, BOMs, supplier and customer records drift over years. I clean them up and keep them clean — so every report and every decision downstream is worth the paper it's on.
Cost-to-serve, OTIF with root cause, margin by the cut that actually matters to you. Built on your real data — not a vendor's polished demo dataset.
ERP, MES, PLM, CRM, shop floor, e-invoicing — systems that were never designed to talk to each other, made to talk reliably and stay talking after I'm gone.
Weighing an ERP move or a seven-figure spend? You get an operator's read on the trade-offs — not a reseller's pitch for whatever they're paid to sell.
Every chapter added a discipline. None of them replaced the last one — which is why the work today draws on all of it at once.
In at nineteen, supporting PC and MicroVAX systems on blast furnace floors. Built reagent performance models that backed pay-per-performance contracts and CAD databases of pneumatic reagent delivery systems. Brought systems back online after twelve hours of abuse and frustrated resets — because the furnace doesn't wait. Everything since carries that standard.
// discipline gained: engineering under consequencesBuilt a Cleveland foundry's network from nothing and guided them through their first ERP implementation (Symix). Wrote AutoLISP programs that automated drawing generation for heat-treat fixtures — the first time I turned repetitive engineering work into software.
// discipline gained: systems + automationRan systems and Fourth Shift ERP for a precision products manufacturer's Cleveland division. Modernized their reporting, carried them through Y2K without incident, and got my working education in the P&L, the balance sheet, and cost accounting — from inside the system that produces them.
// discipline gained: manufacturing financeBuilt the first "second skin": a system wrapped around an investment foundry's Fourth Shift that the client used more than the ERP itself — process masters, work instructions with image and video support, years before anyone sold "digital work instructions." Then: MES and timekeeping on Syteline with real-time data collection. Wireless CNC program delivery for a copper components plant. BI for FDA-regulated pharma and Chicago flavor houses. A complete seven-division ERP for a steel mill supplier that has run their business for 23 years and counting. A forge shop MES handling receiving through shipping — still in service, now being rebuilt on a modern web stack.
// discipline gained: range — and the second-skin thesisTwo years as VP of Operations: 110 people, a quarter of the company — a team that, given a system worth working in, never missed a single system delivery. Then moved onto the SAP S/4HANA program — master data lead and the PLM-to-SAP integration between their Arena and SAP environments. Ran the operation, then rebuilt the system that runs the operation — so I've seen the work from both chairs. The engagement concluded in 2026 with the work delivered.
// discipline gained: the view from the P&LWhen serious AI arrived, I put it to work immediately — and it changed what one experienced operator can deliver. I've used it to build a full enterprise model — CRM, ERP, QMS, PLM, WMS — with an intelligence layer that ranks alerts by business impact and eases teams into managing the operation with AI. In 2026 I returned to full-time independence to focus here. Twenty-five years of the second-skin pattern, now productized as Clairvient.
// discipline gained: the force multiplierMost systems consultants have never owned an operation. I was fortunate to lead one — 110 people at a $200M medical device manufacturer, a quarter of the company, inheriting tough facilities and a team that hadn't been set up to succeed. We restructured the work together, moving from one-builder-per-system to an assembly-line flow that made quality a property of the process instead of a burden on the person. The team did the hard part; my job was to give them a system worth working in.
When our flagship RF energy system launched into demand running at double the forecast, that team worked nearly 200 material shortages with engineering and suppliers — creative sourcing, redesigns on the fly — and didn't miss a delivery. That's the pressure your plant lives under. I've lived it too, and I know it's never one person who gets you through it.
So when a number looks wrong, I can usually trace it to the transaction — and work shoulder to shoulder with your accountants and planners, in their language, until it's right. My job is to make your people successful with their systems, not to be the smartest person in the room.
I don't ask you to believe a five-year vision before you've seen me fix anything. Each step pays for the next and the proof compounds.
We start with the urgent, specific problem — the broken extract, the reconciliation nobody can close, the report you keep asking for. Scoped tight, closed fast.
Once the data's trustworthy, we build the visibility that was missing, so the operation reads clearly end to end — and the surprises stop being surprises.
With clean data and real reporting, the roadmap conversation finally gets honest. Stay on your stack, modernize, or move — you'll get a straight read from someone who's done all three.
Manufacturing runs through weather — demand swings, supply shocks, data drifting quietly out of true. Clairvient is the steady ship: a second skin over your existing ERP that watches the operation continuously, ranks what needs attention by business impact, and eases your team into running the business with AI. I built the first version of this pattern around a foundry's ERP in 2000, and the client used it more than the ERP itself. I've rebuilt it for two and a half decades — foundries, forges, food plants, a seven-division distributor. Clairvient isn't version one of a new idea. It's the current generation of a proven one.
Visit clairvient.com →
I'm Dan Mindlin. My education was a blast furnace floor at nineteen, bringing abused systems back online because the mill couldn't wait — and because the people running it were counting on someone to show up. That's been the job ever since: Y2K cutovers, FDA-regulated environments, a product launch at double forecast, a government e-invoicing mandate with a fixed deadline. The pressure changes shape; showing up for the people in it doesn't.
You work directly with the person doing the thinking — but the goal is never to make you dependent on me. I build systems your team can run, document what I learn along the way, and measure success by how well your people do after I've stepped back. Behind me is a small, senior delivery bench and an AI-accelerated build process that lets one experienced operator move like a team, without the overhead or the junior consultant learning on your dime.
— Dan Mindlin, Principal · Mindlin Consulting LLC
Tell me what's broken. If I can help, you'll get a straight answer and a tight scope. If I can't, I'll tell you that too. And bring the problem itself to the first call — the way I work now, I'd rather show you than tell you. It's my honor and privilege to help.
Email Dan directly