Operations Diagnostics & AI Integration · Nashville, TN
Every plant has one constraint holding it back.
We find it, price it, and fix what it costs you.
ScaleGrid AI is a two-to-three day on-site operations diagnostic for small manufacturers. We walk your floor, map the work, identify the binding constraint, and quantify what it costs you every month — then leave behind a live dashboard that keeps watching after we go.
- 9+ yrsMulti-site operations leadership
- Tier 1Toyota supplier manufacturing
- $5M+Annual cost savings delivered
- USMCTrained operational planner
Our Mission
To democratize operational excellence for small manufacturers by combining hands-on diagnostic expertise with AI-powered systems that make every shop floor smarter, leaner, and more profitable.
Small manufacturers face the same problems as the Fortune 500 — hidden bottlenecks, quality costs nobody has counted, unplanned downtime treated as normal — without the operations staff or the technology budget to solve them. Enterprise consultants price themselves out of reach. Software vendors sell tools without understanding the floor. ScaleGrid AI exists to close that gap at a price a $2M–$25M shop can justify.
Connor Braaten · Founder
About
Connor Braaten
Founder, ScaleGrid AI, LLC — Nashville, Tennessee
I have spent nine years running operations where the consequences are real — as a Battalion Logistics Officer in the Marine Corps, as an Operations Manager at Amazon moving nearly three million packages through constrained sites, and today leading site-wide manufacturing for a 150-person Tier 1 Toyota supplier building wire harnesses.
That work has been done in the trenches: on the floor at shift change, in front of the constraint with a stopwatch, sitting with the operator who already knows what's wrong and has never been asked. Nothing I recommend comes from a template. It comes from having stood in the same spot your supervisors stand in every day.
What has changed is the toolkit. Alongside an MBA at Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, I use AI where it genuinely earns its place — reading sensor and production data continuously, catching drift a person on a twelve-hour shift will miss, forecasting demand, flagging a machine before it fails. The judgment stays human. The monitoring does not have to be.
ScaleGrid AI is how I bring both to shops that have never had access to either.
- Now Head of Manufacturing, Sumitomo Electric Wiring Services
- Prior Operations Manager, Amazon · Battalion Logistics Officer, USMC
- Education MBA candidate, Vanderbilt Owen (2027) · BBA, East Tennessee State
- Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · Theory of Constraints practitioner
- Recognized Tennessee Governor's Safety Award · Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal
Who We Serve
Built for the shop that knows something is costing money — and can't yet name it.
ScaleGrid AI works with small manufacturers within a three-hour drive of Nashville: Tennessee, northern Alabama, southern Kentucky, and parts of Georgia and Mississippi.
- Company size
- 10–100 employees
- Revenue
- $2M–$25M annually
- Decision maker
- Owner, founder, or general manager
- Today's systems
- Basic ERP/MRP, Excel, or paper — curious about AI, unsure where to start
- The symptom
- "We're always behind." "Our margins keep shrinking."
- Geography
- Within three hours of Nashville, TN
Industries we know
Automotive supply
Tier 2–4 suppliers along the I-65 corridor under cost-down, PPAP, IATF 16949, and JIT pressure.
Metal fabrication & machine shops
CNC mills, lathes, press brakes, weld cells — where scheduling and downtime decide the month.
Plastics & injection molding
Surface defects, cycle time, and mold changeover losses that compound across every run.
Food & beverage
FDA and FSMA documentation, traceability, and monitoring that currently eat supervisor hours.
Job shops & contract assembly
High-mix work where process mapping alone routinely uncovers 15–30% more throughput.
Why ScaleGrid
What working with us actually gets you.
- 01
A number, not an opinion
We identify the binding constraint using Theory of Constraints methodology and put a dollar figure on it — lost throughput times margin per unit, every month it stays in place. You get a prioritized roadmap, not a list of observations.
- 02
A system that stays after we leave
Traditional consulting delivers a binder. We install a live production-health and OEE dashboard during the engagement — real-time status by machine and line, plain-language daily summaries, and green/yellow/red alerts with recommended actions. It keeps flagging new bottlenecks long after the invoice is paid.
- 03
Credibility on the floor, not just in the conference room
Your supervisors and operators can tell in ten minutes whether someone has run a plant. We speak that language, because we still do the work. That is what gets you honest answers on day one instead of day three.
- 04
AI applied where it pays, and nowhere else
Computer-vision inspection, predictive maintenance, demand forecasting, anomaly detection, automated reporting — deployed only where the ROI case is clear and validated on your floor first. No pilot purgatory, no technology looking for a problem.
- 05
Fixed scope, fixed price, no surprises
The diagnostic is $3,500–$7,500 depending on facility size and complexity. Two to three days on-site, a written report, and a working dashboard. You know the cost before we start, and the engagement typically pays for itself inside the first month of implementation.
- 06
Access a bigger firm won't give you
National firms price at $50,000 and up and staff small accounts with junior teams. Subsidized programs carry long wait times. You get the founder on your floor, on your schedule, for the entire engagement.
The Diagnostic
Two to three days on-site. Fixed scope.
Day One
Observe & map
Walk the full production floor with you. Document end-to-end flow, work centers, buffers, and handoffs. Time key operations. Watch quality checkpoints. Talk to the people running the machines.
Day Two
Analyze & quantify
Build the process flow with capacity at each station, identify the binding constraint, calculate throughput and utilization, price the monthly cost of the bottleneck, and assess waste, inventory, and AI readiness.
Day Three
Deliver & recommend
A 60–90 minute working session, a written diagnostic report with process maps and financial impact, a prioritized improvement roadmap, and a walkthrough of your live monitoring dashboard.
Deeper implementation projects, monthly monitoring, and shop-floor training are available once the diagnostic shows where they'd pay.
Contact
Start with a free 30-minute floor walk.
No slide deck and no obligation — a half hour on your floor, and an honest read on whether there's enough on the table to justify a diagnostic. If there isn't, I'll tell you that.
- Emailconnor.braaten@scalegridai.com
- Phone(423) 863-9948
- Based inNashville, Tennessee
- Service areaWithin three hours of Nashville — TN, northern AL, southern KY, and parts of GA and MS
- EntityScaleGrid AI, LLC — a Tennessee limited liability company