Bailey & Associates is an independent IT consultancy built exclusively for UK manufacturers. We provide fractional IT leadership, ERP advisory, digital transformation strategy, and vendor management services to manufacturing businesses that need senior technology expertise without the overhead of a full-time IT director.
We are not generalists. We do not work across every sector and hope for the best. Manufacturing is what we know — the shop floors, the supply chains, the compliance demands, the OT/IT boundary, and the specific ways that technology investment succeeds or fails in production environments.
Every engagement is vendor-independent. We take no commissions, referral fees, or revenue from any technology vendor or implementation partner. Our advice is ours alone, and our pricing is published transparently on our website.
David Bailey is the founder and principal consultant at Bailey & Associates. He has spent over 15 years working at the intersection of IT strategy and manufacturing operations, helping UK manufacturers make better technology decisions, manage complex implementations, and build IT functions that genuinely support production and growth.
David started his career in the military at 18, where he developed the structured thinking, problem-solving discipline, and operational focus that still define his approach to IT leadership. He moved into IT and technology management, building hands-on experience across infrastructure, systems integration, ERP implementation, cybersecurity, and digital transformation in manufacturing environments.
He currently serves as IT Director at the UK Sailing Association (UKSA) alongside his consultancy work, giving him a live, operational perspective on IT leadership that pure consultants simply do not have. He is not advising from a textbook — he is doing the work every day.
Practitioner, not just adviser. David holds a current IT Director role. He deals with the same vendor negotiations, board presentations, and budget pressures that his clients face.
Manufacturing specialist. Deep experience across production scheduling, MRP, shop floor data capture, OT networks, quality systems, and supply chain integration in UK manufacturing environments.
Military background. Structured, methodical, and direct. A disciplined approach to project governance and risk management from military training.
Genuinely independent. No vendor affiliations, no referral agreements, no commission arrangements.
Bailey & Associates operates as a brand of Leadership Services Limited, a UK-registered company based in Cheshire, England. We work with manufacturing clients across the UK.
Our model is deliberately lean. When a client engagement requires additional specialist resource, we bring in trusted, pre-vetted specialists on a project basis. You pay for expertise you actually need, not for overhead you do not.
Our clients are typically UK manufacturers with revenue between £5M and £200M — from precision engineering and process manufacturing to food production and automotive supply chain.
Fractional means part-time and scalable. Instead of hiring a full-time IT Director at £100k-150k+ per year, you engage one on a retained basis for the time you actually need — typically 2-8 days per month.
Because manufacturing IT is fundamentally different from other sectors. The production systems, shop floor technology, quality requirements, supply chain integration, and IT/OT boundary create challenges that generalist consultants cannot handle.
The large firms assign whoever is available and cover every sector. We are a specialist practice focused exclusively on manufacturing. You work directly with David Bailey, and our pricing is published transparently.
Both. Most ongoing advisory work is delivered remotely, with on-site visits for workshops, board meetings, factory floor assessments, and critical project milestones.
UK manufacturers with revenue between £5M and £200M — large enough to need professional IT leadership but not large enough to justify a full-time C-suite IT function.
If you are making significant technology decisions without a senior IT leader at the table, you are taking on avoidable risk. Book a free consultation and we will give you an honest assessment.