Industry 02Manufacturing
AI for manufacturing companies, starting in the front office.
The plant has had automation for decades. The office that quotes, books and bills the work mostly runs on email and retyping. We find where that office loses the most, install the play that fixes it, and run it for you.
01Where the return is
Most AI for manufacturing lives on the shop floor. We start in the office behind it.
Vision inspection, predictive maintenance and cobots need capital, sensors and months of integration. An estimator buried in RFQs is a smaller fix, and your win rate tells you whether it worked.
Vision inspection on the line
Predictive maintenance
Cobots and robotics
Production scheduling
RFQs that take days to quote
Customer POs and releases keyed by hand
Supplier bills nobody checks against receiving
Margin you see a month late
02The desk
Hand it a document. Step it through.
Three things that reach a manufacturer's front office on a normal Tuesday. Pick one, then walk it through the four steps the play takes.
From: buyer, OEM account 1142 · Subject: RFQ, three machined parts
Please quote the attached parts at 100, 500 and 1,000 pieces. Drawings attached. Quotes due Friday.
| Part | Material | Breaks |
|---|---|---|
| BRK-2210 bracket | 6061-T6 aluminum | 3 |
| HSG-0440 housingBore tolerance of 0.0005 in. is tighter than your standard. Flagged for the estimator | 6061-T6, anodized | 3 |
| SHF-1180 shaft | 4140 steel | 3 |
- 07:05:12Arrives
An RFQ from OEM account 1142: three machined parts at 100, 500 and 1,000 pieces, drawings attached.
- 07:06:40
Material, finish, tolerances and quantities lifted from the drawings and the email. One tolerance is tighter than your standard.
- 07:14:02
Costed from your routing rates and material prices, with the three closest past jobs attached for the estimator.
- 15:40:31
Quote Q-7710 drafted with three price breaks and a lead time. The estimator changed one price, signed it and sent it that afternoon.
| Part | Description | Qty | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| BRK-2210 | Bracket, 6061-T6 | 1,200 | 4.86 |
| HSG-0440 | Housing, anodizedShip date is 6 days inside your quoted lead time. Sent to the planner | 600 | 18.40 |
- 09:40:03Arrives
Release 12 against blanket PO 5520, emailed as a PDF.
- 09:40:09
Parts, quantities, prices and the ship date lifted from the release.
- 09:40:15
Prices match the blanket agreement, and the release fits the quantity left on it. The ship date is six days inside your quoted lead time.
- 09:40:19
Sales order SO-5520-12 entered in the ERP. The planner gets the date conflict to confirm or push back.
From: second-shift lead · 22:14
Customer 1142, part HSG-0440. Can we run the anodize to the Type II spec on the old drawing, or does rev C change it?
Revision C calls for Type III hard anodize. Source: the rev C drawing notes, and deviation D-118 in the approved deviation log.
- 22:14:40Arrives
A question in team chat from the second-shift lead about part HSG-0440.
- 22:14:44
Customer, part and question identified: which anodize spec applies at revision C.
- 22:14:51
Found in the customer's revision C drawing notes and in the approved deviation log, both dated.
- 22:14:55
Answered in the thread with both sources cited. Nobody had to call the quality manager at home.
Sample documents. Account numbers, parts and figures are illustrative. The play runs on your documents, in your systems.
03Where we would look first
Five places AI pays in a manufacturer's office.
StrikeArc Scout scores all twelve plays against your own answers. These five are where we would start looking in a manufacturer, and the readout says plainly which to skip.
- 01P08Instant quotes, proposals, RFPs, and contractsREV
RFQs that take days to quote
Every quote waits on the one estimator who can read the drawing. Buyers often award the work to whoever answers first.
ReportsQuote turnaround and win rate.
- 02P06Never touch a PO or invoice againTIME
Customer POs and releases keyed by hand
Releases, change orders and schedule updates arrive by email and get retyped into the ERP, one line at a time.
ReportsShare of documents processed without a touch.
- 03P05Find the money you are leakingCOST
Supplier overbilling and credits never applied
Short shipments billed in full, and credits promised for rejected parts that never show up on a statement.
ReportsRecovered dollars.
- 04P10Get told before it becomes a problemCOST
Margin you see a month late
Job costs drift away from the quote, and the month-end close is the first time anyone sees it.
ReportsEarly catches on churn, margin and cash.
- 05P12Your company's second brainTIME
Engineering and quality knowledge in a few heads
Revisions, deviations and why the last run failed. Second shift calls someone at home to find out.
ReportsAnswer rate, and how fast new hires get productive.
04Find
What StrikeArc Scout measures in a manufacturer.
StrikeArc Scout, our Intake and Diagnostic, works from your answers and read-only access to your systems. It puts a dollar figure on each workflow before we recommend a play.
Intake, scoring and a readout with our recommendation. Free, and yours to keep.
One play at $20,000 one-time, or the library at $7,500 a month with one play installed each quarter.
Keep reading.
Other industries.
How to get started
Bring the RFQ that took longest to quote.
Thirty minutes with the exec who owns quoting or the front office. If a play could fit, StrikeArc Scout comes next.