Quotes, work orders and engineering changes: how your plant really runs
Manufacturers run on detailed, repeatable workflows: quoting, scheduling, purchasing, engineering changes, quality records and customer service. Years of that history across your ERP, engineering and quality systems, email and chat is the kind of real operational workflow AI labs are asking for.
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Who fits
- Discrete and process manufacturers
- Machine shops, CNC shops, job shops and contract manufacturers
- Metal fabrication and assembly companies
- Office, engineering, quality, planning, purchasing, sales and customer-service teams
What a provider looks at
- A desk team: employees and contractors who work at a desk in your company's email and software. Field and hourly crews who aren't in the systems aren't the desk count.
- Several years of history in your systems.
- Work across systems, such as email, chat, file storage, CRM, tickets and billing.
- Requirements vary by provider, sector and dataset, and the provider confirms fit.
What a licensable workflow can look like
A customer sends an RFQ. Sales and engineering build the quote, the order becomes a work order in the ERP, an engineering change order updates the drawing, quality logs a nonconformance and its corrective action, and customer service confirms the revised ship date.
A generic illustration, not a real client. Labs value the sequence of steps, decisions and handoffs across systems; how personal details are handled belongs in the agreement.
Records that count
- RFQs, quotes and order-entry workflows
- Work orders, routings and production scheduling
- Engineering change orders, CAD drawings, models and revision history
- CNC programs, CAM setups and setup sheets your team wrote (ownership reviewed first)
- Quality records: inspections, NCRs and corrective actions
- Purchasing, supplier and vendor communication
- Customer service, CRM history and SOPs
Good to know
- Design files, drawings and models are among the records these firms keep. What can be licensed depends on who owns them under your client contracts, and that's reviewed before anything is included. Customer-supplied drawings and specifications usually belong to the customer.
- Export-controlled or ITAR-regulated technical data is excluded and isn't a fit.
- The desk team is where the documented work lives: office, engineering, quality, planning, purchasing, admin, sales and customer-service staff, plus contractors who work in your systems every day. Shop-floor and production workers who don't work at a desk in your systems aren't the desk team.
- Kept out unless a review and the agreement say otherwise: privileged material and client matter files, health information and biometric data, payment card and bank account numbers, passwords and credentials, data about minors, export-controlled or classified information, another party's data or licensed third-party content, and sensitive personnel, safety or critical infrastructure details. Scope is a choice, so you can leave out anything else, such as pricing or trade secrets.
- Workflow data from QuickBooks, NetSuite and HR systems still counts.
- Usually not a fit anywhere: data involving minors, export-controlled or classified data, mostly paper records with little digital history, or records you don't have the rights to license.
- How personal details are removed or replaced belongs in the agreement, and the provider's review sorts out what's licensable. When in doubt, it's worth a conversation.
Tools your team already uses
Common manufacturing software we see. Don't see yours? Other systems can hold the same kind of work, and old or retired systems can count too.
ERP & MRP
- Epicor Kinetic
- NetSuite
- SAP Business One
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine)
- Plex
- JobBOSS²
- ProShop ERP
Engineering, CAD, CAM & PDM
- Mastercam
- SolidWorks
- SolidWorks PDM
- Autodesk Inventor
- Autodesk Fusion
- Siemens NX
- Arena PLM
Quality
- ETQ Reliance
- MasterControl
CRM & customer service
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Zendesk
What counts is your team's own work in and around these tools: the emails, tickets, notes, tracking and billing. No files are collected on this site, and we never ask for passwords.
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are listed for reference only; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.
Manufacturing FAQ
Do shop-floor workers count?
Desk staff: office, engineering, quality, planning, purchasing, admin, sales and customer-service staff, plus contractors who work in your company's email and software, depending on the provider. Shop-floor and production workers who don't work at a desk in your systems aren't the desk team. Requirements vary by provider, sector and dataset, and the provider confirms fit.
Can our CAD files and engineering drawings be licensed?
Drawings, models and revision history are among the records firms like yours keep. Whether any of them can be licensed depends on who owns them under your client contracts, and that's reviewed before anything is included. Your own workflow records, like proposals, RFIs, correspondence and billing, are usually the clearest starting point. Customer-supplied drawings usually belong to the customer.
What stays out?
Export-controlled or ITAR-regulated technical data, customer agreements, financial reports and statements, passwords and credentials, and anything you choose to exclude.
See If You Qualify
A few quick questions. No files needed, and we never ask for passwords.
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