For UK manufacturers with 50 to 500 staff
AI for UK manufacturers: start with the order and quote desk
If you make to order, start where quote requests and orders arrive: emails, drawings and PDFs that someone reads and keys in by hand. That work can be counted in hours and in quote turnaround, and your own people check every draft before it goes out.
If we don't find anything worth doing, we'll tell you and leave.
The problem
The estimator is the bottleneck, and much of their day is reading.
Ask an estimator where the day goes. Much of it is opening the request, finding the drawing, working out material, quantity and finish, looking up what the customer paid last time and chasing what they left out. Orders go the same way: a PDF purchase order keyed into the ERP line by line and checked against the price on the quote.
Customers rarely see this, and most websites don't describe it. In our study of 209 UK supplier websites, 6 of 80 printers, packaging makers and engineering firms say how fast they will quote, and 69% of 101 manufacturers say nothing about how to order. 2 of the 209 mention AI in how they take orders or quotes, and both describe it as a plan. More in quote turnaround times.
Why start here
The inputs already exist, and a person checks every result.
Shop-floor projects such as machine monitoring or vision inspection usually need new sensors or cameras, links to the machines and months of data. The quote and order desk runs on what you already have: the inbox, your rate tables and price lists, your ERP and the record of past quotes.
It is also easy to check. Your estimator can see at a glance whether a draft quote is right, and nothing reaches a customer until they approve it. And the result shows up in numbers you already watch: quote turnaround, and the share of quotes that become orders.
How it works
From the inbox to a draft your estimator approves.
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1
Read as it arrives
Each email, PDF, drawing or web form is read for customer, part numbers, material, quantity, finish and date needed. "Same as last time" is filled in from your past quotes and orders.
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2
Checked against your figures
Priced from your own rate tables and price lists. Anything missing or odd, such as a drawing with no finish, is listed with the question to ask the customer.
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3
Waits for a person
The draft quote or order sits in front of your estimator or sales office. They change what they disagree with and approve it. Nothing is sent until they do.
Example
A request for quotation arrives with two drawings. It leaves as a draft quote for the estimator.
Comes in
Hi, please quote 200 off 4471-B in 304 stainless, 2mm, laser cut and folded, and 50 off 4472-A. We need them by the end of the month. Thanks, Mark (purchasing)
Checked
- Two parts read: 200 off 4471-B, 50 off 4472-A
- 304 stainless, 2mm, from the email; flat sizes from the drawings
- Cutting, folding and material costed from your rate tables
- 4471-B last quoted in March at 150 off; that price shown alongside
- 4472-A drawing gives no finish; question for the customer
Waits for your approval
Draft quote · for the estimator
200 off 4471-B and 50 off 4472-A, priced from your rates. One question for Mark on the finish for 4472-A.
Illustration with invented data.
We have written up how this works for printers, packaging makers and engineering firms.
What it connects to
Your inbox, your rate tables and your ERP, as they are.
- Where requests arrive
- The shared inbox or web form your customers already use. Nothing changes for them.
- Where prices come from
- Your own rate tables and price lists, whether they live in an estimating system or a spreadsheet.
- Customers, parts and history
- Your ERP or MRP, for customer accounts, part numbers and what was quoted and ordered before.
- How we connect
- Through what your systems already offer: an API where there is one, or a scheduled export and import where there isn't. Which one goes on the verdict before you commit.
- Who approves
- Your estimator or sales office. Nothing goes to a customer until they approve it.
What it costs you today
Put your own figures in before you talk to anyone.
The order desk calculator takes your quote requests a day, the minutes each takes to price and the estimator's hourly cost, and works out what the quote desk costs you a year. It does the same for keying orders. It doesn't guess at savings: the verdict states today's baseline, and the monthly report measures against it.
What you get from us
A verdict, a working system and a number every month.
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30 minutes
Call with you
Where quote requests and orders pile up, and which number they hold back.
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1 hour
Session with your team
We see the work first hand. The same day you get a one-page verdict: the workflow, the KPI it moves, today's baseline and a fixed price, or a written no.
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A fixed number of weeks
Build
We build it ourselves; nothing is subcontracted. The timeline and fee are on the verdict before you commit.
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Every month
Run and report
We run the system and report the KPI against the baseline. Stop at any report.
Questions
AI for manufacturers: common questions.
- Where should a UK manufacturer start with AI?
- We start with the quote and order desk. The work there is reading and re-keying, the inputs already exist, and the result shows up in quote turnaround and order processing time.
- Does it send quotes to customers by itself?
- No. Every draft quote and order waits for your estimator or sales office to approve it. Nothing goes to a customer until a person has checked it.
- Do we need to change our ERP?
- No. We build around the systems you already use and connect through what they offer: an API where there is one, or a scheduled export and import. The verdict says which.
- What do you need from us?
- Access to the inbox where requests arrive, your rate tables or price lists, read access to customers and parts in your ERP, and an hour with the people who do the work now.
- How do you measure whether it worked?
- We measure the baseline before we build, for example hours from request in to quote out. Every month we report that number against the baseline. You can stop at any report.
- What if there is nothing worth doing?
- Then the verdict says so in writing. If we don't find anything worth doing, we'll tell you and leave.
Next step
Thirty minutes on your quote and order desk.
Tell us what you make and how requests reach you, and we'll come back with a time.
Or send us one order, or a quote request, and see the draft it becomes.
The Open Build. We’ll build one UK supplier an order desk or quote desk system, free and in public, measured on its own numbers. Everyone who applies gets a one-page read of their own workflow. Applications close at 5pm UK time on Friday 6 November. See the Open Build.