01 · Receive
Keep the enquiry together
The email or form, sender, requested date and every attachment are linked to one RFQ record. Follow-up messages join that record instead of becoming a second job.
Fabricators · Machine shops · Bespoke engineering firms
RFQ automation for fabricators and manufacturers
Turn enquiry emails, drawings, specifications, quantities and revision references into one review record. Your estimator still decides feasibility, process, cost and price; the workflow removes the chasing and retyping around that decision.
Fixed scopeQuoted before work starts
Human controlDecisions stay with your team
Honest boundaryKeep existing systems where they work
From mixed enquiry to an estimator-ready RFQ
The useful automation is often the work before the price: finding the current attachment, identifying what the customer actually asked for and showing what is absent. It prepares a consistent record without pretending that a drawing contains every commercial or production decision.
02 · Identify
Label the supplied evidence
Drawing numbers, stated revisions, specifications and customer references are recorded as supplied. The workflow identifies documents; it does not infer geometry or manufacturability from them.
03 · Structure
Present the requested facts
Part descriptions, quantities, materials, finish, delivery location and deadline are placed into agreed fields, with the original source always available beside them.
04 · Hold
Make gaps and conflicts visible
A missing material, contradictory quantity or unclear revision enters a review queue. The workflow can draft a question; a person decides what to ask and what answer is acceptable.
05 · Estimate
Leave skilled decisions with the estimator
Your estimator chooses process, routing, bought-out content, setup, run time, margin and risk using the approved tools and information available to the business.
06 · Handoff
Create the supported next record
After approval, confirmed information can populate a quote draft or follow an agreed import, API or human-entry route into the existing ERP, MRP or quoting system.
A revised fabrication enquiry, without the version hunt
This example is deliberately ordinary. The exact fields and checks come from the way your estimators already work.
A customer asks for three quantity breaks, then sends a revised drawing
- Received
- The original email, drawing and requested quantities are attached to one RFQ record.
- Revised
- A later email supplies a drawing with a different revision reference. Both files remain visible and the newer one is not silently assumed to replace the first.
- Missing
- The finish is not stated. The RFQ is held with a specific question instead of reaching pricing with an invented assumption.
- Decided
- The estimator confirms the applicable revision, process, timings, bought-out work and commercial allowances.
- Released
- The approved facts and prices become the customer-facing quote through the supported route, with the estimator named in the record.
A drawing attachment is evidence, not a price
“AI quoting” can mean anything from filing an email to estimating a machined component from geometry. We write the boundary down so an intake project is never sold as an engineering engine.
Good automation
Prepare and verify the record
- Keep messages and attachments together
- Capture stated drawing and revision references
- Extract customer-supplied quantities and dates
- Compare required fields with what arrived
- Route incomplete work to a named reviewer
Human engineering
Decide what the job really requires
- Interpret geometry, tolerances and specifications
- Choose a safe and viable manufacturing route
- Assess tooling, setup, cycle time and capacity
- Resolve technical ambiguity with the customer
- Accept commercial risk and release the price
The safe boundary: a workflow may copy a stated material or revision reference and show its source. It must not turn uncertain technical content into a confident assumption.
Keep the ERP, MRP, CAD and costing tools that earn their place
We assess the exact product, version and interface before promising a connection. The goal is one supported handoff around the existing system of record—not another shadow quote database that will drift from it.
Possible routes
Use what the product supports
- Documented API
- Supported CSV or spreadsheet import
- Watched folder or structured export
- Quote draft for controlled human entry
- Returned status for reconciliation
Information controls
Protect drawings and commercial data
- Approved storage locations and access groups
- Source links retained with extracted facts
- Local processing where the agreed design requires it
- Named exception and approval owners
- Retention and backup routes documented
No assumed integration: a familiar product name does not prove that your licence and version expose the required route. The checked interface and fallback are part of the written scope.
A fixed first RFQ workflow, not a replacement quoting platform
Automation project
Fixed price from £1,495
- One real RFQ route mapped with an estimator
- Named fields, documents, gaps and review points
- One supported output or controlled handoff
- Exception queue and reconciliation route
- Working system, documentation and code you own
Excluded or separately quoted
The estimator boundary stays visible
- Replacement ERP, MRP, CPQ or estimating suite
- CAD geometry analysis, unfolding or nesting
- Cycle-time or manufacturability prediction
- Creating a cost model or rate card you do not have
- Automatic technical approval or customer release
When we would tell you not to buy: if RFQ volume is low, the information arrives complete and the existing system already produces quotes without retyping, another layer is unlikely to repay its upkeep.
Questions manufacturing teams ask
Can it read CAD drawings?
It can register files and capture stated references where the format and evidence support that. Geometry, tolerances, manufacturability, nesting and cycle-time analysis are not included in this intake offer.
Does it replace our ERP or MRP?
No. The existing platform remains the system of record. We check for a supported API, import, export or review route and define exactly what crosses that boundary.
Can it use our old quotes?
They may help an estimator retrieve precedent when their structure and permissions are suitable. A previous price is not automatically a valid current price, so comparison and reuse require a written human-review rule.
How are drawing revisions handled?
The workflow preserves supplied files and revision references, highlights conflicts and asks an authorised person to confirm the applicable version. It does not silently choose the newest-looking filename.
Will it price jobs automatically?
Only explicit, approved rules could be applied within a separately agreed scope. The first workflow structures the enquiry and leaves process, cost, margin, risk and release with your estimator.
Do drawings have to leave our network?
No. Processing can run on infrastructure you control. We still map the email, storage, backup and system routes already used so the privacy boundary reflects the whole workflow.
Built and supported locally
Based in Horsham, we work on site across Sussex and Surrey. Explore the practical starting points for businesses in Burgess Hill.
Bring one real RFQ, one rate source and one awkward exception
The first call is fifteen minutes and free. We will trace the enquiry to an approved quote and identify whether there is a useful automation boundary—or whether the system you already own should handle it.
If the honest answer is that the process needs the system rebuilt rather than one step automated, that is a bespoke quoting and job system.