Heavy manufacturing
AI for heavy manufacturers, on the RFQs, travelers and quality records.
Claude helps machining, CNC and metal parts manufacturers read RFQs and drawings into intake sheets, find similar past jobs for the estimator, and draft travelers and quality paperwork from the order. Your estimators and quality staff approve what goes out. We have no manufacturing client yet, and the Operating Diagnostic tells you whether it fits.
By Gary O'Neill, Founder, Setanta. Published . Updated .
Buyer question
How can a machine shop quote RFQs faster with AI?
Claude reads the RFQ and drawing notes into a standard intake sheet, finds similar past jobs with their quoted and actual hours, and drafts the quote. The estimator reviews the assumptions, adjusts for today's machines and material, and approves the price. The reading and searching shrink, and the pricing call stays human.
Modern Machine Shop's 2026 Top Shops survey reports that shops that turn quotes around within a day report a 51% win rate on new business, against 41% for shops that take longer (source). It is a survey of machine shops and a correlation. We did not measure it, and we do not claim it as a Setanta result.
We wrote the full workflow down in RFQ to quote with Claude: intake, extraction, similar-job lookup and estimator approval. The guide includes a free checklist for testing whether your RFQ process is ready.
Buyer question
Can Claude help decide which RFQs are worth quoting?
It can give a first view. Claude compares the request with the jobs you have won and lost, and notes where it matches your usual material, tolerance and volume and where it does not. The owner or estimator decides. It will not know your capacity this month unless someone tells it.
Some shops quote everything because passing on a request feels risky. A short note on how a request compares with past wins gives the estimator a reason to spend an hour or skip it.
This only works if win and loss records exist. If they do not, starting to record why a quote was won or lost is the first step, and the checklist in our guide asks about it.
Buyer question
How can AI help capture an estimator's knowledge before they retire?
A person sits with the estimator, and Claude helps write down the reasons behind past quotes and attach them to the jobs they describe. New estimators can then search the notes and the history. Claude records what the estimator says and cannot replace their judgment, so the notes are only as good as the conversations.
In some shops one estimator carries a decade of rules of thumb about which materials fight back and which customers change drawings after the quote. None of it is written down. The most useful hour is the one spent with that person while they are still in the building.
We would run this as a series of short working sessions on real past quotes. It is slower than it sounds, and we would be wary of anyone who promises to extract an estimator's knowledge automatically.
Buyer question
What quality and job paperwork can Claude draft?
From the purchase order and drawing, Claude can draft a traveler, a list of required certifications and inspection points, and a first article checklist. A quality manager or lead reviews each against the customer's requirements. It flags items the purchase order calls for that the drawing does not show.
Customer quality requirements hide in purchase order notes, drawing notes and referenced specifications. Missing one means rework or a rejected shipment. Reading them all against the job is exactly the kind of careful reading Claude does well.
It flags and drafts. A quality manager signs off, and where a requirement is ambiguous the question goes back to the customer.
What stays with your people
Claude drafts. A person decides.
- Quotes, margin and which work to take stay with the estimator and the owner
- Inspection, first article approval and quality sign-off stay with quality staff
- Machine, tooling and scheduling decisions stay with the shop floor leads
- Customer relationships and negotiation stay with your sales and operations leads
Where a mistake would cost money or a customer, a named person reviews the output before it leaves the building. We set up every workflow that way and write down who reviews what.
What we know and what we do not
No client here yet. The Diagnostic tells you if it fits.
Setanta has no published client among machining and metal parts manufacturers, and we do not claim one. Each shop has its own drawings, software and level of record keeping, and those decide what is practical. The Diagnostic looks at your own RFQs and travelers before any scope is written.
Our one published client story is THG Insurance, an independent agency in Wilmington, NC. It shows the pattern we look for: paperwork that sits between a person and a decision, with Claude put on the reading. The free Operating Diagnostic is where we find out whether your business has that pattern.
Related industries
Related guides and industries.
If quoting is where your week goes, read RFQ to quote with Claude and try the free RFQ readiness checklist, which runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. For how an engagement runs, see our approach, or contact us to talk it through. A part this shop makes often shows up next at a dealer, as a counter quote, a service part or a component on a rental unit. That dealership work is on AI for equipment dealers.
Questions
More questions from owners in this industry.
Does this work with the ERP or job software we already run?
It depends on the system and on how its data can be reached. Many workflows start with exports and documents you already have. The Diagnostic looks at what your system allows, and we say plainly where a workflow is practical and where it is not.
How do we get our estimators to use AI?
Start with the estimators' own work, in their own sessions, on real RFQs. People use a tool that removes a task they dislike and ignore one that is handed down. We run working sessions with the team in the room and measure against a number you pick up front.
Do you have heavy manufacturer clients?
No. Setanta's one published client story is THG Insurance in Wilmington, NC. This page describes what we would build, and the free Operating Diagnostic tells you whether it fits before you commit to anything.
What is the free Operating Diagnostic?
A free call (book a time) that looks at how your team works today. It finds where Claude would move your numbers first and the process worth fixing first, and says which package fits. If it is not the right time, we say so.
Run a machine shop? Tell us where the RFQs wait.
We will say what we would build first, or that it is not time yet.