Capability 10 · Manufacturing
An RFQ arrives with drawings and files.
The quote should not start from a blank screen.
A quoting flow for job-shop manufacturers that receive drawings, PDFs, STEP files, emails, and customer notes before preparing a price.
The situation
The work depends on experience — and on not missing small details.
A customer sends a request for quote. There is an email. There may be a PDF drawing, a STEP file, and notes about material, quantity, deadline, or tolerances.
Someone opens everything, checks what is included, asks what is missing, estimates the job, and prepares the quote.
It runs on the estimator's experience. The price is only as good as the details nobody overlooked.
The challenge
Quoting is slow because the input is messy.
The same customer may send files differently each time. Some drawings carry the right details, some are incomplete, and some requests need engineering review before a price can be estimated.
The risk is not only time. The real risk is quoting from incomplete information — wrong prices, delays, and rework later.
So the flow needs to read the package, surface what is missing, and let the estimator decide before anything goes out.
The capability
Read the RFQ package, and prepare the case before review.
The workflow reads the RFQ package, extracts the useful information, checks what is missing, and prepares a structured quote review.
It does not price blindly. It helps the team understand the job faster — showing the files, the extracted details, the missing information, and the suggested next steps.
The estimator reviews the prepared case before anything is sent to the customer.
How the flow works
Before / after
An estimator opens every file, checks the request, looks for missing details, asks follow-up questions, and prepares the quote by hand.
The first half of quoting is document detective work.
The RFQ package is structured before review, and missing information is visible from the start.
The estimator starts from a prepared case, not a scattered inbox.
Controls
- Quote inputs are defined upfront
- File types are categorized
- Missing information blocks progress
- Drawing or file uncertainty is flagged
- Estimator review is required
- No quote is sent automatically
- Customer follow-up is logged
- Approved quote data moves to the right system
Where this applies
What changes
Questions about quoting
Can quoting be automated when every job is different?
Yes, once the pricing logic is written down. The jobs vary but the rules behind them rarely do — material, time, setup, margin. With those captured, quoting becomes assembling a known calculation instead of starting from a blank sheet.