Manufacturers and fabricators: orders entered, quotes drafted.
Drawings, purchase orders and ship-date questions all land in one person’s inbox. I build AI tools that type the orders into your system, draft quotes from drawings and past jobs, and draft ready-date replies for customers. Your team approves everything.
30 minutes on a video call. There’s nothing to pay or sign.
Where the week goes in a small shop
In a manufacturing or fabrication business with 5 to 25 people, the estimator is usually also the order desk.
- A request for quote arrives with three drawings attached. Someone reads them, looks up what a similar job cost last time and builds the quote from scratch.
- A purchase order comes in as a PDF. Someone types it into your system, then checks it against the quote it came from.
- “When will my parts be ready?” Each answer means a walk to the shop floor or a question to the one person who knows.
- Quotes go out and nobody chases them, because the estimator is already on the next one.
The work that wins jobs waits behind the work that just copies details from one place to another.
What I’d take off the desk first
- Purchase orders typed into your system for you, ready for your team to approve
- Quote drafts built from drawings and past jobs, for your estimator to check and price
- Customers get a ready date drafted from the schedule your team shares, sent once your team has checked it
- Quiet quotes flagged with a follow-up ready to send
Which ones come first depends on where your hours go. I work that out with you on the free call.
For example: a normal Tuesday, before and after
A made-up day to show the idea. Your week will look different, and I map the real one with you on the call.
Before
- Two quote requests and a purchase order wait in the inbox. The estimator types in the order first, line by line.
- Quoting starts. Finding the last similar job means digging through old folders.
- A customer asks about a ship date. Someone walks out to the floor to check.
- The second quote request still hasn’t been started.
After
- The purchase order is drafted in your system. The estimator checks it and approves.
- Both quote requests have drafts with the closest past jobs pulled up. The estimator checks the numbers and sets the price.
- The ship-date question has a reply drafted from the schedule your team shares, waiting for a yes.
- Both quotes have been checked and sent.
How the InboundOS Install works for a manufacturer
A four-week build, done with you. Your business keeps running the old way while I set it up. More about me.
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Week 1
A dashboard built for your business
It starts with a free 30-minute call where you walk me through how a job moves from the first drawing to the shipped order. In week 1 I build your custom dashboard. It's the one screen where your team sees the work coming in and approves what the system drafts.
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Weeks 2 to 4
Six automations, two a week
Each week I add two automations, six in total, aimed at the jobs that eat the most hours. They run on your own accounts and connect to the software you already use. Your old way of working keeps running until you've checked everything.
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After
Your team owns it
Your team gets a walkthrough video for each tool. You own all of it, and it keeps running if you ever stop working with me. You can keep me on month to month to watch the system and change it as you grow. Cancel anytime.
Questions shop owners ask
Who sets the final price on a quote?
Your estimator. The system drafts the quote from your drawings and past jobs, and a person checks it and sets the price before anything goes to the customer.
Is it safe to let AI near our books?
The system only reads your accounting software. It never writes to your books.
Do we have to replace the software we use now?
No. I connect to the tools you already have. If you want to switch to something new, I’ll help you move over, and your old setup keeps running until you’ve checked everything.
More answers on the main FAQ.
See where your team’s hours go.
Book a free 30-minute call. I’ll go through your quotes, orders, follow-ups and reports and show you which parts a machine can handle.
Pick a time that suits you. Times show in your own time zone.