AI in manufacturing · Suppliers, mechanical engineering, production
AI in manufacturing: less paper between inquiry and delivery.
For suppliers and manufacturers where inquiries, drawings and order confirmations pass through many hands. I show you where AI takes work off sales, purchasing and quality, without giving away your trade secrets.
Between inquiry and delivery lie many documents in several languages: inquiries with drawings, quotes, order confirmations, delivery notes, inspection reports. AI reads, compares and prepares. Your specialists decide.
Typical workflows
Where AI takes real work off your team.
01
Reviewing inquiries and drawings
Pull the key data for costing out of the inquiry, drawing and specification: material, dimensions, tolerances, quantity, deadline.
Your team does the costing.
02
Comparing order confirmations
Compare the supplier's order confirmation with your own purchase order and flag deviations in price, quantity and delivery date.
Purchasing checks only the exceptions.
03
Delivery notes and invoices
Bring delivery note, goods receipt and invoice together and report discrepancies before they land in accounting.
Less clarifying after the fact.
04
Quality management documentation
Keep work instructions, inspection plans and records up to date and document changes in a traceable way.
Helpful before every audit.
05
Complaints
Log complaints, match them to the order, prepare the 8D report and reply in several languages.
The root cause analysis stays with your team.
06
Knowledge from manuals and service
Make manuals, service reports and experience searchable so that sales and service quickly find the right answer.
Even when the experienced colleague retires.
An example
The supplier's order confirmation
Today
Purchasing lays the purchase order and the confirmation side by side and checks line by line. With a hundred items, a changed delivery date easily slips through.
With AI
The AI reads the confirmation, compares it with the purchase order in the system and reports only the deviations: these three items cost more, this one arrives two weeks later.
With a person
Purchasing decides whether to accept the deviation, renegotiate or inform production.
Data protection and professional rules
Confidential stays confidential.
Trade secrets
Drawings, prices and customer data are only protected if you take reasonable confidentiality measures (German Trade Secrets Act, GeschGehG). That includes where the data goes.
Agreements with your customers
Many buyers require confidentiality. Beforehand, we check which data may go into an AI service and which stays in-house.
Operation in Germany
The busical AI solutions run in German data centers, with a data processing agreement where personal data is involved.
The legal review of each case belongs with your data protection officer or your professional chamber. I make sure the technology fits.
Limits
What the AI does not do.
- The AI does not approve drawings, inspection reports or purchase orders.
- No access to machine controls; this is about the office and documents.
- Not a replacement for ERP or a QM system, but a help in front of and alongside them.
Whatever the AI is not sure about goes to a person. More on the approach and on fixed workflows without AI on the page AI in Business.
Experience and references
What I bring.
Manufacturing is where I come from. In 1991 I founded INFOCOM GmbH, with software for shop floor data collection and warehouse management. There, among others, I advised the former Feldmühle AG in the paper industry on shop floor data collection: first put the processes in order, then fit the software to them. I take the same approach with AI today. Later came lucolani with LED lighting for industry and commercial use, and serviero with AI-supported processes under ISO 9001.
Founded 1991 · 1991 to 1996
INFOCOM GmbH
Software for shop-floor data collection, warehousing and employee analysis. Over 150 customers.
ViewManaging director · 2023 to 2025
serviero GmbH
Multilingual, AI-supported processes, ISO 9001 and handover to a team.
ViewFounded 2012 · since 2012
lucolani GmbH
LED lighting for industry and commercial use, with the claim “We light up your life”.
ViewGetting started
Start small, then build on it.
01
Intro call
30 minutes, free
We find the workflow that costs your business the most time.
Book an intro call02
AI Kickoff
2 hours online, €490
For management: what AI can do, shown on your own examples, followed by a written summary.
About the AI Kickoff03
AI Training
from 1 day
Your team learns with examples from its own daily work, with a certificate of participation.
About AI training
Questions about AI in manufacturing
Short answers.
Where do you start with AI in a manufacturing company?
Usually in the office, not on the shop floor: with inquiries, order confirmations and documentation. The effort is easy to measure there and the risk is small. We look for the process that costs the most time.
Can we trust drawings and prices to an AI?
Only to an AI whose operation you know. Freely available services are unsuitable for trade secrets. Beforehand, we define which data may go where, and we check your customers' agreements.
Does it work with our ERP?
That depends on the interfaces. Often it is enough to start at the inbox and the documents and hand the results over to the ERP. Where an interface is missing, a fixed process without AI sometimes helps.
Does AI help in quality management?
Yes, with documentation: keeping work instructions current, collecting records, logging complaints. Responsibility for inspection and approval stays with your people.
Will you come to our site?
Gladly, in Lake Constance-Upper Swabia and in the Allgäu, for example to map processes or for a workshop. Outside the region we work by video, and for important meetings I come in person.
Let’s talk 30 minutes.
In the intro call, we find the workflow in your business that costs the most time. Free of charge, 30 minutes on Google Meet or in person in Wangen im Allgäu.