Use case · Mechanical engineering
Quotations in mechanical engineering
In mechanical engineering a quotation carries more than a price: drawing, material, production route and delivery date have to line up before a number comes out of them. Which is exactly why the road from enquiry to quotation ties up the people who ought to be designing.
Typical scope: one process, from €6,900
What is different here
What it actually turns on in mechanical engineering.
The enquiry arrives as a drawing
STEP, DXF or a dimensioned PDF, often with a bill of quantities alongside. What has to be read out of it is material, tolerances, quantity and surface specifications - and they are rarely in the same place as they were for the last customer.
Costing runs through comparable parts
Almost nobody calculates a part from scratch. You look for the most similar completed part in the ERP and add or take off from there. That is a search across characteristics which often do not exist as fields in the system at all.
The material price moves
Weeks pass between costing and order, and steel, aluminium or copper prices do not stand still in that time. Anyone who does not factor in a quotation's validity period gives away the margin or loses the order.
Systems we connect here
- abas
- proALPHA
- SAP Business One
- Sage
- CAD archive
- Supplier portals
If yours is not listed, that is not an exclusion. Where no interface exists, we build one - that is the most demanding part and it is our trade.
The rule that only applies here
Where parts are made to drawing, the basis of a quotation is a technical document, not a form. The system has to be able to read what was drawn, not what was typed in.
The process
Where a person is needed - and where they no longer are.
- ClaudeLab from here
Step 01Person
Enquiry
Intake
Step 02ClaudeLab
Costing
Checking
Step 03ClaudeLab
Prices
Gathering
Step 04ClaudeLab
Quotation
Output
The difference
The same process, once as it is today and once with us.
Step 01 · today
Step 01 · with us
Step 02 · today
Step 02 · with us
Step 03 · today
Step 03 · with us
Step 04 · today
Step 04 · with us
What we build
- Component 01
- Attachments are read - PDF, drawing, spreadsheet, scanned bill of quantities.
- Component 02
- Comparable jobs are looked up in the ERP and proposed as the costing basis.
- Component 03
- The draft quotation is created in your existing template, not in some unfamiliar tool.
- Component 04
- Anything unclear is flagged rather than guessed - gaps stay visible instead of being filled in.
Degree of autonomy
The draft is produced independently; the release is always a person. A quotation is a binding document - it never leaves the building unseen.
Where it does not fit
If every enquiry is a one-off and there are no comparable jobs, there is little to gain here. The benefit comes from repetition, not from intelligence.
Frequently asked
Is this worth it in mechanical engineering?
Where parts are made to drawing, the basis of a quotation is a technical document, not a form. The system has to be able to read what was drawn, not what was typed in. Whether it pays for you depends on your volume - the audit establishes that.
We use a different system from the ones listed. Does it still work?
Yes. The ones listed are those we most often meet in mechanical engineering - a list, not a precondition. Where no interface exists, we build one.
What do we have to provide?
Read access to the quotations closed over the last twelve months - that is where the system learns your costing logic, not from a formula. Access to the ERP, or at least a regular export of jobs and prices. A contact in sales who has two to three hours a week for questions during the first weeks. Nothing more is needed to start.
How will we know it works?
Across 30 real past enquiries the draft falls within your usual price tolerance in at least 80 % of cases. Every unclear item is flagged - nothing is quietly guessed. No quotation leaves the building without a person releasing it.
How long does implementation take?
4 to 6 weeks to the first productive run.
Does the AI decide on its own?
The draft is produced independently; the release is always a person. A quotation is a binding document - it never leaves the building unseen.
When is this not worth it?
If every enquiry is a one-off and there are no comparable jobs, there is little to gain here. The benefit comes from repetition, not from intelligence.
The same process, in general
This page shows the fit in mechanical engineering. The process itself is sector-independent - what matters is whether it repeats.
Quotations in generalTell us where your time goes.
In the audit we record the process, work out what is worth automating, and you get a plan with fixed prices - credited against the build if you go ahead.