Trial Fit
Trial Fit
Start the free check

Example plan for a machine shop

A machine shop handling 200 RFQs a month, run through the check.

Run the check for your firm

The answers

What they make
Machined and engineered parts
People in the office
16 to 40
Reading and logging RFQs
200 a month, 10 minutes each
Chasing missing information
120 a month, 15 minutes each
Entering accepted orders
70 a month, 15 minutes each
Where enquiries arrive
In several people's inboxes
Where quotes are built
Spreadsheets and Word
Part numbers and revisions
Partly
AI use today
Yes, but we haven't agreed any rules
Where drawings can go
Only inside the systems we already run
Who signs off quotes
A named person
RFQ to quote sent
About 3 working days

The plan it gives

Your Trial Fit plan

For a machine shop with 16 to 40 people in the office.

Start with your RFQ logging.

33.3hours a month now,

about £655 at £19.67 an hour.

What AI would do
Read each enquiry and its drawing list, fill in your quote log and flag what's missing.
What stays with your people
Deciding whether to quote at all.

Then look at these

  • Chasing missing informationabout 30 hours a month (£590)

  • Entering accepted ordersabout 17.5 hours a month (£344)

Settle these first

  • Agree one way to write part numbers and drawing revisions, so everyone matches the same thing.
  • Send enquiries to one shared inbox, so nothing gets read in one place and quoted from another.
  • Agree a short AI rule before the trial. Some of your team already use AI without one.
  • Decide who checks each AI draft before anything goes to a customer.

How a four-week trial would run

  1. 01Time your RFQ logging for two weeks before you change anything.
  2. 02Pick one person to run the trial and one to approve every output.
  3. 03Use real enquiries and orders from the last few months.
  4. 04Run it for four weeks, then compare the hours and how many drafts needed correcting.
  5. 05Also time how long quotes take from RFQ to sent, now about 3 working days.
  6. 06Carry on only if it's quicker and the work is as good.