After the parts ship, your manufacturing records can still earn money.
A manufacturing business can license its production records to AI companies if two things hold: the plant owns them, and they go back several years. Work orders and inspection reports that trace a part through the shop carry the most weight. Drawings your customers own stay out unless they agree. Your originals stay in your ERP.
Which production and quality records count?
Each tab is one kind of record a plant keeps and the software it sits in.
The quote you sent and the sales order it turned into, with each change the customer made along the way.
The material issued to each job and the units it completed, up to the day its work order closed.
Nonconformance reports, written when a part fails a check, with the decision on what to do with each one. The corrective action shows what changed so the defect stayed fixed.
The sequence of operations for each part number, plus the written procedures your operators follow at each machine.
Each revision to your own process or tooling, with the reason it was made and who signed off.
Threads with customers about a late shipment or a rejected lot, and the messages your floor leads trade during a shift.
What one bracket order looked like on its way through the plant.
This example follows one customer order to its invoice. The records in between show where the part failed inspection and how the shop reworked it. All of them point back to one work order, so the reason for every decision stays attached to the part.
One batch of machined brackets
Example- Booked
Customer order
ERP software
A customer orders 200 aluminum brackets, due in three weeks.
- Released
Work order
ERP software
Planning releases it with the routing and the bar stock to pull.
- Complete
Operation entries
Shop floor software
Operators clock each milling and deburring run against the work order.
- On hold
Nonconformance report
Quality software
Inspection finds a bored hole out of tolerance on 14 pieces, and the lot goes on hold.
- Reworked
Corrective action
Quality software
Engineering approves rework on the 14 and adjusts the fixture that caused the error.
- OutcomeShippedOutcome
Shipment and invoice
ERP software
The full lot passes a second check and ships, and the invoice goes out that afternoon.
Why one plant's records can fetch more than another's.
Issue and completion records on each work order show what was made and from which stock.
A failed-inspection report and the corrective action that followed it record why someone chose to rework a part and what changed afterward.
When one part number ties its sales order to the build and the inspection, each record explains the next.
Routings and engineering change history sitting next to years of work orders show why your process runs the way it does today.
Four kinds of record kept out of a license.
Drawings and specs a customer sent you under an NDA go in only with that customer's written consent. Some supply agreements also cover inspection data, so jobs for those customers sit outside the scope until someone checks the wording.
Defense jobs stay out by default. ITAR counts blueprints and instruction manuals as technical data when they hold what a shop needs to make or fix defense hardware.
A trade secret keeps its protection under federal law while you guard it with reasonable measures, so any process you protect that way can be left out.
Operator names come off work orders and time entries before any record is shared, and HR files are kept out of the scope.
A plant's five steps toward its first payment.
Check your fit
Answer four short questions about the plant. Head count and years of records come first.
First call
Show us which ERP runs the floor and where the quality records and SOPs live. Then you hear how licensing could work for a job shop or production line like yours.
A closer look
Once you decide to continue, you set the scope by plant and by year, and name any customer's jobs that stay out.
Sourcing the right deals
We take your production records to AI labs short on shop floor history. Every one of them is vetted before an offer gets to you.
Terms and payment
Sit down with us over each offer and its terms before signing. After that, payment comes on the schedule your license spells out.
Plant owners' questions
It can work when the records are yours to license and cover several years of jobs. Work orders that connect to inspections and nonconformance reports show how a shop makes a part right. The scope is yours to set, and the originals never leave your ERP.
Anything you keep secret can stay out of the copy, like a fixture design or your machine settings. Records that do go in are bound by the license, which names the AI company that may use them and the uses it allows.
It can. Some NDAs and supply agreements reach past the drawings to inspection results for that customer's parts. Records tied to those jobs stay out until the contract allows them or the customer agrees, and we flag the agreements that need a look on the first call.
They count. A work order with the operator's notes shows what happened on the floor, and the email thread about a late lot shows how your team handled it. Machine and sensor data can go in as well when it ties back to a job.
We leave defense jobs out by default. Under ITAR, technical data includes drawings and manuals that show how to produce or repair a defense item. If any of your work falls under export rules, ask your lawyer about those jobs before they go anywhere near a license.
See what AI companies would offer for your plant's records.
The fit check takes four answers about your shop.
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