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Use case · Manufacturers & distributors
Quotes in minutes, not days.
Every day an RFQ sits unanswered, the job drifts to whoever replied first. A quoting agent reads the request, checks your inventory and capacity, and drafts the quote before your competitor opens the email.
In short
RFQ quote automation uses an AI agent to turn requests for quotation into draft quotes in minutes. The agent extracts line items from the RFQ, verifies stock and capacity, applies your pricing rules, and routes the draft to an estimator for one-click approval.
The loose end
If your best estimator is also your bottleneck, this page is yours. In most shops, quoting is a relay race: the RFQ lands in a shared inbox, someone prints the drawing, walks it to estimating, waits on a stock check, chases the capacity answer, then rebuilds the price in a spreadsheet. Median turnaround is measured in days, and win rates fall off a cliff after the first 24 hours.
What the agent does
- Reads RFQs in email, PDF, and spreadsheet form, including the spec blocks on drawings.
- Checks inventory, open capacity, and lead times against your ERP data.
- Prices using your rules: materials, machine time, margin floors, customer terms.
- Drafts the quote in your format and flags anything outside the rules for a human.
- Follows up. Unanswered quotes get chased until they close or die. Politely. Then less politely.
The math that matters
Run your own numbers: RFQs per week × hours per quote × loaded estimator rate. Then add the jobs lost to slow replies. For most mid-sized manufacturers and distributors, that total clears the cost of a pilot within the first quarter. The Opportunity Audit does this math on your actual workflows before you commit to a build.
How does the agent handle weird RFQs?
Anything outside its rules (unusual specs, missing data, below-floor pricing) gets flagged and routed to a human with the context attached. It never guesses on price.
Does it replace my estimators?
No. It removes the data-gathering grind so estimators spend their time on judgment and relationships.