AI for your machinery and plant engineering business: more time for design and customers, less searching and re-keying. We build AI for quotations, spare parts service and technical documentation.
The customer’s 50-page requirement specification (Lastenheft) and in-house standards, spare parts enquiries with little more than a photo of the nameplate, new operating instructions that build on those of the predecessor machine: whether you build special-purpose or standard machines, much of this depends on a few people who have known your machines for years.
AI Værk is your 360° partner for AI in mid-sized companies.
Together we pin down where AI can take work off your hands, and then we implement it.
We know the day-to-day work in machinery and plant engineering: quotations based on the customer’s requirement specification, spare parts matched to each machine’s as-built configuration, and the risk assessment before CE marking. We also know what holds things up everywhere: re-keying data from one system into another, or waiting for the one person who knows the answer.
You can start wherever you are: with an early idea, a workflow that takes too long, or a finished plan for us to implement.
Justus August and Elias Arndt
About us-
01
Consulting and AI audit
In a free initial call of about 30 minutes, we listen. In the €500 AI audit, we review your workflows, data and software, then agree with you where to start.
Pricing and AI audit -
02
Workshops and training
Your team practises on real tasks from their own day-to-day work and learns to use AI tools safely and check the results.
Workshops -
03
AI assistants and chatbots
Your team or your customers ask, your company knowledge answers: with sources, and only with what the person asking is allowed to see.
Internal AI assistants -
04
Process automation
Recurring workflows run on their own from intake to result, connected to the software you already use.
Process automation -
05
Custom development
We build custom software where off-the-shelf products fall short, for example a tool that compares each new version of your regular customers’ in-house standards with the previous one and shows which of your standard assemblies the changes affect.
Custom development -
06
Operations and maintenance
We host, monitor and maintain the software and extend it when your workflows change.
Operations and monitoring
Where AI lightens the load in sales, service and design
Enquiries with a requirement specification
When an enquiry arrives with a requirement specification, the customer’s in-house standards and drawings, the software lists every requirement with its clause reference and a suggestion: solved as in a past project, to be clarified, or a deviation. It flags contradictions with the in-house standards and extracts contractual penalties, deadlines, warranty terms and the criteria for factory and site acceptance tests (FAT and SAT) from the specification and the terms and conditions of purchase. Alongside, it shows the two most similar past projects with quotations, functional specifications (Pflichtenheft, your plan for meeting the requirements), acceptance reports and final costings. Your sales engineers decide on the solution and price.
Spare parts enquiries by serial number
The customer sends a photo of the nameplate and the number of the faulty part. The machine is often ten years old or more. The software uses the serial number to find the original order and its bill of materials in your ERP, along with any later modifications recorded for this machine and any successor parts. Then it checks what is in stock. From this, it drafts the spare parts quotation with a source for each part. If the part number does not match this machine’s as-built configuration, the draft says so at the top. Your aftersales team confirms the part and price.
Comparison with the predecessor machine
When a new machine is developed from a predecessor, the software compares the bills of materials and functional specifications of both machines. For each changed assembly, it shows which hazards and life cycle phases in the existing risk assessment may be affected and which chapters of the operating instructions your technical writers should review. Your design engineers assess the risks and decide on the measures.
Use case
From requirement specification to quotation
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01
The enquiry
An automotive supplier requests a quotation for an assembly cell that presses in bearing bushes. The email contains a 48-page requirement specification, the customer’s in-house standard for control systems and three component drawings. The customer wants the quotation within three weeks.
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02
The first review
That same day, the requirements list with clause references is ready, along with the two most similar past projects and their quotations, functional specifications, FAT and SAT reports and final costings. Three points are flagged: chapter 5 of the requirement specification names a different safety controller from the in-house standard. According to the acceptance reports for the two earlier cells, neither reached the required cycle time of 12 seconds. And it is unclear who will supply the 500 parts for the FAT.
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03
The quotation
The software has already drafted the questions for the customer. Your sales engineers check and send them, clarify the controller, cycle time and parts with the customer and decide on the solution, hours and price. The deviations from the requirement specification go to the customer as an appendix to the quotation.
Connected to your ERP, PDM and PLM
In Business Central, SAP Business One and Infor CloudSuite Industrial, the software reads items, stock, serial numbers and previous deliveries and creates draft quotations with the proposed line items. Your team checks and confirms parts, hours and prices. In Infor LN, it only reads. Your IT team sets up access with us; in Business Central, this includes a small extension that we supply.
From SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, Autodesk Vault Professional and PTC Windchill, the software reads bills of materials and documents for earlier machines. This lets it find similar past projects for an enquiry and compare the new machine with its predecessor. Your technical writers keep working in SCHEMA ST4 or COSIMA. The software reads exports: the operating instructions, for example as XML or PDF, or as iiRDS where set up; the risk assessment from your CE software or from Excel; final costings from your ERP or from Excel. It then maps the changed assemblies to the chapters. For programs without an open interface, your team receives the results as a ready-made list and transfers them itself.
Product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. Mentioning them implies no partnership with the vendors and no endorsement by them.
You decide where design data and costings are kept.
Drawings, bills of materials and final costings are your company’s know-how; requirement specifications and in-house standards are your customers’. You decide where the software runs, and we set it up that way.
- A non-disclosure agreement and a data processing agreement under the GDPR, signed before the software sees real documents.
- Your drawings and costings are never used to train AI models.
- Every access is logged. You see who opened what, and when.
Working safely with AI: training for sales, service and design
Your team practises on an email like the ones that arrive in your service inbox: what does the software handle, how much of it does the AI see, and what do your aftersales team and design engineers decide? The toggle shows how names and addresses stay protected.
“Hello, a cylinder on the cross-sealing unit of our bagging machine, serial number 2014-0417, has failed. The old part is marked 30-1182. Could you deliver two by Thursday? We can no longer find the operating instructions. Please could you send us a copy? Also, may we replace the protective hood on the infeed with a light curtain? Kind regards, Person 3381Markus Lenz, Maintenance, Company 5402Feinkost Lenz GmbH, Address 7719Industriestraße 8, Husum”
- Your server inserts placeholders
- Sent encrypted
- The cloud AI processes it
- Your server puts the names back
Only your server knows which placeholder belongs to which person.
- The message arrives
- The AI on your server processes all of it
Nothing leaves your company.
Find the part for this machine
Use the serial number to open the bill of materials for this machine’s order, find the successor part for 30-1182 and check stock. Your aftersales team confirms the draft spare parts quotation.
Send the right operating instructions
Find the version delivered with this machine and attach the supplements for later modifications.
Pass the modification question to design
Recognise that replacing the protective hood with a light curtain swaps a guard for electro-sensitive protective equipment, and pass the question to your design engineers along with this machine’s risk assessment. They review the modification and reply to the customer, for example with a quotation for it or a note that the customer could take on a manufacturer’s obligations by modifying the machine themselves.
Questions before getting started
Does the AI do our risk assessment?
No. As the manufacturer, your company is responsible for the risk assessment, the protective measures and the declaration of conformity or, for partly completed machinery, the declaration of incorporation. The software supports that work: it shows which hazards and chapters a change affects, picks out relevant sections from the risk assessments of earlier machines and maintains the list of open points until the declaration is signed.
What changes with the Machinery Regulation from 2027?
From 20 January 2027, the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive for every machine placed on the market, including series still in production. New requirements include protection against corruption. Digital operating instructions are permitted if they can be printed, downloaded and saved, and stay online for the machine’s expected lifetime and at least ten years after placing on the market. The machine, its packaging or an accompanying document says where. Paper copies requested at purchase are supplied free within one month. Our software runs in the office, not in the machine, and is not a safety component. In risk assessments and operating instructions, it flags what those responsible for CE marking should check.
Our ERP comes with its own AI. What do you add?
Business Central’s Sales Order Agent, for example, reads enquiries from a mailbox, matches them to items, first creates a sales quote and, depending on its settings, turns it into a sales order. We don’t duplicate features like that. Our software starts from the individual machine: for spare parts, the as-built configuration for that serial number, later modifications and successor parts; for enquiries with a requirement specification, the requirements and contradictions.
We build standard machines with a configurator. Does this still work for us?
Yes. We don’t replace your configurator. Where many configurations of a machine are in the field, the software takes work off your hands with spare parts enquiries by serial number and shows, for each new variant, which parts of the risk assessment and operating instructions it affects.
What does getting started cost?
The initial call is free. If the task is already clear, we move straight to a proposal. If a closer assessment is needed, the AI audit costs €500, fully credited towards implementation with AI Værk. If we find no useful AI application, the audit fee is waived; previously agreed expenses remain payable. Our proposal lists setup, licences, hosting and support separately.
How long does an enquiry with a requirement specification sit with you before the quotation reaches the customer?
In the free initial call, tell us how a machine goes from enquiry to commissioning at your company and how a spare parts enquiry becomes a quotation. We will show you where AI saves time, what that costs and how it connects to your ERP and your PDM or PLM.