Order 4471: please confirm delivery date
Agents for the customer order that arrives as a PDF.
Monday morning in order processing. There are 80 orders in the inbox, each one a PDF printed from the customer's own ERP, and someone is keying them into SAP. Alongside them sits a fault report with the serial number in the subject line, and a customer has sent a photo of a nameplate because they need a spare part. In mechanical engineering, the work happens in the gaps between systems, and it hasn't changed for years. We are convinced an agent can take it on. All it needs to know are the rules already set out in your quotation and your framework agreement.
Done
Awaiting approvalApproval by a colleague
Log
Where your time goes today
We have three people who spend all day keying in orders from PDFs, and the customer printed those PDFs from their own ERP in the first place.
Service requests end up in a shared inbox. Then someone has to track down the machine from its serial number, which can take half an hour.
Every spare parts request means three rounds of phone calls. The nameplate, the bill of materials and the stock levels sit in three systems that don't talk to each other.
Six processes an agent can take on here
Each one sets out what comes in, what the agent checks, what goes out and when a person has the final say. Your own process will have its quirks, and that is the one we want to hear about.
Enter and check a customer order
IntakeAn order arrives as a PDF or email with part numbers, quantities and a requested delivery date.
DecisionThe agent checks the items, prices and dates against the quotation, the framework agreement and availability in the ERP.
ResultA pre-filled sales order in the ERP and a draft order confirmation ready to go.
Triage a fault report and suggest a service engineer
IntakeA fault report by email, through the portal or as a phone note, with the serial number and a description of what the machine is doing.
DecisionThe agent identifies the machine, checks the warranty and the maintenance contract, then searches the service history for similar cases.
ResultA service ticket with the machine record and a probable cause, plus the engineers nearby who have the right skills.
Answer a spare parts enquiry
IntakeAn enquiry with a photo of the nameplate or a serial number. Sometimes all you get is a rough description of the part.
DecisionThe agent identifies the part from the bill of materials and the machine's build configuration, then checks stock, the price list and any superseding parts.
ResultA draft quotation with the part number, price and delivery time, noting where a part has since been superseded.
Check a supplier's order acknowledgement
IntakeA supplier's order acknowledgement as a PDF, with line items, prices and a delivery date, which isn't always the date you asked for.
DecisionThe agent sets the acknowledgement against your purchase order and the framework agreement. It picks up differences in price, quantity or date, and sees whether a production order is affected.
ResultA confirmed purchase order in the ERP or a draft query to the supplier, plus a note of which customer order depends on that date.
Log a customer complaint and prepare the 8D report
IntakeA complaint by email or through the customer portal, with the serial number, photos and a description of what is wrong with the part.
DecisionThe agent links the complaint to the batch, the production order and the inspection records. It looks for similar cases and checks whether the complaint is covered by the warranty.
ResultA complaint case opened in the quality management system, with the first sections of the 8D report filled in and a draft acknowledgement to the customer.
Match a supplier invoice to the purchase order and goods receipt
IntakeA supplier invoice as a PDF with the purchase order number and line items. Sometimes it includes a surcharge nobody knew about.
DecisionThe agent compares the line items with the purchase order and the goods receipt, checks payment terms and early settlement discount, and flags anything that doesn't match.
ResultA posting proposal in the ERP with account coding and due date, or a query to the supplier explaining the problem.
Your process is not on the list?
Then it is probably the more interesting one. Use our Process Check to describe what piles up every week in three sentences, and we will tell you honestly whether an agent could take it on.
Enter and check a customer order
We usually start with customer orders. The process has clear boundaries and runs hundreds of times a week in your business. The rules are already in the quotation and the framework agreement, so the agent only has to apply them. Your team will notice the difference in the first week.
Our target70%of standard orders should reach the ERP without anyone keying them in. The rest land on someone's desk with a proposal ready to go.
Agentreads
Done09:41
Awaiting approvalApproval by a colleague
Log
What the agent needs
The agent needs the item master, prices, stock levels and sales orders from your ERP, drawings and contracts from the DMS, and access to the orders inbox. We bring these sources together in Microsoft Fabric and OneLake, so the agent works from one checked set of data rather than five interfaces that contradict each other. If you don't have an ERP the agent can post to, we implement Business Central and build the agent straight into it.
Typical systems in your industry
SAP S/4HANAMicrosoft Dynamics 365proALPHADocuWareSalesforceMicrosoft 365
Questions manufacturers ask us
Our SAP system is heavily customised. Will this still work?
Yes. That's true of almost every machinery manufacturer. The agent works through your existing interfaces and approval workflows, not around SAP. In the Assess phase, we look together at which fields and processes are affected.
What happens if the agent misreads an order?
Someone notices before anything is booked. Every order is logged with a confidence score and its source. If the score falls below a threshold or the order differs from the quotation, it goes to a person. We never book anything without a log entry.
Does our engineering data leave the company?
No. The data stays in your Azure tenant and is stored and processed in the EU. Microsoft Purview controls which documents the agent is allowed to see in the first place.
Who runs the agent once the project is finished?
That's up to you. Either your own team takes it over, in which case you get the source code, the documentation and the operations manual. Or we run it for you as Managed Agent Ops. There is no lock-in, and that includes lock-in to us.
What challenge is your business facing?
Your challenge is what interests us most. Send us a few lines about it. We will look at it free of charge, based on the systems you use today, and tell you honestly whether an agent is worth it.
