We track quoting, CAM, scheduling, monitoring and inspection tools: what they cost, what they read, what they plug into, and who's getting real results. Plain English, sources linked, no hype.
Brian Roemmele reports wiring an AI agent into an existing flexographic carton-box printing line, with small local models watching the machine and cameras feeding it visual data.
Evidence: Self-reported by the builder on X. Early, no independent verification yet. · via @BrianRoemmele
Brian Roemmele showed a Raspberry Pi with an attached camera running the open LLaVA 1.5 model locally to describe and recognize what passed in front of it.
Evidence: Hobbyist demo shared on X (2023). Not a factory deployment. · via @BrianRoemmele
Neo Industries, a small machine shop in Colleyville, Texas, used automatic production monitoring to see how much of each cycle every tool was responsible for, then optimized tool by tool.
Evidence: Vendor-published customer story with named shop owner.
MSP Manufacturing in Bloomington, Indiana, uses an AI CAM plug-in to draft most of each program, with experienced programmers finishing and proving out the first run.
Evidence: Vendor-published Q&A with named company president.
At Bosch's Homburg plant, milling machines were retrofitted with sensors so a model could judge tool wear instead of changing tools on a fixed, conservative schedule.
Evidence: Published pilot project (German Green-AI Hub) at a large manufacturer.
A print shop mounted a small sensor board inside an old Xerox iGen4 to learn its normal vibration and flag anything unusual, plus monitor solvent fumes.
Evidence: Vendor tutorial based on a real print-shop scenario. No downtime results published.
Prices milled, turned and sheet-metal parts from the STEP model plus the PDF print, using editable formulas tied to your own machines and rates.
Reads geometry from STEP/IGES or drawings, checks the part against your machines, and prices it on your rates, with an approval gate before anything reaches the customer.
Quoting plus production software for contract manufacturers: CAD in, rule-based draft quote out, with routing and shop-floor modules on higher tiers.
Connects to your RFQ inbox, opens the CAD, drawing and BOM in each request, drafts the estimate and lets you reply on the same email thread.
General quote-to-cash assistant for trades: picks up requests from Gmail/Outlook, reads STEP files, drafts a priced quote from your history, and books invoices in QuickBooks or Xero.
Watches estimators' inboxes, turns RFQs with prints into drafts, extracts BOMs, and matches each line against your past won quotes.
One short email a week: a tool update, a real-world win (with numbers and sources), and a deal or trial worth knowing about. No hype.