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Product & Production

Where does the business break first if enquiries increase before production changes?

§1

Workflow Inventory

Wake-up pain: The first constraint is likely incomplete job context before the work reaches machines, operators, or QA.

RFQ intake

ARTIFACT

Owner: GM / admin

Hops: 4+·Hours/mo: unknown

Drawing review

ARTIFACT

Owner: Estimator / senior machinist

Hops: 4+·Hours/mo: unknown

Quote prep

ARTIFACT

Owner: GM / Ops

Hops: 5+·Hours/mo: unknown

Machine fit

HYBRID

Owner: Ops / machineshop

Hops: 4+·Hours/mo: unknown

Programming / setup

REAL

Owner: Machineshop

Hops: 4+·Hours/mo: unknown

QA planning

ARTIFACT

Owner: QA

Hops: 4+·Hours/mo: unknown

→ Pattern →
§2

Constraint Classification

Stage 1 is an artifact constraint: buyer context is not yet structured enough to protect senior judgement. Machine time, programming skill, setup, material lead time, and QA are real constraints, but they should be protected by better pre-work, not hit first by incomplete enquiries.

→ Pattern →
§3

Automation Candidates

Current -> target - tool - dependency

  • Free-text enquiry -> structured RFQ record - guided form + assistant - intake schema.
  • Senior starts from blank -> one-page quote-prep brief - AI drafting - estimator rules.
  • Late QA discovery -> QA preflight flags - checklist - QA rules by job type.
  • Repeated missing-info chase -> clarification prompts - email drafts - required fields.
→ Pattern →
§4

3x Headcount Test

If Maisey triples admin or estimating headcount without changing intake, the same ambiguity still enters the system. Extra people may reduce response time for a while, but they do not create reusable quote logic or improve buyer input quality.

→ Pattern →
§5

Done-When

By day 30, continue only if 80% of new RFQs are complete enough for a trusted one-page quote-prep brief and the estimator says review speed improved.