// AI for instrumentation distributors
AI for instrumentation distributors, tested on instrument indexes your engineers already quoted.
For distributors and manufacturers' representatives selling pressure, flow, level, temperature and analytical instruments and control valves to plants, water utilities and engineering contractors. Start with an engineer's index and data sheets read tag by tag into a draft quote, or with the submittal package a project owes after the order. Either one runs as a free AI proof of concept on copies of 20 to 30 jobs you've closed. Nothing logs in to your ERP, your quoting system or a manufacturer's configurator. Your reviewer, the applications engineer who knows these jobs best, decides whether it passed.
- First job
- Tag-by-tag quotes, or submittal packages
- You send
- 20 to 30 closed jobs, copied after the NDA
- System access
- None: no ERP, quoting tool or configurator
- Never
- Sizing, a material choice, an area rating or a release
- Who judges
- Your applications engineer, named by the owner
- Price
- A range first, fixed before you sign
// Jobs we would test
Four jobs between the instrument index and startup
Instrument data sheet quotes
An engineer's instrument index and data sheets read tag by tag into a draft quote for your inside sales engineer, with every tag that still needs sizing or an answer set apart.
See the data sheet quotes pageInstrument submittal packages
A project's package built from the order and the manufacturers' documents, one section per tag, with a list of what's missing for your applications engineer to chase before release.
See the submittal packages pageReturned submittal comments
An engineer's markups on a returned package sorted by tag and document, so whoever revises it starts from a list instead of the PDF.
Replacement quotes from a nameplate
A plant's photo of a failed unit or an old model code read into the fields your engineer needs in order to identify the replacement.
// Why these two first
The tag list is already your answer key
One tag list runs the whole job. ISA-5.1 gives the process industries a uniform way of identifying instruments and their functions. It began as a recommended practice in 1949, and its 2024 edition added control to the title. On a project, one tag travels from the P&ID through your quote and your submittal onto a plate on the device. So a closed job already shows what right looks like, tag by tag: the list the engineer sent, the lines your desk quoted and the sections that went back for approval.
The spec reaches past the instrument to the seller. The City of Greater Sudbury's instrumentation template for water and wastewater projects says instruments must be bought new through official Ontario distribution channels authorized to sell, service and support them, and it refuses a model the manufacturer has marked for withdrawal before substantial performance. Oakland County, Michigan's water resources standard expects an equipment supplier to keep a service facility no more than 6 hours' travel from the site and to send a factory-trained representative at least 3 times, including installation and start-up and acceptance. Every quote line carries promises like those.
The rep stays on the job after the sale. New York State's master specification for gage-pressure transmitters puts the manufacturer's representative on site for installation, inspection, startup, field testing and instructing the owner's people, and has that representative issue an installation certificate, with the days or hours left blank for the designer. A quote that prices only the transmitters goes out short, so the draft lists site time and documents owed beside the tags.
Your customer may carry the whole system. Eastern Municipal Water District's general instrumentation section has its Instrumentation and Control Subcontractor design, select, calibrate and test the system, date and sign the electrical suppliers' shop drawings before they reach the District, and coordinate the manufacturers' engineering representatives through startup and training. When a firm like that sends you an index, it needs a quote it can check tag by tag and a submittal it can put its name to.
The hazardous-area line belongs to the engineer. OSHA's rule on hazardous locations, 29 CFR 1910.307, has equipment marked with the class, group and operating temperature it is approved for, and has classified areas documented and available to those who design, install, inspect, maintain or operate electric equipment there. On wastewater jobs, NFPA 820 sorts spaces across collection, liquid stream and solids treatment and classifies them under NEC Article 500, and each state or local jurisdiction decides whether to adopt it. The draft copies the classification the engineer wrote and leaves the rest alone. We name these rules for context; nothing here is legal or engineering advice.
One limit covers both jobs. The proof of concept never touches your ERP, a quoting system, a live quote or a manufacturer's configurator. It never sizes an instrument, picks a material for a process or decides a hazardous-area rating. An applications engineer makes every selection and releases every quote and submittal. Defense and aerospace jobs stay out of the test.
// How the test runs
Three steps, tag by tag
- Step 01
Pick the job, name the reviewer
The owner names the reviewer, usually a senior applications engineer or the inside sales engineer who owns the biggest indexes. Written success criteria, a price range for running it live and a signed NDA all come before a job file moves.
- Step 02
Run it on copies of closed jobs
Send 20 to 30 indexes with their data sheets and the quotes that went out, or 20 to 30 orders with the submittals that went back. The sandbox is what we call this stage, a free AI proof of concept on paperwork you've already closed. If a plant's files can't leave the building, we build look-alikes with your reviewer.
- Step 03
About 30 days live, after a yes
New indexes or new orders go through the same job for about 30 days. Your applications engineer checks every draft, and nothing reaches a customer until it is released from your own system. Adding another job later is its own decision, quoted separately.
Priced per job. You get a range before the proof of concept and a fixed price before you sign.
On the call Rob sets the range from three counts: indexes or orders a month, tags on a typical job, and how many manufacturers' lines you quote.
// Questions
What instrument desks ask first
Is this instrument sizing software?
The manufacturer's configurator builds our model codes. Do you need it?
Which ERP or quoting system do we need?
We carry several manufacturers' lines. Can they share one sample?
Can water utility specs and plant data sheets go in the same sample?
Rob Eason, founder
// Book a proof of concept call
Start from an instrument index your engineers already quoted.
A 30-minute call with Rob about your lines, your territory, your role, the job you'd test first and about how many indexes or orders reach your desk in a month. Indexes and data sheets stay at your desk until the NDA is signed.
- Co-owned a 60-employee financial services firm and sold his share to his partner.
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