Turnover documents, checked against the PO's list before the machine ships.

A buyer's PO arrives with a document list attached, or points to a supplier documentation standard: manuals in named languages, electrical and fluid diagrams, as-built drawings, the parts list, component makers' data, declarations and test reports, each in a set format and due by a set date. Before the machine ships, your project manager or documentation lead collects every item from engineering, purchasing and the floor, checks it against that list and releases the package.

In the proof of concept, AI reads copies of POs you already shipped against and the packages that went with them, and drafts the check your project manager would make: each required item, the file that answers it, its format, language and file name, the serial numbers it carries, and what was missing or came back from the buyer. Nothing goes to a buyer, and no document is changed.

The PO often brings someone else's standard. Large buyers attach document rules that outrank your usual index. One German machine tool maker's published spec for its suppliers puts its end customer's equipment regulations ahead of its own. It wants each document as a separate file, never all the reports merged into one PDF, under a folder named with the end customer's equipment number, plus inspection documents for safety components such as hydraulic accumulators and safety valves. Until that documentation has passed its inspection, it treats the delivery as incomplete and holds back full payment. So the check starts from the PO and every standard it names.

For Europe, the manual's labels are rules. Annex I of the Machinery Directive wants the instructions in the official language of the member state where the machine is placed on the market or put into service. Versions the manufacturer verified carry the words "Original instructions"; any other language carries "Translation of the original instructions" and ships with the original. The manual also holds the EC declaration of conformity, or a document setting out its contents, which need not show the serial number or the signature. Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 allows digital instructions if the machine or its packaging says where to find them, the user can print and save them, and they stay online for the machine's expected lifetime and at least 10 years after it is placed on the market; a buyer who asks at purchase gets paper, free, within one month. A module that can't work until it is built into another line can be partly completed machinery, shipped with assembly instructions and a declaration of incorporation.

US standards and file rules add items of their own. NFPA 79's Chapter 17, in the 2024 edition, has sections for the installation diagram, block and function diagrams, circuit diagrams, and the operating and maintenance manuals. ANSI B11.0-2023 updated its requirements for information for use and manuals to be consistent with ISO 20607, the instruction handbook standard. One gearbox maker's supplier standard wants a single unencrypted PDF per language, preferably PDF/A, with bookmarks that match the contents and every font embedded, and safety warnings in US-bound manuals structured to ANSI Z535.6. Another buyer wants the ISO language code, such as en-US, in each file name and electrical diagrams in EPLAN unless told otherwise.

Bought-out parts bring their own paperwork. An automotive paint-systems supplier's published spec asks for the original makers' data sheets for every catalog part, a maintenance plan that covers sub-suppliers' parts without sending the reader off to their manuals, and declarations written to both the Machinery Directive and the new Regulation; it refuses download links to company websites. A machine with an ASME Section VIII, Division 1 vessel, such as an air receiver, carries that vessel's U-1A Manufacturer's Data Report, signed by the vessel maker's representative and by an Authorized Inspector, and a registered report can be found by its National Board number or the maker's serial number. The draft checks that each file is there and that its serial numbers match your records. It never signs, certifies or edits one.

Your reviewer. The owner names the person who releases turnover today, usually the project manager or documentation lead. They hold each draft check against the package that shipped and whatever the buyer sent back: items found and items missed, formats, languages and file names, serial numbers, declarations present, and component data. Include a machine bound for Europe, a module shipped into someone else's line, and a package the buyer returned.

After a yes, each machine nearing shipment gets a draft check against its PO's document list, kept current as files arrive, for about 30 days.

Your project manager reviews every check, chases what is missing and releases the package from your own system. Nothing reaches a buyer without that release, and each live check is scored on the same table as the test.