RFQs into draft quotes: what a test can and can't prove.

A buyer sends an RFQ package. Today someone opens every file, works out which parts you have quoted before, digs out the last quote and re-prices the new quantities. New parts go to the estimator's pile.

For the test, AI goes through copies of those packages. For repeat and catalog parts it drafts the quote from your history and marks what changed. For new parts it writes the estimator's summary. No customer sees any of it.

An RFQ is a package, not a page. A typical one from an OEM buyer holds an email or portal posting, an RFQ form, a PDF drawing, often a STEP model, a material and finish callout, quantity breaks such as 50, 250 and 1,000 pieces, a quote due date, and quality requirements like material certs or a first article. The facts are scattered across the email body, the drawing's title block and notes, and the buyer's terms. Pulling them together is half the job.

Repeat parts and new parts are different work. The easy RFQs are a part you have made at the same revision, a re-quote at new quantities, or a catalog item with a price list. The hard ones are new geometry, tight tolerances, a material you don't stock, or an outside process you have never sourced. Those need an estimator to build a routing, judge setup and run time, and get prices from platers, heat treaters or coaters. This proof of concept prices only the first group, from the past quote or job for the same part number and revision.

The trap in a repeat quote is a quiet change. The revision moved from C to D. The finish went from clear anodize to black. The material went from 6061 to 7075 aluminum. A cert requirement was added. Any one of these can change the cost, and a reused price would hide it, so any difference from the last quote sends the part to your estimator with the change written out.

Pricing from history needs your rules. Your reviewer (whoever on your team knows your quoting best) settles them first: start from the last quoted price or the last price you won at, how old a quote can be before material gets re-priced, whether setup is its own line or spread across the breaks, and how tooling or NRE is shown. Those rules become the success criteria, so drafts are judged by how your shop quotes.

New parts still get help. For each RFQ it does not price, the draft is a one-page summary: parts, revisions, material, finish, quantities, certs and due date, with anything missing listed as a question for the buyer. The summary is judged too: did it miss anything your estimator had to dig out of the package?

Once your reviewer signs off, incoming RFQs run through the same steps for about 30 days.

Draft quotes for repeat parts wait for your estimator or sales lead to approve, edit or reject them, and nothing reaches a customer unless a person sends it. New-part summaries go to the estimator's queue.