Customer POs and packing slips turned into a draft traveler, with every conflict named.

Before a lot can be racked, barreled or charged into a furnace, somebody reads what came with it. The PO says what the customer is paying for, the print says what the part needs, and the packing slip says what actually got on the truck. Your front office settles those into one job: whose it is, which revision, what process to which spec, what range to hold, how many pieces in how many lots, what to mask and what paperwork has to come back. Some shops call the result a router or a shop order; here it's the traveler.

In the test, AI reads copies of those documents for lots you already ran and drafts the traveler the way your shop writes it, in your own process codes if you share them. Where the documents disagree, the draft leaves the field open and shows each side. Drafts go to your reviewer alone, so nothing reaches the floor, your shop system or a customer.

A callout is a set of small letters that change the job. ASTM B841, the zinc-nickel specification, defines one class and five conversion coating types, and the letter decides the color: Type C is bronze, Type D is black, and Type E adds an organic topcoat. A PO line for black zinc-nickel to Type C has contradicted itself, so the draft flags it and shows both sides. ASTM B456 for nickel plus chromium goes further, with a classification code made up of a service condition number, a coating classification number showing basis metal and thickness, and symbols for the coating type, across five service grades from mild to extended very severe. An order that gives one piece of that code and drops the rest becomes a question.

Threads, units and seals can't be assumed. ASTM F1941 covers electrodeposited coatings on threaded fasteners, inch and metric, and can reach washers and pins too, so a zinc callout on a bolt that names only a general-purpose spec is worth asking about. Its scope says SI and inch-pound values stand alone and aren't to be mixed, which is why a print in micrometers beside a PO in inches gets one row with both values, unconverted. The spec also compares barrel and rack plating; the draft copies any request the order makes and otherwise leaves that choice to your process lead. On the anodize side, ASTM B580 says parts should be sealed unless otherwise specified, so a PO that never mentions sealing and a PO that says no seal make two different travelers.

Heat treat disagrees in its own vocabulary. SAE J423, the case depth practice, says a hardened case can be reported as effective or total depth and measured by chemical, mechanical or visual means, so a print calling for effective depth and a PO saying only case depth are not the same instruction. Hardness ranges follow the same pattern: a Rockwell range on the print beside a Brinell number on the PO, or one alloy on the packing slip and another on the print. Each becomes a named conflict, because the furnace recipe follows from them and the draft doesn't get to pick.

Counts and lots decide what the floor can do. Packing slips count pieces, your dock often counts by weight, and one shipment may hold several customer lots that can't share a barrel or a furnace load. The draft shows the slip count next to the PO quantity and lists each customer lot it can find. Masking lives in a print note, a sketch taped to the PO or a customer's standing instructions, so it is quoted with its source rather than paraphrased. Iowa DOT's Materials IM 568 shows how far this reaches on a public buyer's work: a travel log the fabricator starts and the galvanizer and paint shop each complete, with water quenching and chromate treatments barred on galvanized surfaces headed for paint or powder coat. Iowa's terms govern Iowa's work, and your orders govern yours.

What your reviewer looks for. That's usually your front-office lead or quality manager. They set each draft beside the traveler that actually ran, then check that the process, spec, range and count are right, that every real conflict got named and that none was invented. Which spec applies to a part, and how to read it, stays with your staff and your customer; this page is not legal or engineering advice.

Say yes, and for about 30 days each new order gets a draft traveler as its paperwork arrives.

A person on your staff checks and approves every traveler before the floor sees it, and how approved work reaches your shop system is agreed before you sign. The scoring table keeps running through that month.