Customer POs into sales orders, with every grade, temper and tolerance carried through.

A PO comes in by email or as a portal printout: a description or a part number, grade and size, maybe a finish, a tolerance, a coil weight limit, a cert requirement and a quote number. Someone matches each line to your product, carries the requirements onto the order, sets the processing and checks the price against the quote.

For the test, AI reads copies of those POs and drafts each sales order, from the header to the processing notes. Any line where the PO and the quote disagree, or where a requirement changes how the metal is processed, is marked for a person with the reason. It picks no tags and enters nothing in your ERP.

A description, not a part number. Plenty of POs describe metal in words, and the order has to be built from the attributes your system codes. Invera says INVEX takes spot quotes and orders by shortcut codes or product coding attributes native to the industry. One line can name grade, temper, size, finish and length in any order. Aluminum adds a suffix that matters: under ANSI H35.1, a Tx51 temper means stress relieved by stretching and applies to plate and rolled or cold-finished rod and bar, while extrusions carry Tx510 or Tx511. So 6061-T651 plate and 6061-T6511 extruded bar are different items, and a PO that says only T6 gets marked, not guessed.

Tolerance notes have rules behind them. ASTM revised A568 and A924 in November 2009 so steel sheet carries one default set of thickness tolerance tables, measured an inch from the edge. The 3/8-inch edge-distance tables became supplementary requirements that apply only when the PO calls them out. ASTM's article on the change says requests for one-half ASTM thickness tolerance should decline. When a PO carries a note like that, the draft copies it word for word and marks it for your reviewer, because what you can supply is your call.

Coil lines are shop instructions. A slit coil order names width, a maximum coil weight or pounds per inch of width, inside and outside diameter and often the edge. Worthington Steel's coil calculator works PIW out from ID, OD, width and thickness, and its glossary puts standard camber at no more than a quarter inch from straight in 8 feet, unless the customer sets a tighter limit. A PO asking for stretcher-leveled sheet is asking for a flattening step that stretches the steel past its yield point. The draft carries each instruction into the processing notes, since each one changes how the order runs.

Surface and spec notes travel too. ArcelorMittal's 2026 U.S. flat products book asks for the customer's end use and exposure on every PO and otherwise assumes an unexposed surface. It also says coil ordered to a plate specification ships as sheet, with certification to the plate spec left to the customer. When a customer PO names exposure, a plate spec on cut-from-coil product or a cert requirement, the draft carries it onto the order and routes it to your quality people. It never decides whether a heat qualifies.

Tags and releases. Enmark describes Eniteo with full tag traceability from receipt through processing to shipping, and inventory searches by chemical and physical properties. Choosing the tag stays with your team. Repeat business may arrive as releases against a contract; Invera lists contract orders for repetitive parts and JIT program sales among INVEX's flat-rolled cases. Your reviewer, often the order entry lead, checks product codes, tempers, tolerance notes, coil limits and release quantities against the order your team keyed.

After your reviewer says yes against the success criteria, the same job drafts orders from incoming POs for about 30 days.

A person approves each draft before it reaches your ERP, and tags, processing and anything touching quality stay with your team.

The next job is its own decision, with its own price.