Example automations applied to the paperwork between the print and the part.
RFQs, drawings, outside processes, CoCs, shop status — adapt to your Gmail and Sheets.
InTouch is a general-purpose automation platform. This page shows how it can be applied to small-shop manufacturing workflows using example skills and jobs from the InTouch Hub. The same platform runs in other industries and handles workflows we haven't published examples for.
The examples below handle the spec/quote/release/ship paperwork that lives between your front desk and the shop floor.
These are examples, not turnkey products. Every shop has its own quote log, traveler flow, and CoC template. Read the README and YAML for each before running.
Email comes in from 15 customers a day. Some are real RFQs with prints attached, some are status checks on quotes you sent two weeks ago, some are change orders. Triaging by hand is a half-hour every morning.
Customer sends rev D on Tuesday. You're already running rev C since Monday. By the time anyone notices, you've got 40 parts you can't sell. Extracting the part number and rev from each PDF title block doesn't have to be a human job.
Heat treat lot at the vendor since the 14th, supposedly back yesterday. You call to check. Spreadsheet says nothing. The job needs them for the assembly tomorrow.
Every shipment needs a Certificate of Conformance. Same template every time, but each customer has tweaks: their PO number, your traveler number, the material lot, the heat-treat cert reference, the inspector who signed off. 15 minutes per shipment that doesn't have to be human.
Drawing calls out AMS 2750. Your QE manager knows it; the lead programmer doesn't. A fast structured summary of what the spec requires, what's typical, and what shops get wrong saves a half-hour Google search.
How many open quotes? Rush queue depth? Stale RFQs to chase? Shipments waiting on CoC? You know it by feel. A printed one-pager at 7 AM saves you a brain dump.
Reference and analysis tools tuned to aerospace/medical/general-machining vocabulary.
Paste an AMS, ASTM, MIL-STD, NAS, ASME, or ISO spec number. Get a 60-second orientation: title, scope, key requirements, who invokes it, common pitfalls, verification trail. Refers you to the actual document for exact numbers (specs are copyrighted).
Paste a GD&T callout or describe a feature; get a plain-English breakdown of what the tolerance is asking for, how it's measured, and what often gets confused with what.
Customer calls out AMS 5604 (17-4 H1075). Stockless. What are the practical substitutes, what's the customer-approval risk, and what cert paperwork changes? Answers with sourcing context.
Sanity check a quote. Given the part scope and your hourly rates, returns hours/labor/material/markup breakdown plus risks that could blow the price. Pairs with your real estimating process.
Scheduled or trigger-driven. Read from Gmail labels and Google Sheets you maintain, digest to the channel of your choice.
Polls Gmail for new RFQ emails. Claude classifies each one: customer, project, parts, rush vs standard, complexity. Logged to a QuoteLog Sheet, digest to the front office.
Watches Gmail for drawing-revision emails. Extracts part number + revision from each PDF title block via Claude, looks the part up in DrawingsTracker, archives the old drawing on rev change, alerts production. Catches rev changes mid-production before parts get made wrong.
When a ShipLog row flips to "ready-for-coc", generates the Certificate of Conformance PDF from a template + the row's data (PO, traveler, lot, inspector). Customer-specific tweaks supported via per-customer template overrides.
Tracks lots out for heat treat, plating, anodize, NDT. Alerts on lots stale past the promised return date. Pairs with your traveler workflow.
Once-a-day plain-text digest of open quotes, rush queue, stale RFQs to chase, shipments ready for CoC, CoCs sent today. Goes to the owner subscriber via the channel you've configured.
Weekly digest of quotes you sent 7+ days ago without a response. The owner decides who to call; the job is the nag.
Download the free Personal edition of InTouch. Browse the InTouch Hub, pick the jobs and skills you want, click Install. Or use the REST API.
Each job has placeholders (Sheet IDs, Gmail labels, credential names, recipient publishers). Read the README, set the placeholders, point at your actual sources. Verify locally before scheduling.
Attach a daily/hourly schedule. InTouch runs the job, sends the digest to your channel (email, Slack, Discord, Teams), and logs every run.
Being upfront so there are no surprises:
Personal edition is free. Install on your shop-office PC, paste your service account JSON, point at your QuoteLog and ShipLog Sheets.