Part knowledge at the machine
A small tool for the screen at each machine. Your people scan the job traveler, and the part comes up with its files, its pictures, its procedure, and every note and scrap story anyone has left on it. Adding to it takes a tap and a few spoken words, no typing, and AI turns what they said into something the next person can read in seconds.
6:40 AM. Job 24187-02 goes on the machine. Somebody scans the traveler.
The red panel keeps flashing until someone taps it. This part has been scrapped before, and somebody said why.
What happens next
Each step is marked with what does the work. AI listens, reads and drafts. Plain software finds the part, files things and does the math. A person approves anything that becomes the standard.
The traveler carries a job number. Jobs come and go, but the part runs again next year on a new job, so everything here hangs on the part number. The job gets looked up in your ERP, the part page opens, and the part's history from your ERP comes in behind it.
If the job isn't in your ERP, or your ERP can't be reached right then, the screen says which one. Nobody gets told a good job number is wrong.
Four panes. The part's files, sorted into the same six folders every time. Its pictures. Its lessons and procedure. Its scrap stories.
The big panels at the top flash until somebody taps them. They go quiet for a week, then flash again, and they flash right away if anyone adds something new. On a screen at a machine the browser never closes, so "they already saw it" can't be allowed to mean forever.
One big button at the bottom of the screen: Record note. Talk it through. AI turns the recording into words and writes a one-line heading, so the next person gets the point at a glance.
Part numbers and tool names get misheard sometimes, so the words come up to read first. Fix any of them and the heading is rewritten to match. Nothing moves on until somebody taps. If the words couldn't be made out at all, it says so plainly, and the recording is kept.
Shim the back jaw .002 or it rocks
Needs a .002 shim under the back jaw on Op 030.
"On the finish op you gotta put a two thou shim under the back jaw, otherwise it rocks when you come in with the boring bar. Shims are in the drawer under the vise."
Saved. Read it over. Nothing moves until you tap.
Then one question: what does this note apply to? The whole part, or one operation. The list comes straight off the setup sheet your programmer already makes. When a setup sheet lands in the part's folder, plain software reads the operations, tools and programmed times out of it.
One tap, and the note sits with the op it's about.
Operations read from the setup sheet filed under 04 Setup sheets.
Scrap stories get their own red button. It asks what happened and what they learned, then two quick follow-ups they can skip: what they'd do differently, and what it cost in time or material.
AI reads the story and pulls out the cause, what contributed, and how to prevent it. When it isn't sure, the card says to check it. The story itself sits right under the analysis in their own words, with the recording.
"First two came out a thou and a half big on the bore. I changed the insert and never touched the tool off again. Touched it off and the rest were good."
Analysis
Prevention
Drop drawings, programs and setup sheets on the part page and each one is filed by its name. One word does it: print, setup sheet, cert. Capitals, dashes and typos still work, and big program files upload fine.
When one lands in the wrong place, there's a Move button on every file, so nobody has to go digging through your file storage to fix it.
| File | Filed to |
|---|---|
| RH-4410-C Detail Print Rev C.pdf | 01 Drawings |
| RH-4410-C OP20.nc | 02 Programs |
| RH-4410-C setpu sheet OP30.pdf | 04 Setup sheets |
| RH-4410-C Material Cert.pdf | 05 Reference |
Wrong folder? Every file has a Move button. Two taps.
Once a part has enough notes, a foreman taps Lock procedure. AI reads every note and scrap story on that part and drafts a procedure in sections: setup, tooling, watch-fors, material, first article, rescue. It's told to use only what the notes say, and to leave a section empty rather than fill it in.
Then the foreman goes through it one section at a time. Looks right. Fix it, by saying out loud what's wrong, and AI rewrites that section with the correction. Or skip it. Only what the foreman approves gets published to the part page.
8 notes will be analyzed to draft a procedure. You'll review each section before publishing.
Finish bore with the .750 boring bar at 1,100 RPM. Touch the tool off after every insert change.
"Make that a thousand RPM on the finish pass. The bar chatters at eleven hundred."
Rewritten
After a procedure is published, every new note on that part gets read against it. The question is simple: does this note say something different, or add something the procedure doesn't have?
If it does, the foreman gets a drift alert with the note one tap away, and can dismiss it or reopen just that section of the procedure. The procedure never changes on its own.
Note says the finish bore runs clean at 900 RPM; the procedure says 1,000.
Marisol T. · 2 days ago
Actual run times come in from your ERP. Plain software lines them up against the programmed time from the setup sheet and the time you quoted. When an operation runs a quarter over or under what was programmed, the next time a foreman opens that part it asks what happened.
The answer is a spoken note like any other, and AI reads it for a cause the same way it reads a scrap story.
| Quoted | Programmed | Actual | vs quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14m 0s | 12m 30s | 17m 15s | +23% |
Where the AI is, and where it isn't
AI is very good at turning a machinist's words into something the next person can read in a few seconds. It isn't exact, so it never gets the last word here. The words can be fixed before anyone relies on them, the recording is kept, a foreman approves every section of a procedure, and an AI label never hides a note from anyone.
It had to earn it
I recorded a note on a part, went back to the part page, and it wasn't there. I refreshed. Still gone.
Nothing was lost. The note had saved fine. The AI had labeled it "general," and the screen was only set up to show lessons and scrap stories, so a general note had nowhere to go. And because the label lands a moment after the save, a note like that could show up at first and then vanish on the next load. To the person who recorded it, that looks exactly like the tool ate their note.
So now every note lands in exactly one place on that screen, and a test checks it before anything ships. That's what making one of these hold looks like. You find the spot where the AI's guess was quietly deciding what people get to see, and you take that decision away from it.
Built once, adapted to yours
Everything above is the tool as it runs today. The parts that do the hard work stay the same. What it hangs the knowledge on, and who signs off on it, get fitted to your operation.
Work instructions and the things to watch for, per station instead of per machine.
Changeover notes per product and per line.
History and fixes per machine, so the next breakdown starts where the last one ended.
How it gets set up
Job lookups, past runs and actual run times come from your ERP. Your files stay where your files already live. Nothing gets replaced.
Your traveler barcode, your folder layout, the setup sheets your programmers already make, and who can lock a procedure and move files.
A browser tab on the computer already at each station. The barcode scanner your people already use types the traveler straight into it.
Your people add notes and scrap stories as they run parts. When a part has enough, a foreman reviews the draft and publishes it.
Quoted up front, no hourly billing. I host it and keep it running, and a care plan covers fixes and changes as your work changes. The code is yours, and I'll transfer it to you at any time.
Linked Operations · AI implementation for manufacturers
Tell me where that know-how lives today and what happens when the person who has it is out. I'll tell you straight whether a tool like this fits, whether something lighter would do, or whether it isn't worth it for you.
Email Jason →Jason Markham
Nearly 25 years in manufacturing, including a decade running a machine shop. I build these tools myself, and they run every day.
I help manufacturers and distributors implement AI, automate workflows, and reduce errors with small, focused software builds that take over the back office work: the data, the paperwork, the busywork between the systems they already run.