The product
InFaktory is an AI-assisted engineering and commercial workflow platform for die-casting manufacturers. It isn’t a single RFQ wizard bolted onto a spreadsheet — it’s a small, purpose-built system that covers the full span of a quoting operation: an RFQ pipeline, an AI-assisted engineering review workspace, a structured costing and quotation wizard, role-based approvals, a customer CRM, and reporting, all built around how a real die-casting shop’s RFQs actually move. The name is InFaktory’s own: In (intelligence) and Faktory (factory) — an intelligent factory that quotes, plans and decides with its own data.
The problem
Before InFaktory, an RFQ moved through the same disconnected tools most manufacturing businesses still rely on: the enquiry itself in email, drawings as PDFs, costing rebuilt from scratch in Excel for every part, follow-ups tracked over WhatsApp and phone calls, and a final quotation assembled by hand from whichever of those sources was still open. Every handoff between tools was a place for a transcription error, a lost follow-up, or a quote that went out without anyone checking whether the margin actually held up.
The digital approach
InFaktory is organised around the sequence a die-casting RFQ actually goes through, as seven connected modules rather than one monolithic form:
- RFQ pipeline (Inbox) — every enquiry lands as a new draft and moves through pending technical review, pending commercial review, approval and quoted, tracked on one board instead of scattered across email threads.
- AI Extraction — casting and machining drawings are read automatically for title-block data and dimensions; complex drawings are swept in tiles rather than as a single pass, specifically to keep accuracy high on dense, multi-feature parts.
- AutoBalloon / Engineering Review Workspace — every GD&T characteristic is numbered, balloon-placed and confidence-scored (Verified, High, Review, Manual), with the correct inspection gauge suggested per characteristic rather than left for an engineer to look up.
- AutoQuote wizard — a seven-step costing and quotation flow: casting info, machining details, process flow confirmation, costing, quotation, tooling and gauge capture, and export, carrying real alloy and process data (ADC12, A380, LM25, LM6, HPDC, CNC, broaching, anodizing) through to a structured cost build.
- Approvals — a dedicated queue separate from the RFQ itself, so technical and commercial sign-off happen deliberately rather than by someone assuming a quote was checked.
- Export — three distinct packages from the same approved RFQ: a full engineering package, an internal commercial workbook with live cost formulas, and a redacted customer-facing workbook that shows price and MOQ without exposing raw material rates, scrap percentages or machining rates.
- Customers (CRM) — every quoted RFQ resolves into a customer record automatically, with contacts, follow-ups and quote history building themselves rather than living in a separate contacts list.
Sitting around all seven: a Dashboard surfacing active RFQs, pending approvals and overdue follow-ups at a glance, and a Reports view tracking cycle time and win rate over time.
Why it’s built this way
Two decisions matter more than the feature list itself. First, nothing is a black box: every AI-extracted dimension carries a confidence score, and low-confidence items are flagged for an engineer to check rather than silently accepted — the same discipline this portfolio applies to every AI claim it makes. Second, a quotation isn’t just a document — before export, InFaktory scores the RFQ’s commercial readiness and flags specific risks (a genuinely useful example seen in practice: a quote flagged because its profit loading sat below the usual commercial safety buffer) rather than letting a quote go out on cost alone.
Product status
InFaktory is live and in active use inside a real die-casting manufacturing business, running on that business’s own drawings and RFQs. It is being made available to a small number of other manufacturers by request rather than as an open sign-up product. The three forward-looking platform pillars InFaktory has stated publicly — manufacturing analytics, quality/inspection intelligence, and broader workflow automation — are direction, not shipped functionality, and are described here only to that extent.
Result / current status
InFaktory is presented here as a working product, not a concept. The seven modules described above are the real platform, reflecting how RFQs are actually quoted today — a case study in what “manufacturing software” can mean beyond a website, built by someone who quotes the parts this system is built for.