AI for Manufacturing
That Earns Its Keep.
Every vendor calling your shop has AI to sell. Most of it never leaves the demo.
We find the work in your shop where AI pays, fix the data it depends on, and put it inside the systems you already run. Your AI readiness assessment is included.
Judgment first.
Software second.
RADIN helps mid-market manufacturers build and protect their investment in AI with an independent AI readiness assessment before any deal is signed, an optional fractional Chief AI Officer, and the ERP and CRM systems to match, with no software quota behind the advice.
• HEAR IT FROM A CLIENT
See what our clients say
“RADIN stepped in and salvaged a very significant go-live date in two or three months, when we were at a failure point. That was massive for us as an organization. You said, listen, we can do this, and you’ve been able to do that.”
Rick Pace
HME. Three years working with RADIN.
Where AI pays in a plant
Six jobs AI can take off your team’s plate, once the data holds.
Quotes take days. AI drafts from past jobs, so the estimator starts halfway.
Job cost shows up late. Drift gets flagged while the job’s still on the floor.
Late orders surprise you. Schedule risk shows up while you can still move it.
Answers live in binders. Ask in plain English and get the spec, with the source.
The prime wants paperwork. Certs and traceability pulled together in minutes.
The veteran retires. What they know is already in the system.
AI that reads bad data gives you wrong answers faster.
So we fix the foundation first. You can’t put a fancy roof on a cracked slab.
• THE GUIDE, BY PARKER HENDRICKS
Our view: most shops under 100 people should get job costing right before they buy any AI tool. AI that reads bad cost data just gives you wrong answers faster.
What AI for manufacturing actually means
Take away the demos and AI in a plant does two kinds of work. It finds things, like the last time you quoted a similar part or the spec a customer sent in 2023. And it predicts things, like which order is about to run late or which machine is drifting. Both depend on records your shop already keeps in the ERP, the CRM and a pile of spreadsheets.
That’s why the results are so uneven. In 2025, MIT’s NANDA group found that 95% of organizations were getting zero return from their generative AI spending (MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide, 2025). The same study found that projects built with an outside partner reached deployment about twice as often as the ones companies built on their own. The tools weren’t the difference. The groundwork was.
AI in manufacturing examples that pay
These are the places we see AI earn its keep first in shops with 20 to 1,000 people.
| Where | What AI does | What it needs from you |
|---|---|---|
| Quoting | Pulls past jobs, material costs and routings for a similar part, so the estimator starts from a draft. | Quote and job history in one place |
| Job costing | Flags jobs drifting over estimate while they’re still on the floor. | Labor and material posted against the job |
| Scheduling | Reads due dates, capacity and machine status together and warns you about late orders early. | A schedule that lives in a system, not on a whiteboard |
| Customer paperwork | Pulls certs, traceability records and quality documents together when a customer asks. | Documents stored where the system can reach them |
| Shop knowledge | Answers questions from work instructions and specs, with the source document attached. | Instructions written down somewhere |
Notice the right-hand column. Every one of those examples is a data job before it’s an AI job, and that’s the part most vendors skip.
Where AI doesn’t pay yet
If your job costs are a month late, your inventory count is a guess or your schedule lives on a whiteboard, AI will read those numbers and give you confident answers that are wrong. Fix the foundation first. You can’t put a fancy roof on a cracked slab.
Ways to get AI-ready, compared
There’s more than one honest way to approach this, and one of them is to wait.
| Approach | What it costs you | Who’s behind the advice | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do nothing yet | Nothing now. Some ground lost if competitors get their data in order first. | No one | Your core systems are mid-change or the business is in a crunch |
| The software vendor’s free assessment | No fee. The plan tends to end in that vendor’s product. | A seller with a quota | You’ve already chosen the platform and want help sizing it |
| A large consulting firm | Usually the most expensive route, with a long engagement. | A firm that often resells or implements software | You’re a large enterprise with a big internal team |
| Build it in house | Staff time, plus the cost of getting it wrong on your own. | Your own people | You have developers with spare time and clean data |
| An independent AI readiness assessment | Included when you work with RADIN. | Advisors with no software quota | You want to know where AI fits before anyone sells you anything |
We build on the Microsoft stack, and where that genuinely fits your shop we’ll scope it. So here’s the rule we hold ourselves to: we disclose what we earn on anything we recommend.
What happens in the assessment
We look at the work first. Which jobs eat your team’s hours, which data those jobs depend on, and which systems hold that data. You get a ranked list of where AI would do useful work, what has to be fixed before each one, and a plain view of whether it’s worth starting now.
Where to start. Book a 30 minute call. Bring the workflow you want to fix, or the proposal someone just sent you. Your AI readiness assessment is included, and if your shop isn’t ready for AI yet, you’ll hear it from us first. Book a 30 minute call.
The Microsoft work
behind the plan
As a Microsoft Partner we build on Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform when the plan says so. We still hold no software quota.
What we build for manufacturers
Three products. Each one closes a blind spot the last one left open.
RADIN AI Solutions
Move beyond dashboards and reports. RADIN AI helps manufacturers predict disruptions, identify inefficiencies, and take action faster by transforming operational data into practical, business-ready intelligence.
Business Central for Manufacturers
Disconnected operations create costly blind spots. Business Central brings finance, inventory, production, purchasing, and supply chain together in a single system so leaders can make faster decisions with greater confidence.
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for Manufacturers
Stop chasing information across emails, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools. Dynamics 365 CE helps manufacturers manage customers, service, sales, and relationships in one connected platform, giving teams the visibility needed to win and retain business.
Where the AI layer sits
The green box marks the RADIN layer. It sits on top of the systems you already run, inside the tools your team already opens.
The Microsoft work
behind the plan
As a Microsoft Partner we build on Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform when the plan says so. We still hold no software quota.
What we build for manufacturers
Three products. Each one closes a blind spot the last one left open.
RADIN AI Solutions
Move beyond dashboards and reports. RADIN AI helps manufacturers predict disruptions, identify inefficiencies, and take action faster by transforming operational data into practical, business-ready intelligence.
Business Central for Manufacturers
Disconnected operations create costly blind spots. Business Central brings finance, inventory, production, purchasing, and supply chain together in a single system so leaders can make faster decisions with greater confidence.
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for Manufacturers
Stop chasing information across emails, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools. Dynamics 365 CE helps manufacturers manage customers, service, sales, and relationships in one connected platform, giving teams the visibility needed to win and retain business.
Where the AI layer sits
The green box marks the RADIN layer. It sits on top of the systems you already run, inside the tools your team already opens.
Know where AI fits before
anyone sells you anything.
The assessment looks at your workflows, your data and your systems, and ranks where AI would do useful work. It’s included when you work with us, and the answer is yours to keep.
Start where your shop is
A broken system needs the foundation first. Decent systems with no AI plan need the judgment. Most shops need both, in that order.
-
AI readiness assessment
Included when you work with us. Where AI fits on your floor and where it doesn't, before a dollar is spent. -
Fractional Chief AI Officer
$5,000 a month, 90 days then month to month. 16 hours, tracked. Any vendor quote answered inside 48 hours. -
CRM Health Check
Free. A current-state map, a 90-day plan and a one-pager for the board. Shops from $10M and 20 people. -
ERP for manufacturers
From $10M to $300M, with our own tool for the move off QuickBooks or a legacy system. -
CRM for manufacturers
Quoting and the customer file, connected to the floor and the books. Built only for manufacturers.
The numbers behind this
MIT found 95% of organizations got zero return from generative AI, and projects with an outside partner reached deployment about twice as often (MIT NANDA, 2025). Start with judgment.
Zero
software quota behind our advice
Start where your shop is
A broken system needs the foundation first. Decent systems with no AI plan need the judgment. Most shops need both, in that order.
-
AI readiness assessment
Included when you work with us. Where AI fits on your floor and where it doesn't, before a dollar is spent. -
Fractional Chief AI Officer
$5,000 a month, 90 days then month to month. 16 hours, tracked. Any vendor quote answered inside 48 hours. -
CRM Health Check
Free. A current-state map, a 90-day plan and a one-pager for the board. Shops from $10M and 20 people. -
ERP for manufacturers
From $10M to $300M, with our own tool for the move off QuickBooks or a legacy system. -
CRM for manufacturers
Quoting and the customer file, connected to the floor and the books. Built only for manufacturers.
The numbers behind this
MIT found 95% of organizations got zero return from generative AI, and projects with an outside partner reached deployment about twice as often (MIT NANDA, 2025). Start with judgment.
Zero
software quota behind our advice
Questions
AI for Manufacturing: Common Questions
What are the best AI use cases in manufacturing?
For shops with 20 to 1,000 people, the first wins are usually quoting from job history, job costing while the job runs, and finding answers in your own documents. They save hours every week and they run on data you already keep.
What does the AI readiness assessment cost?
It’s included when you work with us. We start with a 30 minute call, then agree the scope and timing of your assessment with you.
Is our data used to train someone else's model?
We build on Microsoft’s commercial cloud, where your prompts and business records stay inside your own tenant and aren’t used to train the public models.
Do we need to replace our ERP or CRM first?
Usually not. We start with the systems you run today, and we’ll tell you plainly if one of them has to be fixed before AI can do useful work.
What if our shop isn't ready for AI?
Then you’ll hear it from us first, along with what to fix and in what order. That answer is yours to keep.
• Built only for manufacturers
We know which floors
we belong on
Manufacturing of every kind, from job shops and fabricators to machinery builders and the suppliers feeding aerospace, defense, medical and electronics.
Who we work with
Manufacturers with 20 to 1,000 people and $10M+ in revenue, from founder-led job shops to larger manufacturing organizations. If aging or disconnected systems are holding you back, we help you plan and deliver the right AI, ERP, and CRM improvements.
Manufacturing
Know what a job really cost. See the floor without three phone calls.
• Built only for manufacturers
We know which floors
we belong on
Manufacturing of every kind, from job shops and fabricators to machinery builders and the suppliers feeding aerospace, defense, medical and electronics.
Who we work with
Manufacturers with 20 to 1,000 people and $10M+ in revenue, from founder-led job shops to larger manufacturing organizations. If aging or disconnected systems are holding you back, we help you plan and deliver the right AI, ERP, and CRM improvements.
Manufacturing
Know what a job really cost. See the floor without three phone calls.
People who have stood
where you stand
Parker Hendricks grew up on the floor of his father’s metal fabrication shop in Monroe, Georgia. He holds the AI seat at the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance and hosts The unManufactured Show.
Sixteen years of Dynamics delivery behind him, a hybrid US and offshore team, and one rule: we show up, we do what we say, and we don’t disappear after the handshake.
“We build on the Microsoft stack, and where it fits your shop we will scope it. So here is our rule: we disclose what we earn on anything we recommend.”
Parker Hendricks, VP of Sales
People who have stood
where you stand
Parker Hendricks grew up on the floor of his father’s metal fabrication shop in Monroe, Georgia. He holds the AI seat at the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance and hosts The unManufactured Show.
Sixteen years of Dynamics delivery behind him, a hybrid US and offshore team, and one rule: we show up, we do what we say, and we don’t disappear after the handshake.
“We build on the Microsoft stack, and where it fits your shop we will scope it. So here is our rule: we disclose what we earn on anything we recommend.”
Parker Hendricks, VP of Sales
Book a 30 minute call
Bring the AI pitch someone just sent you, or the workflow you want to fix. If your shop isn’t ready for AI yet, you’ll hear it from us first. That answer is yours to keep.
