FRAMEWORK FOR MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGYFORMAT · FRAMEWORK FOR MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
FORMAT ERP is designed to connect estimating, PMR, quotes, customer POs, work orders, purchasing, quality, inventory, shipping, and invoicing into one traceable workflow built for shops that actually make parts.
One traceable chain — from first RFQ to final invoice.
01 / LIFECYCLE
FORMAT ERP is built around the way work flows through a shop — every stage hands complete, traceable information to the next.
01
RFQ
02
Estimate
03
PMR
04
Quote
05
Customer PO
06
Work Order
07
Purchasing
08
Receiving
09
Quality
10
Shipment
11
Invoice
12
Intelligence
01
RFQ
02
Estimate
03
PMR
04
Quote
05
Customer PO
06
Work Order
07
Purchasing
08
Receiving
09
Quality
10
Shipment
11
Invoice
12
Intelligence
02 / QUOTE SPEED
Quoting fast and accurately leads to more wins. Template-driven estimating with quantity breaks and live costing is built to take a part from RFQ to a customer-ready quote PDF before your competitor has opened their spreadsheet.
Pull a proven estimate template — operations, materials, outside processing, and costing logic already in place.
Quantity breaks price themselves from the same manufacturing assumptions, not a guess.
A customer-ready quote PDF, with the assumptions preserved behind the price for the day the PO lands.
Fast is good. Fast and accurate — from real costing logic — is what wins the PO.
Qty breaks
25
$148.20
50
$112.40
100
$94.75
Templates
for repeatable quote preparation
1 source
of costing truth across every quote
0 retyping
estimates flow into PMRs and work orders
03 / MODULES
Each module is designed to hand complete information to the next — so the details that protect quality, margin, and delivery never get lost between departments.
Build consistent estimates from templates, quantity breaks, materials, outside processing, BOM items, labor, machine time, and costing logic — then turn them into customer-ready quotes while preserving the manufacturing assumptions behind the price.
EST · QT
A controlled manufacturing source of truth for each part: approved prints, revisions, operations, materials, outside processes, BOM, and documents that flow into work orders.
PMR
Give production the information needed to build the part: operation sequence, readiness status, controlled documents, completion quantities, and resource links.
WO
Vendor POs can carry material or outside processing details, flowdowns, cert requirements, receiving records, supplier performance, and traceability.
VPO
Built to support AS9100-style discipline: controlled documents, flowdowns, inspection, FAI direction, NCR, RMA, corrective actions, training, and audit evidence.
NCR · FAI
COTS Inventory for purchased shop items with reorder cards and QR order queues — separate from manufactured Part Inventory with WIP, allocation, and shipment traceability.
COTS · INV
Create invoices, packing slips, labels, shipment records, and certificates while preserving the customer PO, work order, part revision, quantity, and terms.
INV · SHP
Connected lifecycle data is designed to support margin feedback, actual-vs-estimated analysis, supplier performance, and future AI-assisted quoting and workflow guidance.
AI
04 / THE PROBLEM
Most shops run on a patchwork of spreadsheets, PDFs, emails, and tribal knowledge. Every handoff is a place where requirements, certs, and margin quietly leak.
05 / TRACEABILITY
Human-readable record numbers and related-records architecture mean any quote, PO, work order, cert, or invoice can be traced to everything it touched — in either direction.
EST-1042 means something on the shop floor. UUIDs don't.
Each record shows what created it and what it created — quotes know their estimates, invoices know their work orders.
Receiving, certs, inspections, and shipments are captured during the workflow, so audit trails exist before anyone asks.
06 / QUALITY EVIDENCE
Most shops balloon prints in one tool, inspect in another, and staple the FAI package together at the end. FORMAT ERP is one connected system — the document flow never leaves, and every balloon stays linked to the part, work order, and customer PO behind it.
Characteristics are ballooned directly on the PMR's controlled print — the same released revision production runs from.
Each balloon carries its requirement, tolerance, and inspection method — inspection results build the FAI package as the work happens, not after.
Print → balloons → characteristics → inspection → FAI package. Every step lives in one system, designed to support AS9102-style FAI documentation without a single export.
The FAI package knows its PMR revision, work order, customer PO, and flowdowns — audit evidence as a by-product of doing the job.
8 of 43 characteristics inspected · Gauge cal verified
Every machine, gauge, and fixture is an asset record — calibration schedules, PM history, certs, check events, and documents. Designed so the gauge that measured characteristic 33 is calibrated, on file, and traceable the day the audit asks.
The quality management system is built in — not bolted on. Evidence accumulates while the work happens, so audits strengthen the system instead of stopping the shop.
INTERNAL AUDITS
Run your internal audit program against the records production already creates. Findings become CARs with root cause and closure evidence — tracked in the same system they came from, so every audit cycle strengthens the QMS instead of stopping the shop.
EXTERNAL AUDITS
When the registrar or a customer auditor arrives, FAI packages, certs, training records, and calibration logs are pulled from the connected record graph in seconds — evidence on file, not reconstructed for weeks.
07 / INVENTORY
Pick and pull cards on the shelf, QR scan-to-queue at the moment stock runs low, and a vendor PO bridge that turns an empty bin into an order — designed so replenishment happens on the floor, not in a spreadsheet.
Reorder cards · Print at any size
COTS-0417 · SHCS 1/4-20 × 1in
4 × 6 in
COTS-0233 · NITRILE O-RING -214
3 × 2 in
COTS-0098 · DEBURR WHEEL
2 × 1 in
PULL CARD → SCAN QR → ORDER QUEUE → VENDOR PO → RECEIVE → BIN
Two-bin style kanban: pull the card when the bin runs low, scan it, and the item lands in the order queue with its vendor, quantity, and bin already attached.
Cards and labels print from templates in the sizes your shelving and parts actually need — bin tags to full traveler cards.
Part, component, bin, and shipment labels are template-driven — designed so customer-specific marking, part numbers, revisions, and barcodes follow their flowdown requirements, not a fixed format.
The order queue rolls up into vendor POs with receiving and cert traceability — the same connected trail as everything else in FORMAT.
Label and card formats are template-driven — sized to your bins, shelves, and customer flowdowns.
08 / PREVIEW
Quotes, PMRs, and work orders are structured, controlled records — not free-text tickets. Here's the shape of the thing.
Quote
Part
PMR-100245 · REV C
PMR
Operations
Work Order
Operations
Readiness
Stylized previews. Request a demo to see the live platform with your own workflow.
09 / PLATFORM DIRECTION
FORMAT ERP is being built in deliberate phases. Foundations first — intelligence on top of connected data, not instead of it.
Related records, human-readable numbering, audit history.
Controlled part records feeding production.
Vendor POs, receiving, certs, COTS and part inventory.
Quote-to-cash continuity with documents.
Inspection, FAI, NCR/CAR/PAR, training evidence.
Equipment, PM schedules, calibration records.
Actual-vs-estimated, margin and supplier feedback.
Roadmap includes AI-assisted quoting and workflow guidance.
10 / FAQ
Precision manufacturing shops — CNC machining, aerospace, defense, medical, and mixed-process production — that need quoting, production, purchasing, quality, inventory, and invoicing connected in one traceable lifecycle.
11 / REQUEST DEMO
Tell us about your shop and the workflow pain that costs you the most. We'll show you exactly how it maps.
A working session, not a slide deck.
We walk your lifecycle — RFQ to invoice.
Built by people who understand job shops.