How your shop works through problems

Customer drawings are usually the first question from manufacturers. Anything owned by customers is reviewed in scoping and can stay out.

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What is usually valuable

Years of running a shop leave a deep history of how parts get built and problems get fixed:

Work instructions, routings and setup notes
Inspection records, nonconformance reports and corrective actions
Supplier quotes along with the conversations around them
Production and stock history held in your ERP or MES

The first worry: customer drawings

Building parts to customer drawings under NDA is common. Whether they can be included comes down to your contracts, and your own counsel should answer that. Customer-owned material is reviewed in scoping and can be excluded, and every customer name in the copy is replaced with a placeholder. Anything under defense or aerospace controls can be flagged and kept out altogether.

Your process stays yours

A license covers a copy, never your know-how. Your original records stay in your systems, untouched, and your team keeps working in them. Any process, product line or period you see as core to the business can stay out.

The usual fit

The usual fit is a manufacturer of 20 or more full-time staff with 3 or more years of records in an ERP, quality system, email or shared drives. A smaller shop with a long and well documented history can qualify as well. Your products have no effect on the estimate.

Questions owners in this field ask

Do we have to include every system?: No. A well kept quality system or a folder of work instructions can be enough to start.
Who on our side should be involved?: Normally the owner or plant manager, the person who runs your ERP and file shares, and whoever handles customer contracts.
Does this affect production?: No. Your originals stay where they are, and the floor keeps running on the same systems.

How the copy is made and checked

The first step is an NDA. License Your Data, our licensing partner, makes a de-identified copy where customers, suppliers and staff become placeholders. At no point are passwords requested or handed over. Any system, folder or customer can be excluded, and a sample comes to you for approval before anything goes out. There is no cost to you.

Find out what your records might be worth

A specialist from License Your Data calls within minutes to set up a 15-minute call.

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