Custom manufacturing
Quote a job that isn't in the catalogue: routing, materials and times rebuilt from your past jobs, consistent with your shop floor.
Who is it for?
For manufacturers who build to order: print, finishing, packaging, sheet-metal, plastics, machining, assembly. Worlds where every job has its own routing, imposition, materials and times, and where know-how lives in the memory of past jobs rather than a fixed catalogue.
The business need
Custom quoting relies on experienced estimators who spend hours rebuilding the routing by hand: imposition, basis weight, manufacturing stations, real-world cycle times. This know-how is rarely tooled: it lives in individual experience, which makes new-hire onboarding slow (12 to 18 months on average) and exposes the company as soon as it tries to accelerate growth.
And yet the raw material is already there: your past jobs. The right decisions are documented in your quotes, work orders and production history. The question is whether you can leverage them at the moment a new request lands.
How DARYL helps
DARYL learns your costing method from your past jobs, internal Excel models and shop-floor rules. On every new request, it surfaces similar jobs, proposes a routing, computes materials and times, and prices. The estimator stays in control: validate, adjust or ask for a variant.
Similarity search
DARYL surfaces nearby past jobs (size, quantity, material, fixing) and proposes a price range with its confidence interval.
Manufacturing routing
Rebuilt station by station (cutting, laminating, punching, packing, shipping) using your shop's real cycle times.
Materials & bill of materials
Sheet size, basis weight, imposition and consumables. DARYL applies your domain rules without starting from a blank page.
Analytical costing
Material cost, labour, subcontracting and margin lines. The offer matches your target profitability.
Industry examples
Print & finishing
Compute the routing of a wall calendar: cover size, imposition, basis weight and stations (laminating, punching, packing), then price from similar past jobs.
Packaging & POS displays
Rebuild a bill of materials and a routing from a customer request, factoring in materials, real cycle times and logistics constraints.
Sheet-metal & weldments
Break a custom part down into operations (cutting, bending, welding, treatment), estimate times and price against comparable jobs already produced.
Plastics & assemblies
Assess a multi-part product: materials, transformation steps, subcontracting, and generate a budgetary offer before engaging the design office.
Frequently asked questions
How do you price a job that isn't in any catalogue?
DARYL finds the closest past jobs in your archive (format, quantity, material, fastening) and proposes a price range with its confidence interval. It then rebuilds the manufacturing routing operation by operation and computes materials and times.
What data does DARYL learn our costing method from?
From your past jobs, your work orders, your production history, your internal Excel models and your shop-floor rules. The right decisions are already documented in those files: DARYL makes them usable at the moment a new request arrives.
Does the estimator stay in control of the result?
Yes. DARYL proposes the routing, the materials, the times and the pricing; the estimator validates, adjusts or asks for a variant. Every correction enriches the domain model for subsequent jobs.
How does this help onboard new estimators?
Custom costing usually rests on individual experience, which pushes onboarding of a new estimator to 12–18 months on average. By making the method explicit and reusable, DARYL reduces that dependency on the memory of jobs already produced.
Are our shop floor's real cycle times taken into account?
Yes. The routing is rebuilt operation by operation (cutting, laminating, perforating, packing, shipping) using your shop floor's real cycle times, not theoretical standards.
Which make-to-order industries does this cover?
Print and finishing, packaging and POS displays, sheet metal and weldments, plastics, mechanics and assemblies: every trade where each job has its own routing, materials and times.
Use your past jobs to win the next ones
Let's talk about your shop, your typical quotes and a DARYL pilot fed by your production history.
Request a demo