Insights and Trends Blog
Stay updated with the latest insights, trends, and tips across various topics to keep ahead of the curve.
How do you respond smartly to developments within the metalworking industry?
The metalworking industry has undergone a number of innovations in recent decades. Many companies knew how to take advantage of this but a few missed the boat and had to close their doors.
Popular Posts
All Posts
AI & AutomationFrom Software to Agents: What the Next Leap in Metalworking Looks Like
Metalworking is entering a new era — not just smarter software, but agentic systems that capture specialist knowledge and scale expert judgment across the business. A CEO's perspective on why this shift matters and what it means for the industry.
Technology & InnovationCustomer Data Management as a Core Part of the Quotation Factory Vision
How Quotation Factory uses Customer Data Management and Segment to connect quoting workflows, project events, and lifecycle data into a unified customer journey — creating visibility, traceability, and operational intelligence for metalworking businesses.
AI & AutomationThe Smart Factory Signal: It’s Not Token Burn, It’s Where the Tokens Burn
Token burn alone is not a reliable signal of AI maturity. What truly matters is where tokens are being consumed — in transformation programs or in the daily operations of the factory itself. A framework for distinguishing AI ambition from real operational intelligence.
Technology & InnovationFrom Rigid Standards to Semantic Systems
Why the LLM era changes how we think about B2B integration. Exploring the shift from rigid, standards-based message formats like UBL and SCSN to semantic, agent-driven collaboration — and what this means for the future of digital supply chains in metalworking.
Technology & InnovationExcel Isn’t “Outdated” — Misusing It Is
Excel isn't the problem — misusing it is. A practical look at the difference between Excel as a database (bad) and Excel as a calculation engine (powerful), and how Quotation Factory uses spreadsheet-based estimators within a governed, versioned platform to model complex quoting and manufacturing logic.
AI & AutomationMCP: How AI Connects Directly to Your Business Data in Quotation Factory
Quotation Factory now has a native MCP server — allowing AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to connect directly to your project data. Read project overviews, create new projects, upload CAD files, and generate quotes, all from your AI environment. Here's what's already possible and the bigger vision of AI agents that automate your entire RFQ intake.
AI & AutomationWhy AI Is Not a Feature for Quotation Factory – But a New Foundation
Based on a livestream with Wim Dijkgraaf, founder & CEO of Quotation Factory – why AI is not just another feature but a seismic shift in how software is built, and how Quotation Factory is transforming into an agentic development company and manufacturing operating system for high-mix, low-volume manufacturers.
Business & StrategyHow Seven Years of Runway and the Rise of AI Changed the Way I Think
Seven years of startup runway and the rise of AI forced me to rebuild my entire way of thinking. Here's what I learned — and why it matters for manufacturing leaders navigating the AI era.
Technology & InnovationFrom Scripts to Signals: Why High-Mix, Low-Volume Factories Need Event-Driven Thinking
Why high-mix, low-volume factories need to shift from scripts and file watchers to event-driven architecture. Learn the difference between messaging and events, and how this foundation enables AI-ready, self-learning production systems.
Business & StrategyThe Quote Factory Operating System
Rethinking High-Mix/Low-Volume manufacturing through commercial precision. Learn how quoting operates as a high-volume, high-precision prediction system and why the Quote Factory Operating System (QFOS) is essential for scaling HMLV businesses.
AI & AutomationERP Is Doomed – Especially in High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing
“ERP is doomed.“ When I write or say that, people react. Some ERP vendors get defensive. Some customers get worried and ask: “Wim, are you saying ERP will disappear?“ This article explores why traditional ERP is fundamentally incompatible with an AI-driven world, especially in high-mix, low-volume manufacturing.
AI & AutomationSmart Factory ≠ More Apps: What 2025 Taught Me
In 2025, green numbers finally appeared on our dashboard. But profitability felt more like coming up for air after almost drowning, not like winning a race. Here's what AI really taught us about smart factories.
Technology & InnovationThe ExDA Manifesto for Intelligible Operations
ExDA: Expectation Driven Architecture. We are uncovering better ways of running complex systems by preserving expectations and learning from evidence.
Manufacturing & OperationsFrom Unified Namespace to a Manufacturing 'Belief System'
A research exploration into learning operations in High-Mix Manufacturing. What if manufacturing systems explicitly preserved what they believed — not just what happened?
Manufacturing & OperationsFit2Train (part 3) - Decisions Are Your Real Production System
Why High-Mix Manufacturing Doesn't Fail Because of Variability — but Because It Can't Learn. In high-mix manufacturing, your real production system is not your machines. It is the way decisions are made, revised, and remembered.
Manufacturing & OperationsWhy 'First Stability, Then Improvement' **Never** Works in High-Mix Manufacturing
Insights from my Fit2Learn live stream. In high-mix manufacturing, that calm moment you're waiting for almost never comes. Learn why waiting for stability before improving is a trap.
Manufacturing & OperationsHigh Mix Is Not Your Problem. It's Your Advantage.
What if high mix doesn't hold you back, it just means bad decisions hurt faster? Intelligence does not grow from repetition. It grows from contrast.
AI & AutomationThe Computer Is Also Human: What 2025 Taught Me About Metalworking, Software and AI
Reflections from Wim's daily Metal Minutes – live from Brazil. In metalworking we are still in love with our machines. But more and more, our real leverage sits in what you don't see on the shop floor.
Technology & InnovationState Machines - the Hidden Engine of Every Digital-First Metalworking Company
Beneath all digital technologies sits one foundational concept that quietly determines whether your digital journey succeeds or fails: State machines. The logic that defines how a factory truly behaves.
Technology & InnovationA Major Leap Forward for Digital Transformation in Metalworking
Introducing the Next-Generation Edge Connector: Event-Driven, Workflow-Enabled, and Built for the Future of Manufacturing. The Quotation Factory Edge Connector has evolved into a full event-driven, workflow-oriented automation platform.
AI & AutomationAI, Abundance and the End of Jobs as Our Operating System
We're not just talking about jobs. We're talking about the end of the labour-based economy as our default operating system. The core message of Emad Mostaque's book The Last Economy and David Shapiro's work on Post-Labor Economics.
Technology & InnovationIf you still pay six figures a year for ERP/CRM/PLM/MES licenses and “implementation partners”, this is for you.
Because the uncomfortable truth is: commercial ERP, CRM, PLM and MES – as you know them today – are doomed. And that's good news for metalworking companies.
Manufacturing & OperationsThe Supply Chain Is Not a Process. It's a Thinking Game.
Most manufacturers still talk about their process as if it's a fixed, linear thing. Inquiry → estimate → order → production → delivery.
Technology & Innovation“Swing in Steel” — How AI Swarms Will Transform Manufacturing
By Wim Dijkgraaf, CEO & Founder of Quotation Factory In competitive rowing, there is a rare and almost mystical moment athletes call "swing." It's when the entire crew moves in perfect unison. The ...