ProShop + on-prem AI
AI for ProShop ERP in AS9100 Machine Shops
Short answer
You add AI to ProShop by reading the process documents, NCRs, CAPAs, and traveler records that ProShop already centralizes, then grounding a private model on that data so it can draft NCR descriptions, summarize CAPA history for a part number, and answer 'what does the work instruction say' questions on the floor. Because ProShop already unifies quality and production data in one paperless system, the connector work is simpler than most ERPs; the harder part is keeping AS9100 traceability intact so every AI-drafted answer still points back to a controlled document revision.
- ERP
- ProShop ERP
- Industries
- Aerospace, Defense, Precision Machining, AS9100 Manufacturing
- Written for
- Quality Manager
ProShop was built by a machine shop for machine shops, and it already does something most ERPs do not: it puts quality records, work instructions, and job data in one paperless system instead of three disconnected ones. For a Quality Manager at an AS9100 shop, that is the whole reason ProShop was chosen. The gap AI closes is not integration, it is time: writing NCR descriptions, tracing CAPA history across similar nonconformances, and answering 'which revision applies' questions still take a person paging through records by hand.
AS9102 first article inspection reports, 8D and CAPA investigations, and supplier corrective action requests all follow a format, and a Quality Manager fills most of that format in from the same handful of facts every time: part number, nonconformance description, root cause category, containment action. An AI assistant grounded on prior NCRs for the same part or process can draft that first pass, leaving the engineer to verify root cause and sign off, rather than starting from a blank template every time.
The other recurring need is floor-facing: an inspector or operator asking which document revision is current, what the inspection criteria are for a given characteristic, or whether a part number has open corrective actions. ProShop already stores the answer, but pulling it up today means logging in and searching. A grounded assistant answers in plain language while still citing the controlled document it pulled from, which matters for an AS9100 audit trail.
None of this works if quality records leave the shop's network. NCR descriptions, supplier names, and part geometry are exactly the kind of data an AS9100 auditor or a defense customer's supplier survey will ask about, so the deployment model for this page is on-prem or private cloud by default, not a public AI chatbot with pasted-in nonconformance text.
What usually gets in the way
The problems we hear most from quality manager teams running ProShop ERP.
NCR and CAPA drafting is repetitive but still manual
Quality engineers retype the same structure (description, containment, root cause, corrective action) for every nonconformance instead of starting from similar prior records.
Tracing CAPA history across a part or process takes real digging
Answering 'has this part had this nonconformance before' means searching ProShop's history manually, which is slow right when an auditor or customer is asking the question live.
Floor questions about current revision still route through the office
An inspector unsure which work instruction revision applies has to stop and ask or log in and search, rather than getting an instant, traceable answer.
First article inspection reports are time-consuming to compile
AS9102 forms 1, 2, and 3 pull data from multiple places in the job record, and assembling them correctly for a new part still takes an engineer significant time.
Supplier quality data is hard to summarize for management review
Rolling up supplier corrective action trends for a quarterly management review means exporting and manually summarizing records that already live in ProShop.
Where AI earns its place in ProShop ERP
Each use case names the ERP objects it reads or writes, so your ERP team can judge the integration effort before anyone commits budget.
NCR draft generation
Given a brief description of what an inspector found, the assistant drafts a full NCR entry (description, affected characteristic, likely containment steps) grounded in how similar nonconformances were documented before, for the quality engineer to review and finalize.
Touches: ProShop NCR records, Process Documents, Part Master
Outcome: cuts the time to open a well-documented NCR from a first draft that would otherwise start blank
CAPA and nonconformance history summary
For a given part number or process, the assistant summarizes prior NCRs and CAPAs, flags recurring root causes, and surfaces whether a corrective action was ever verified as effective.
Touches: ProShop CAPA records, NCR history, Root Cause fields
Outcome: turns a multi-record manual search into an immediate summary during an audit or management review
Work instruction and revision Q&A for operators
An inspector or operator asks which revision of a work instruction or inspection plan currently applies to a job, and gets an answer that cites the controlled document and revision level.
Touches: Document Control records, Work Instructions, Revision history
Outcome: answers routine 'which revision' questions on the floor without an office trip, with the source cited
AS9102 first article report assembly assistance
The assistant pulls the relevant characteristics, dimensions, and process data from the job and part records to pre-populate the AS9102 form structure, leaving the engineer to verify and sign.
Touches: Part Master, Job Traveler, Inspection Records
Outcome: shortens the time to assemble a first article package for a new or revised part
Supplier corrective action trend summary
For quarterly management review, the assistant compiles supplier corrective action requests into a trend summary by supplier and defect category instead of a manual export and pivot table.
Touches: Supplier Quality records, Corrective Action Requests
Outcome: produces a management-review-ready supplier trend summary without a manual export
Calibration and training record status Q&A
Quality staff ask whether a specific gage is in calibration or whether an operator's training record covers a given process, and get a direct answer instead of searching two separate lists.
Touches: Calibration Records, Training Records, Operator Certifications
Outcome: gives an immediate yes/no with the underlying record cited, useful in front of an auditor
Internal audit prep summary
Ahead of a scheduled internal or registrar audit, the assistant compiles open NCRs, overdue CAPAs, and any process document past its review date into a single prep list.
Touches: NCR/CAPA status fields, Document review dates
Outcome: replaces a manual pre-audit checklist compilation with a generated one the quality manager still reviews
Reference architecture
ProShop already centralizes quality and production data in one paperless system, which simplifies the connector layer versus a shop running separate QMS and ERP tools. The priority for an AS9100 shop is keeping every AI-generated answer traceable back to the specific controlled document and revision it came from.
- 1
ERP/QMS connector
A scoped, read-only API or database connection into ProShop covering NCR, CAPA, document control, and part master records.
- 2
Data and semantic layer
A mapping layer that preserves document revision and approval status alongside content, so a retrieved answer always carries its traceability metadata.
- 3
Model serving
An open-weight model served on-prem, sized to the shop's quality team plus floor-facing kiosk or tablet access.
- 4
Retrieval and agents
Retrieval-grounded drafting for NCRs, CAPAs, and AS9102 reports; a scheduled agent for audit-prep and supplier trend summaries.
- 5
Governance and audit
Every drafted NCR, CAPA, or answer is logged with the source document, revision, and the person who accepted or edited it, matching AS9100's own traceability expectations.
Integration notes for your ERP team
- ProShop exposes its data through its own database and, depending on version, API access; the connector uses whichever path the shop's ProShop instance and hosting arrangement support.
- Document control metadata (revision level, approval date, approver) is pulled alongside content so every answer can state which revision it is quoting, not just the text.
- NCR and CAPA records often reference free-text root cause fields; the retrieval layer indexes this text so similar-nonconformance search works even when categorization is inconsistent.
- Calibration and training record connectors are scoped separately from NCR/CAPA, since they are often maintained with different update frequencies and owners.
- Floor-facing Q&A is typically delivered through a simple kiosk or tablet view rather than requiring every operator to have a full ProShop login.
- Because ProShop already runs as the shop's system of record for quality, the AI layer is additive (read plus draft-and-review), not a parallel quality system the auditor has to be told about separately.
Deployment options
Air-gapped on-prem
Shops making defense or ITAR-controlled parts, or with customer flow-down requirements against cloud AI
Model, retrieval index, and connector all run on hardware inside the shop's network with no outbound path, satisfying flow-down clauses that restrict where technical data and quality records can go.
Private single-tenant cloud
Multi-site shops wanting centralized management without an air gap
A dedicated instance connected back to each site's ProShop database over a private link, keeping data isolated from other customers while easing multi-site administration.
Hybrid
Shops that want AI help for general, non-quality tasks alongside a locked-down quality assistant
Quality and job data stay strictly on the local model; separate, non-sensitive assistance (drafting a job posting, summarizing a public standard) can use a different, less restricted path.
Compliance and data control
How the architecture supports your obligations. Certification and accountability stay with your organisation; the design keeps the evidence straightforward.
AS9100D
AI-assisted NCR, CAPA, and FAI drafting still requires human review and sign-off, and every generated record cites its source, preserving the traceability and record-control clauses auditors check.
AS9102 (First Article Inspection)
The assistant pre-populates form structure from existing job and part data but does not certify measurements; the responsible engineer still verifies and signs the FAI report.
ITAR (for shops making defense articles)
On-prem deployment keeps any technical data referenced in a quality record inside the shop's own network, with no foreign model provider or cloud API in the data path.
Customer supplier quality flow-down
Because AI processing happens on infrastructure the shop controls, answering a prime contractor's supplier survey about where quality data is processed is straightforward and honest.
Document control (revision integrity)
The retrieval layer always resolves to the current approved revision of a controlled document, and superseded revisions are excluded from what the assistant can cite as current.
How an engagement runs
Phase 1 . 2 weeks
Discovery
- -Review of ProShop's quality module configuration: NCR/CAPA structure, document control setup, custom fields
- -Interviews with quality engineers and floor leads on the highest-friction record types
- -Data handling plan reviewed against any existing customer flow-down or ITAR requirements
Phase 2 . 6 weeks
Pilot
- -Read-only connector to NCR, CAPA, document control, and part master records
- -NCR drafting assistant tested against a set of recent real nonconformances
- -Document revision Q&A tested with a small group of floor inspectors
Phase 3 . 4 weeks
Production rollout
- -CAPA history summary and supplier trend reporting turned on for management review
- -AS9102 first article assembly assistance added
- -Access controls matched to existing ProShop roles and permissions
Phase 4 . ongoing
Scale
- -Internal audit prep summary automated ahead of scheduled audits
- -Calibration and training record Q&A added
- -Quarterly review of drafted-record accuracy against what quality engineers actually accepted or edited
Questions to ask any vendor, including us
A short list that separates real ProShop ERP AI work from a chatbot demo.
- Does every AI-drafted NCR or CAPA cite the specific source records it was built from, so an auditor can trace it?
- Can the assistant certify or close a nonconformance on its own, or does a person always sign off?
- Where does the model run, and does any quality record ever pass through a third-party API?
- How does the system handle document revisions, so it never cites a superseded work instruction as current?
- What happens if the assistant is wrong about a root cause suggestion: is there a clear way to flag and correct it?
- Can we restrict floor-facing Q&A to read-only document lookup without exposing full NCR/CAPA detail to every operator?
- How is this different from just using ProShop's existing search and reporting?
- What does the vendor's own AS9100 or ITAR posture look like, given they will see our quality data during implementation?
Frequently asked questions
Can AI write our NCRs and CAPAs for us?
It drafts a first pass, description, likely containment, and a suggested root cause category, grounded in how similar nonconformances were documented before, but a quality engineer reviews and finalizes every record. The goal is removing the blank-page problem, not removing engineering judgment or the sign-off step AS9100 requires.
Will this pass an AS9100 audit, or does it create a new risk?
Used as a drafting aid with human review and full traceability back to source records, it does not change your quality system's structure, it changes how fast a person fills it in. Auditors generally care that records are accurate, controlled, and traceable; the tool is designed to preserve all three.
Is our nonconformance and part data safe if AI reads it?
With an on-prem or private deployment, quality records stay on infrastructure the shop controls and are never sent to a public AI API. That matters specifically because NCR descriptions and part geometry are exactly the data most customer supplier surveys ask about.
Does this replace ProShop or run alongside it?
Alongside it. ProShop remains the system of record for quality and job data; the AI layer reads from it and, for anything it drafts, writes back only after a person reviews and approves, the same way a new employee's draft NCR would be reviewed before it becomes official.
How does the assistant know which document revision is current?
The connector pulls document control metadata, including revision level and approval status, alongside the content itself, and the retrieval layer is built to only surface the currently approved revision as 'current,' with superseded versions excluded from that answer.
What about ITAR-controlled parts and technical data in our quality records?
For shops making defense articles, the recommended deployment is fully on-prem with no outbound network path, so any technical data referenced in an NCR, CAPA, or work instruction stays inside the shop's own network boundary rather than reaching a cloud API.
How long before we see value from this?
Most shops see the first concrete time savings during the pilot, typically in NCR drafting speed and faster answers to 'has this happened before' questions, within the first six to eight weeks, well before full production rollout across every quality process.
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Talk it through with an engineer who knows ProShop ERP
Bring one real question your team cannot answer from the ERP today. We will map the data path, the model, and where it runs, and tell you honestly if AI is the wrong tool for it.