What a Harness RFQ Package Really Contains
A typical package includes a drawing PDF with a connector table and notes, a spreadsheet BOM or wire list, a customer specification for workmanship (often referencing IPC/WHMA-A-620 and a class), a quantity ladder, a delivery request and commercial terms. Defense and aerospace packages add flow-downs and sometimes export-controlled technical data. Medical and automotive customers add quality system requirements.
The estimator reads all of it, builds the cost, and chases the customer for what is missing. Much of that time is extraction and lookup rather than judgment.
- Drawing and from-to wire list
- BOM with manufacturer part numbers
- Workmanship standard and class
- Quantity breaks and delivery
- Terms, flow-downs and quality requirements
Step One: Structured Extraction With Sources
The AI reads each document and produces a structured summary: circuits, wire types, connector families, termination counts, special processes such as overmold or shield termination, acceptance class and listed standards. Every extracted value should link to the page and region it came from so the estimator can verify in seconds. It should also list what it could not find, such as missing breakout lengths, an unspecified wire spec or a connector with no part number.
A short exception list is more valuable than a confident but unverifiable draft.
Step Two: Similar Past Jobs From Your ERP
The highest-value step is retrieval. The AI searches your ERP for past harnesses with similar connector families, circuit counts and features, and returns actual routings, hours by operation, material cost and final margin. This anchors the estimate in what your shop actually did, instead of a rule of thumb.
Where the match is weak, it should say so. Access happens through your ERP's existing interfaces with the user's permissions, read-only, so it cannot change records.
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AI Quote Template and Prompt Set for Manufacturing
A fill-in manufacturing quote plus a reusable AI prompt that turns RFQ details into a structured cost build-up, with a mapping to common ERP quote fields.
Step Three: Draft Quote and Human Approval
From extraction and history, the AI assembles a draft: material lines with current vendor pricing from your records, labor by operation using your standards, NRE items, scrap allowance and quote terms. The estimator edits, applies risk and margin judgment and approves. Only then does anything write back to the ERP, and the approval is logged.
Over time, comparing drafts to final quotes and then to actual job costs shows where the assistant and the estimator tend to be wrong.
- Draft shows source for every number
- Estimator can edit any line
- Write-back requires explicit approval
- Quote versus actual feedback loop
Privacy and Export Control
Harness drawings for defense and aerospace programs can be export-controlled, and many customers prohibit sending their data to third-party AI services. Netray deploys open-weight models on your own hardware or private cloud, so documents and ERP data stay inside your boundary. That design helps you meet your own ITAR, DFARS and customer obligations, but compliance is still your program: access control, US-person administration where required and records remain your responsibility.
When It Is Not Worth It
If you quote a few repeat harnesses a month, have clean native BOM exports, or your estimator already turns quotes around in a day, the benefit will be small. Also consider a simpler step first: a good quoting template and a searchable archive of past jobs. AI pays when RFQs arrive in inconsistent formats at a volume where estimators are the bottleneck and quote turnaround costs you wins.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI generate a wire harness quote automatically?
It can draft one: extract the wire list and connectors, find similar past jobs, price material and labor from your records and list assumptions. A person should review and approve before it goes to the customer, because risk, margin and unclear drawing details are judgment calls.
What data does AI need to estimate wire harnesses?
The RFQ documents, plus your history: past BOMs, routings, actual hours by operation, material prices and quoted versus actual cost. Clean operation-level actuals improve results. Without them the AI can still extract and organize RFQ data but the cost draft will be weaker.
Is it safe to use AI on customer drawings?
It is safe when the models run inside your environment and access follows your contract and export-control obligations. Avoid sending controlled drawings to public AI services. Ask any vendor where processing happens, who administers it and what is logged.
Bring one recent RFQ package and Netray will show extraction, similar past jobs and a sourced draft quote on your own data.