automation.PRO — AI Platform for Quotation, ERP and Manufacturing

automation.PRO is an AI-supported ERP and manufacturing platform from Rapidfacture GmbH, based in Unterschleissheim near Munich. Unlike generic ERP systems, automation.PRO is built consistently for job-shop manufacturing, machinery and plant engineering, and machining and sheet-metal processing industries. The platform combines automated quotation processing, calculation, production, warehouse and invoicing in a single workflow and uses artificial intelligence to interpret incoming requests — including PDFs, drawings and DXF files — and produce calculations automatically. For German SMB job shops, the central problem the platform addresses is the quotation bottleneck: in many job shops, calculation effort per request is so high that opportunities are lost simply because quotation throughput cannot keep up. automation.PRO is engineered specifically against that bottleneck.

Overview

Rapidfacture GmbH is based at Max-Planck-Strasse 7, 85716 Unterschleissheim, and positions itself as a specialist provider for digital transformation of small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses. Industry-specific platforms such as directindustry.com and Industry-4.0 directories list Rapidfacture as a German solution vendor. The target customer is, according to the vendor, a manufacturing business with between five and one hundred employees and between one and fifteen ERP users that produces in-house and wants to digitise its quotation, production and dispatch processes end-to-end. The competitive set is mainly other job-shop manufacturing platforms and the manufacturing modules of mid-market ERPs — automation.PRO differentiates through the AI-driven quotation automation, which is a more specific capability than generic ERPs provide.

Functional sweet spot

automation.PRO covers the full order lifecycle of a modern manufacturing operation: enquiry and quotation management, AI-supported calculation from PDFs, drawings and DXF files, order administration, BOMs, routings, production control, machine dashboards, warehouse, dispatch and invoicing. At the core is an AI module that automatically classifies incoming email attachments, extracts technical characteristics and produces a binding quotation within minutes based on stored calculation rules. This reduces the typical bottleneck discipline of quotation calculation in job shops dramatically. As an integrated MES (manufacturing execution system), automation.PRO captures and controls production in real time: machine, personnel and order times are recorded directly in the workshop. Machine dashboards show real-time utilisation, downtime reasons and production progress, which supports both shop-floor decision-making and management reporting.

DACH positioning

automation.PRO is engineered for the German Mid-Market (mid-market) job-shop manufacturer: German vendor, German development, German-language interface and support. Standard DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) compliance — DATEV (the German accounting exchange standard) integration, GoBD (digital-bookkeeping principles), ZUGFeRD and XRechnung e-invoicing — is part of the platform. The customer base concentrates in Germany with selected references in Austria and Switzerland. The competitive set is partly job-shop specialist platforms (Tracpoint, BSL or specialist Business Central verticals such as KUMAVISION for machinery) and partly the manufacturing modules of generic Mid-Market ERPs. The AI-driven quotation automation is the central differentiator: it addresses a specific bottleneck that most generic ERPs do not solve, even if they cover the rest of the manufacturing process well.

Pricing and implementation

automation.PRO is sold as a SaaS subscription with monthly per-user pricing. The vendor does not publish list prices: cost depends on user count, the depth of AI quotation training (which requires customer-specific calculation rules) and the breadth of MES integration with machine and shop-floor equipment. Implementation is delivered by Rapidfacture directly, typically as a phased rollout that starts with quotation automation and extends into MES and warehouse functionality once the quotation pipeline is stabilised. The AI training effort is the implementation phase that distinguishes automation.PRO from generic ERPs — customers and vendor work together to encode the customer's calculation logic into the AI module. Total cost of ownership is positioned competitively against the value of recovered quotation throughput when the platform addresses a genuine job-shop bottleneck.

Selection considerations

automation.PRO is a defensible choice for German Mid-Market job-shop manufacturers with five to one hundred employees, particularly when the quotation bottleneck is a binding operational constraint and the value of AI-automated calculation is meaningful. It is less compelling for series manufacturers (where high-volume make-to-stock production fits a different ERP profile), for trade and services businesses without manufacturing depth (myfactory, weclapp or Sage 100 fit better), and for large enterprises with complex multi-entity manufacturing consolidation (SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or proAlpha fit better). The defining buyer profile is a job-shop manufacturer with a genuine quotation throughput problem that is willing to invest in AI calculation training to solve it.

Related Topics

• ERP comparison overview
• ERP
• ERP consultants

Vendor homepage of automation.PRO

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