Live production schedule
Import the spreadsheet you schedule with today and get a live board of work centers, jobs, and operations — notes, hours, and due dates preserved.
PrepDesk for manufacturers
Know what to run next — and what’s about to slip.
PrepDesk turns the schedule you keep in spreadsheets and your ERP into one live operating picture: every job, every blocker, every at-risk promise — with AI drafting the fixes and your managers approving them.
30-minute walkthrough on your own schedule. No commitment.
- Works with what you have
- Your ERP, spreadsheets, and inbox stay
- Flagged early
- At-risk jobs surface before they're late
- Manager-approved
- No PO or customer message goes out alone
Operations board
Schedule, materials, blockers, and quotes in one view
Work needing attention
Live constraintsJob 4821 — bracket run
Material on hand, capacity open on CNC-2
Job 4806 — housing rework
Supplier slipped 4 days, alternate slot proposed
Job 4793 — weldment
Drawing revision waiting on engineering release
Recommended action
Move Job 4806 to the open slot on CNC-2 Thursday to protect the due date — revised schedule ready for manager approval.
Schedule
Live board from your spreadsheet
Materials
2 shortages flagged early
RFQs
Quote drafted from inbox
Margins
Estimate vs. actual by job
What changes
Run the shop from one picture, not five systems and a hallway conversation.
The ERP, the scheduling spreadsheet, the drawings folder, and the purchasing inbox each tell part of the story. PrepDesk puts the whole story in one place.
01
Fewer late jobs
Material shortages, capacity conflicts, and engineering gaps are flagged while there's still time to re-plan — not after the due date is blown.
02
No more status-chasing
Sales, planning, purchasing, the floor, and inspection all look at the same live picture of every job, instead of asking around for it.
03
Quotes out faster
RFQs land in the inbox and come out as estimates built on real routings, materials, and shop capacity — ready for review.
04
Margins you can see
Estimate versus actual by job, so quoting gets sharper over time and margin leaks show up while you can still fix them.
Capabilities
From RFQ to invoice, with people in the loop.
PrepDesk covers the decisions that determine throughput, delivery performance, and margin — and gates anything external behind approval.
Automatic blocker detection
Jobs missing material, inspection, drawings, routings, or outside processing become tracked blockers instead of surprises on the floor.
At-risk order alerts
Orders likely to miss their dates — from supplier slips, capacity, labor, or engineering changes — get flagged with a proposed fix.
RFQ to quote
Intake RFQs straight from the sales inbox, build estimates with materials, outside services, and quantity breaks, and send quote PDFs after review.
Purchasing with approval gates
Shortages turn into buy signals and drafted POs. Vendor communication and orders go out only after a manager approves.
Audit trail and KPIs
Every schedule change records who, what, and why. Leadership sees active work, holds, gaps, and finished goods at a glance.
Your managers stay in control
Built for shops where a wrong move costs real money.
Schedules, POs, and customer commitments have physical consequences. PrepDesk treats approval as a feature, not a speed bump.
- Schedule changes, POs, and customer communication wait for manager approval
- AI answers come with the production record that backs them up
- Manual overrides always available — the software adapts to your call
- Works alongside your ERP and spreadsheets; no rip-and-replace project
FAQ
Plain answers for owners and ops leaders.
Do we have to replace our ERP?+
No. PrepDesk starts on top of what you run today — your ERP, scheduling spreadsheets, shared drives, and email. It earns its place by fixing daily scheduling and material decisions first, not by forcing a migration.
What does setup actually look like?+
It starts from the production schedule you already keep. PrepDesk imports the spreadsheet, maps your work centers and jobs, and preserves your notes and due dates — so the board reflects your shop on day one.
Where does the AI act, and where do people decide?+
AI recommends schedule moves, checks material readiness, drafts RFQs and quotes, summarizes vendor replies, and sends alerts. Anything external — POs, vendor emails, shipments, customer notices — requires explicit approval.
What if the AI gets something wrong?+
Recommendations cite the schedule rows and records they're based on, so they're checkable in seconds. Managers can override anything, and every change is logged with the reason.
See it on your own schedule.
Bring this week’s production spreadsheet. In 30 minutes you’ll see your shop as a live board — blockers, at-risk jobs, and all.
Or email ben@prepdesk.ai