Check stock and lead times for a parts list
For each part on an Excel bill of materials, stock, price, and lead time from distributor sites go into its row, and hard-to-source parts are flagged.
The problem today
For every prototype or production run, staff search hundreds of parts one by one on distributor websites and copy stock and lead times into a spreadsheet. Stock changes while they search, so shortages are found late.
The workflow in Kitewell
- Open the bill of materials workbook and run each part number and quantityAutomatic
- Search each part on each site and collect stock, price, and lead timeWeb
- AI flags parts short of the required quantity or with long lead timesAI judgment
- Staff decide on alternatives or suppliers for hard-to-source partsHuman task
- Write stock, price, and lead time into each row of the bill of materialsAutomatic
What AI does
Reads stock, price, and lead time from each site's own layout, and judges which parts will be hard to source against the required quantity and date.
Where people decide
For parts flagged as hard to source, staff consider alternatives and decide where to order.
What a PoC checks
- Whether part searches and stock and lead-time reading run reliably on the target sites
- Whether the quantity and lead-time criteria match how procurement works
- Whether the target sites' terms of use allow automated lookups
Discuss a PoC for this work
We check whether this workflow runs on your own work and screens.
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