Operations
How the Shop Runs
The Backyard Shop is an AI-native operation. Routine decision-making and analysis run through AI first. A human reviews and releases anything that spends money, goes to a customer, or touches controlled data.
That division is deliberate. AI removes the toil — slow quoting, manual scheduling, chasing procurement. Humans keep the judgment calls.
The Core Principle
01 — Draft
AI analyzes and drafts
Quoting, scheduling, procurement, and monitoring run through AI first. It drafts the output and surfaces its reasoning — not just numbers, but why.
02 — Review
Humans review the reasoning
Every draft reaches a human with full context: the AI's estimate, confidence level, and the specific factors it weighted. The human reviews the reasoning, not just the result.
03 — Release
Humans release
No quote is sent to a customer automatically. No money moves without a human releasing it. No export-control classification is ever set by an agent. Release is always a human decision.
What Runs Through AI First
The goal is to eliminate the overhead that makes low-volume manufacturing slow — not to remove human accountability from it.
Quoting
Part files are parsed for geometry, material cost, and estimated runtime. AI drafts the full quote — labor, margin, lead time — and flags anything that needs closer review before a human releases it to the customer.
Scheduling
AI reads approved jobs, machine availability, and material lead times to propose a build schedule. Double-booking and controlled-part routing constraints are enforced by the system, not by memory. A human approves the schedule before work starts.
Procurement
AI monitors stock against scheduled consumption and drafts purchase orders before material runs short. A human reviews and releases every PO — no spending happens automatically.
Proactive monitoring
The system flags risks before they become problems: a job due Friday whose material PO hasn't been released, a machine running above baseline power, print-time estimates drifting from actuals. Humans get actionable flags, not noise.
Trust Architecture
On-Prem. US-Person-Gated. ITAR-Ready.
The entire system runs inside the building's network. No model call, no file upload, no quoting service, no scheduling logic reaches off-site. Your part geometry stays on-prem.
Nothing leaves the building
Every AI model, quoting engine, and data store runs on hardware inside the shop. There is no cloud path for technical data — controlled or otherwise.
US-person-gated access
Access to technical data is gated to US persons. The system enforces this at the data layer, not just by policy.
Separate ITAR room
Controlled work is machined in a physically separate room. A part's export-control status determines where it can be processed and who can see its files.
Classification is always human
No agent ever sets a part's export-control classification. That call belongs to a US-person human — every time, with no exceptions and no workarounds.
Work follows ISO 9001 and AS9100-aligned quality systems with documented processes, controlled revisions, material traceability, and inspection checkpoints — an auditable record built into the system from the start, not bolted on.
Ready to work with us?
Submit your part package for a fast, documented review — or come see the shop in person.