Introducing Claude for Manufacturing
A new plugin with 17 skills and four connectors helps manufacturers draft quotes, quality reports, and supplier requests from the systems they already run.
Today we’re launching Claude for Manufacturing (opens in new tab), a plugin that includes skills for work from pricing a new job to diagnosing a stopped machine. An estimator can now have Claude read a customer’s request, compare costs on similar jobs, and draft the quote. The plugin works from a manufacturer’s own records through connectors to Autodesk Fusion, Infor, Microsoft 365, and Oracle NetSuite. Claude for Manufacturing is built so the person responsible can review and approve the work before it reaches a customer or supplier.
Manufacturing teams can spend much of the day gathering information. In a 2025 Manufacturing Leadership Council survey, 79% of manufacturers said they enter data (opens in new tab)manually. With Claude carrying each process to the point of review, an estimator can focus on the price, a quality engineer on the fix, and a technician on what to check first.
Skills built for manufacturers
The plugin’s 17 skills cover sales, quality, operations, supply chain, design, and setup. Some handle a single task, while others run several in order, so Claude can carry a job through several steps until a person needs to review it. The skills can run processes that include:
- Quoting a new job: An estimator can ask Claude to read a customer’s request, list what’s missing, compare costs on similar jobs, and draft the quote for release.
- Investigating a failed inspection: A quality engineer can have Claude document the failure, check past reports for the same problem, rank the likely causes, and draft the corrective action report.
- Diagnosing a breakdown: A technician can have Claude read the sensor exports, repair notes, photos, and manual, then rank the likely causes for the technician to check and decide on next steps.
- Sourcing from another supplier: A buyer can have Claude prepare the request for quotes, then compare the bids that come back.
- Comparing designs with Autodesk Fusion: An engineer can have Claude generate variations from an existing model, score them against the engineer’s targets, and draft a decision memo.
- Reporting on production: A plant manager can have Claude compile production data into one report showing output against target, equipment downtime, and what the downtime and missed output cost.
These skills are a starting point. Organizations can build on them to fit their specific operations, and we plan to add new manufacturing skills over time.
Connectors to manufacturing systems
Claude for Manufacturing works with the software at the core of manufacturing operations, and that software stays central to how teams run the business:
- Autodesk Fusion: Engineers can compare more design options before choosing one, because Claude generates variations from their existing model.
- Infor: Buyers and planners can check purchase orders and stock before they act, because Claude looks them up in Infor.
- Microsoft 365: Quality engineers can bring procedures, supplier emails, and exported reports into one job, because Claude finds them in shared folders and inboxes.
- Oracle NetSuite: Estimators can price new work against actual orders, inventory, production steps, and job costs, because Claude pulls those records when it drafts a quote.
Manufacturers can also use the plugin with systems that have no connector. They save regular exports from those systems to Microsoft 365, and Claude works from the files to draft a quote or compile a production report.
Making changes in Infor with Claude
Infor, which makes core software for manufacturers, is also releasing its own plugin (opens in new tab). With the Infor connector in Claude for Manufacturing, teams can look up records. With Infor’s plugin, they can also make changes in Infor from Claude.
For example, if a steel shipment slips by two weeks, a buyer can ask Claude which customer orders are affected and how much steel other sites have. Once the buyer approves, Claude can release a purchase order to another supplier and reschedule the affected production in Infor. Claude’s access follows the buyer’s Infor permissions.
Manufacturing teams stay in control
Skills are built to end with a user’s review, so an estimator checks and releases a quote, and a quality engineer verifies a fix for the corrective action report. To support that review, Claude can link figures and claims back to the underlying data and documents.
Claude for Manufacturing doesn’t operate equipment. For that, Anthropic is developing the Model Hardware Standard (opens in new tab), a research preview that gives programmable equipment a standard way to describe its measurements, settings, and safety limits.
How to get started
On Team or Enterprise plans, install the plugin (opens in new tab) and tell Claude, “Set us up.” Claude asks which systems the team uses, tests the connectors, and reports which skills can’t fully run yet.
To see the plugin at work, register for our technical webinar (opens in new tab) on November 17 at 11:00 a.m. ET. To talk through a company’s manufacturing systems, contact our sales team (opens in new tab).