Cost a part up from its material grade, process route, labour basis, yield and overhead treatment, carry the date of each input, and show a named analyst where a quote sits against the build.
A build is raised from stated inputs, and each input is written down beside the figure it produced.
02
An estimate is finished, and it says what a part ought to cost, not what a supplier will accept.
Reason
03
An input ages past the term it is good for, and the estimate leaning on it is flagged for rebuild.
04
An assumption carries no source, and it is shown as unsourced rather than folded into an overhead line.
05
A quote arrives, and the distance to the build is reported with the part of the build it lands against.
Decide
06
A benchmark comes from another volume, specification or region, and that difference is named before use.
07
A build is amended, and the assumption that changed travels with the new figure rather than replacing it.
Out
08
A part will not model at all, and that is recorded as the finding rather than filled with a placeholder.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
Building, dating and comparing belong to the agent. The target price, the reading of a gap and any claim that a quote is unreasonable belong to a named cost analyst.
Example workflow
One estimate, inputs to acceptance
AgentHuman
1Inputs receivedIndex series, rate tables, drawings, bills of material or prior quotations
2Build assembledMaterial grades, the process route, the labour basis, the yield assumption and the overhead treatment
3Estimate raisedThe build, the date each input was read and the confidence
4Controls appliedInput-age checks, assumption-source checks, arithmetic checks and comparability checks
No human action required
Stages 1 to 4 run unaided, and no estimate leaves the file at any of them — the agent is building, and the cost analyst lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionSplits at the confidence gate
Built on current, sourced inputs
Goes to the named cost analyst to accept.
An aged input or an unsourced assumption
Adds a senior analyst read first.
Cost analyst review
The estimate is held with its build, the date of each input and the confidence.
Accept · Rebuild · Send to senior review
Accepted — by the named cost analyst▼
6Estimating and category records updatedOnly where write access and records policy allow it
7Outcome evaluatedInput currency, assumption sourcing, analyst rebuilds and what review found
Corrections
Each rebuild made in review is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Setting the target price a negotiation opens at.
Telling a supplier what its own costs are.
Deciding that a quoted price is unreasonable.
Publishing an estimate as a market benchmark.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Build the estimate up from the inputs as stated.
✓Show each assumption in the build beside the source that supplied it.
✓Carry the date each input was read alongside the estimate itself.
✓Show which part of the build the gap lands against.
Nothing leaves as an estimate except by a named cost analyst, inside agreed boundaries.
Judging whether an estimate is fit to be used at all.
Standing behind an estimate in front of a board.
Choosing the margin a build is drawn at.
Changes to the model, the inputs or the assumptions.
Example output
One should-cost estimate, annotated
This serves a procurement team who may have to defend a build to the supplier it was drawn against; below is one estimate exactly as the agent leaves it.
Should-cost build · single partIllustrative example
Part as specified
Process route
Material basis
Estimate raised
Confidence
Held for
Machined aluminium bracket
Milled from bar, two operations
Wrought grade, index-priced
Index prices read 14 July 2026
Held unaccepted
The cost analyst, by name
As receivedTaken from the drawing and the index series as they stand — nothing on this side is rewritten by the agent.
Evidence usedDrawing and gradeIndex series, datedRate and yield tables
Why this is not a priceAn estimate says what a thing ought to cost, not what it will fetch.
ActionAcceptRebuildSend to senior review
What the score decidesBelow the configured threshold an estimate gets a senior read before the analyst sees it.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every estimateFrom the inputs that built it
03Build
Where the estimate is used
The autonomous negotiation agent is what happens once a number goes into a negotiation; this page stops at the estimate, which is not a position anyone has taken.
01Approved path
An estimate is not a price
A build says what a part ought to cost given inputs, process and a normal margin. It does not say what any supplier will accept.
02Human review
What was checked, and not found
No index series consulted prices the exact grade, form and volume this part is bought at, and nothing here rests on the cost principles that bind federal contracting, so the nearest series is reported with its distance.
04Build an evidence trail
The estimate, the build behind it and the analyst who accepted it stay together.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Index and commodity dataMetals · resins · energy series Grade and form index movements
Process and labour dataCycle times · labour rate tables Machine and labour bases
Drawings and specificationsPLM · CAD records · bills of material Grades, tolerances and volumes
Agent
Should-cost build and benchmarking
Reads the inputs Builds the estimate Holds for the analyst
Quotes and purchase historyQuotation history · past orders Quoted prices and what they include
A driver-level input figure can read clean while the most volatile commodity inputs are carrying nearly all of the rebuilding. Nestack reports the rebuild rate by slice, not only in total.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Volatile commodity inputs
7.5%
3.7×
Review
Low-volume machined parts
5.4%
2.7×
Review
Multi-region labour bases
3.3%
1.6×
Watch
Stable catalogue components
1.8%
0.9×
Normal
Bar: rebuild-rate lift vs. stable-component baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
What an estimate taken as a price costs
A cycle shuts when the estimate quoted as a price is a regression case. That suite is what the next build issued is measured against.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Rebuild rate rises on volatile commodity inputs.
02Diagnose
The should-cost figure that walked into a negotiation as though it were a quote is worked backwards until one cause is left standing.
03Improve
Changes ship numbered, with the estimates that drove them filed underneath.
04Verify
Nothing releases while a single estimate case is still red.
05Learn
The case stays on, and the build rules are amended in the same commit.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The next estimate is measured against a suite one case longer.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, estimate logic, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Cost-model discovery and automation-boundary design.
02Index, rate and quotation source review.
03Input-to-estimate and benchmark-comparability mapping.
04Input ingestion and normalisation.
05Build logic and assumption binding.
06Confidence scoring and review routing.
07Cost analyst review workflow.
08Index-and-quote integration.
09Build and input cases.
10Guardrails and publication controls.
11Estimate-trail instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne category, one cycleProductionProduction estimating workflowAdvancedMultiple categories / regions
Introduced at Pilot
Estimate builds to your cost model✓✓✓
Named cost analyst acceptance✓✓✓
Cost-model baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by cost driver—✓✓
Senior review workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
Index-and-quote integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Cross-region input libraries——✓
Multi-part estimate packs——✓
Large quotation histories——✓
Multi-region input controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, input volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your live cost model and the drivers it names→Cost-model capture and assumption versioningWeek 1
02Representative drawings, rate tables and quotations→Source binding, build logic and the estimate baselineWeek 2
03Your estimating calendar and the analysts it names→Cost-model mapping, input binding and the automation boundaryWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→Index, rate and quotation source assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Estimates you would not want quoted→Input cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4
06What no should-cost figure may fix→Confidence scoring, review routing, guardrails and release controlsWeek 3
07A named cost analyst who accepts the estimate→Release to the cost analyst, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
Where these bands overlap the phases overlap; the fifth week is a measurement, not a compromise.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Cost-model discovery, driver mapping and the automation boundaryW2Index, rate and quotation integration and the estimate baselineW3Build logic, confidence scoring and release controlsW4Evaluation suite, input cases and failure-mode testingW5Estimating-system integration, pilot builds and targeted correctionsW6One estimating cycle run under the cost analyst, then Agent Care handover
Reading the bandEach bar covers only the weeks its own work is named for, and week five is shared by design.
At the end of W6Once the build record validates, Agent Care takes the agent on.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Procurement AI agent
Build a should-cost agent around the estimate your last negotiation treated as a quote.
Show us one part you estimate every year and the build behind the last figure. Not a number to open at. A build a supplier can argue with, line by line, with a date on each input. If those inputs are older than the last quarter, the figure is not an estimate of anything.
