AI for Manufacturers: Capture What Your Best People Know
Plant leaders leave with prompts for SOPs, shift handoffs, quote responses and hiring.
Chris Sund leads a hands-on AI workshop for manufacturers, plant leadership teams and manufacturing associations. Take Back Your Time with AI covers six areas, and in a plant the biggest is turning tribal knowledge into SOPs before it retires. The session also covers shift handoff notes, quote responses and hiring, using ChatGPT or Claude, with a qualified person checking every result.
Why are manufacturers booking AI workshops right now?
Every plant has a person who knows how to set up the old machine, which customer always changes the spec, and what to do when the line does that thing on second shift. Most of that knowledge was never written down, and a lot of it is getting closer to retirement every year.
The workshop starts there. AI will not run your line. It can turn ten minutes of an experienced operator talking into a draft SOP, clean up a messy handoff, and answer a quote request the same day, while your people stay in charge of every decision.
Tribal knowledge is at risk
Section 06 turns what one person knows into a draft SOP that a qualified reviewer approves.
Shift handoffs lose details
Rough notes become a consistent handoff: what ran, what is down, what is open and who owns it.
Quotes wait on the office
AI lists what a request is missing and drafts the reply, so the customer hears back the same day.
Hiring never stops
Clearer job posts, faster replies to applicants and onboarding checklists new hires can follow.
Six places AI gives plant and operations leaders time back
The workshop is built on six areas. Here they are for manufacturers, with the most time on section 06. Each card links to a full guide with the prompt.
Find Revenue
Find the signal early.
AI searches public sources for facility expansions, new plants, permits and industry announcements that may need your parts or services, and suggests one next step for each.
Read the guide→02Win Work & Answer Quotes
Respond to RFQs the same day.
Paste in the request. AI lists missing specs, quantities, tolerances and delivery questions, drafts the reply, and builds the quote only from pricing your team approved.
Read the guide→03Strengthen Your Website
Pass the 10-second buyer test.
Can a buyer or engineer tell what you make, which industries you serve, your capabilities and how to request a quote? AI reviews your site like a buyer and ranks the five fixes.
Read the guide→04Create Marketing & Recruiting
One project, five assets.
A finished job or a new capability becomes a case study, a LinkedIn post, a customer email, a sales sheet and a recruiting post that shows people what working in your plant is like.
Read the guide→05Shift Handoffs & Operations
Cleaner handoffs and meeting notes.
Rough end-of-shift notes and production meeting notes become a consistent handoff and an action list with owners. Missing details are marked, not guessed.
Read the guide→06SOPs from Tribal Knowledge
Capture it before it retires.
An experienced operator or maintenance tech explains a task out loud: what to do first, what usually goes wrong, what should never be skipped. AI drafts the SOP with safety checks and marks anything unclear for expert review.
Read the guide→Tell AI Five Things
Every prompt in the session follows the same five-part structure, so attendees can write their own after they leave. Here it is with plant examples. The full framework is on Tell AI Five Things: The Five-Part Prompt.
Role
Who is it?“Act as a training coordinator.”
Task
What should it do?“Write an SOP.”
Details
What should it know?“Use this operator transcript.”
Format
What should it make?“Numbered steps with safety checks.”
Guardrails
What must it avoid?“Do not invent steps.”
Role+Task+Details+Format+Guardrails
If the first result is weak, add the detail you left out.
Example prompt: turn an operator’s experience into an SOP
This is the SOP prompt from the workshop, written for a plant. Record an experienced operator explaining the job, paste the transcript, and run it.
The human review step. The experienced operator and a qualified safety or quality reviewer check every step, settings and tolerances before anyone trains on it. The SOP follows your plant’s safety procedures and document control. The expert reviews it before the team uses it.
More prompts, grouped by the six areas, are in the free AI Prompt Library for Business Owners.
Keynote, half day or full day
Every format is delivered in person. The keynote fits a manufacturing association conference or an all-leadership meeting. The half-day and full-day workshops fit plant leadership teams, where supervisors build SOPs and handoff templates from their own work.
The six areas in one session
The framework, live manufacturing examples from all six areas, and the Monday Morning close. Works as a general session or a breakout.
Hands-on with your own work
Attendees bring the tasks that eat their week and build their own prompts with the five-part framework, then test them on real manufacturing examples.
Teams build their own workflows
A hands-on workshop where teams build and test their own workflows across the six areas and leave with a written plan for who uses what, starting Monday.
Tailored to your plant
Before the event, Chris rewrites the examples around your products, customers and documents: your RFQs, your handoff sheets and the tasks only a few people in the building know how to do.
The field guide
Attendees get the field guide with every prompt, the worksheets and a simple Monday plan. Chris sends it to the host as a PDF after the event to share with everyone who attended.
Tool-neutral
Every prompt runs in ChatGPT or Claude. No software to buy, no IT project, nothing to install.
Built for the people who run plants
Plant managers, operations and HR leaders, supervisors and shift leads, and the associations that bring them together.
Related pages: Manufacturing Keynote Speaker · Manufacturing All-Shift Meetings · How to Recruit Skilled Trades Workers · How to Create SOPs with AI · Skilled Trades Speaker · AI Keynote Speaker
Built for rooms that make and build things
Chris delivered Take Back Your Time with AI to close the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings in Omaha in October 2026, and presents it at the NFBA Conference & Expo 2027 in Columbus, Ohio, where the audience includes post-frame builders, suppliers and manufacturers.
Chris has not worked in a plant and says so from the front. He runs companies whose business is hiring, training and keeping people, so capturing what experienced people know and getting new hires productive is work he does every week.
His topics are well researched, and he weaves in practical tips and real-life examples that make every session realistic and relatable.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice to every presentation, elevating the value he brings to every engagement.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. Each time he finds a unique way to connect on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
What Manufacturing Planners Ask
Do attendees need AI experience?
No. The session starts with a five-part prompt, Tell AI Five Things, and builds from there, so people who have never opened ChatGPT can follow along. People who already use AI leave with better prompts, clear guardrails and a way to check the results.
Which AI tools does the session use?
ChatGPT and Claude. Every prompt runs in either one, and Chris shows the work in both. Nobody is asked to buy new software or install anything.
Is our data safe?
The session teaches guardrails first. Use only the AI tools your company has approved, follow your policies on customer drawings, specifications and proprietary process data, leave out anything confidential unless your company allows it, tell AI not to invent steps, settings or prices, and have a qualified person review every output before anyone uses it.
Can it be tailored to manufacturing?
Yes. The six areas and the framework stay the same, and the examples are rewritten around your products, RFQs, handoff sheets and the tasks only a few people know how to do. Most manufacturing groups spend the most time on section 06, SOPs from tribal knowledge.
Do you sell software?
No. Chris is COO of Nebula, an AI talent sourcing platform, which is part of why he uses these tools every day, but the workshop is tool-neutral and is not a pitch for Nebula or any other product.
Keynote or workshop: which should we book?
A keynote fits a general session or breakout: the framework, live examples from all six areas and the Monday Morning close. A half-day or full-day workshop is hands-on: teams bring their own tasks and build and test their own workflows before they leave. Many groups pair a keynote for the full room with a workshop for a leadership or member group.
Stages I Have Spoken On
