--- title: "Your plant runs on a system nobody can connect to." url: "https://referent.app/industries/manufacturing" description: "Referent connects to the custom ERP, MES and plant spreadsheets that run your factory, with no connector and no migration. Production, procurement and quality answers from live data." --- Manufacturing & Industrial # Your plant runs on a system nobody can connect to. The ERP was built for your process fifteen years ago, the MES exports to CSV and the real planning happens in a spreadsheet on someone's desktop. Referent connects to all three at the data layer and answers from live production data. [Book a demo](/demo)[How it connects](#how-it-works) 0104How it connects ## It connects where your interface already connects. It maps the queries, the actions and the endpoints behind the interface, then connects at that level. Nothing to rebuild, nothing to migrate. Your team ### Questions and work, in plain language Chat, Slack, Teams or Telegram. Ask for a number, a report, a draft or a status. No new tool to learn. Referent ### The layer that understands your systems Maps queries, actions and endpoints. Answers from live data with citations back to the source. Executes the work on top: pulls the numbers, builds the report, drafts the follow-up. Your software ### The systems a plant actually runs on Custom ERP with no connector, an MES that only exports files, quality records in a shared drive and the planning spreadsheet everyone depends on. Referent maps how your own interface reaches them and connects at that level. * Custom ERP * MES / SCADA exports * Planning spreadsheets * Quality records * Supplier email ### Standard tools too The 50+ connectors everyone advertises are included. That part is commodity. The hard systems are the point. * Microsoft 365 * Google Drive * Slack * Jira * Salesforce This is not RPA. No screen reading and no bots clicking buttons. Referent connects at the data layer, so a UI change does not break it. 0204Use cases ## Four questions your plant asks every week. Each one is answerable from data you already hold, once something can reach it. 01Production statusReal production status, without walking the floorWhich orders are behind, which lines are down, what is blocked on materials. Today that means calling three people or waiting for the morning report. Referent reads it from the ERP and the MES exports directly.02Supplier follow-upSupplier and RFQ follow-up that keeps itself currentQuotes sit in email, prices sit in the ERP and the comparison sits in a spreadsheet. Referent pulls the three together and drafts the follow-up to the supplier who has not answered.03Quality holdsQuality holds and dispositions, traced to the recordWhich lots are on hold, why, and what was decided last time a similar defect appeared. Referent answers with a citation back to the record instead of a recollection.04Plant reportThe plant report, without the manual exportProduction, scrap, OEE and open orders, compiled on schedule in the format your management already reads. The person who used to build it by hand stops building it by hand. Live sessionERP · MES exports You: Which production orders are behind, and what is blocking them? * read ERP · production\_orders * read the 06:00 MES export Referent Six orders behind. Four are waiting on the same component, one is behind a quality hold, and one is on Line 3, down since 04:20. Orders behind 6 Waiting on material 4 On quality hold 1 Line 3 downtime 3h 40m ERP · Production orders You: Tell planning which four, with the component. * drafted the summary * sent to the planning channel Referent Sent, with the four order numbers and the component reference. I'll send it again if a fifth order joins them today. 0304Deployment ## Days, not months. There is nothing to migrate and nothing to rebuild, so the timeline is short by construction. 1. 01 ### Map the system We watch how your existing app talks to the system underneath and document the queries, actions and endpoints behind it. 2. 02 ### Connect at the data layer Referent connects directly at that level. No connector to build, no migration, no change to the software your team uses every day. 3. 03 ### Validate with your team The people who know the process check the answers against reality. Permissions are mapped to the roles you already have. 4. 04 ### Live Your team asks in plain language and gets answers from live data, with citations. Scope grows from there. Reference deployment ### A mid-market manufacturer, on a custom ERP. Mapped, connected and in production in under a week, on a system no AI product could reach. System Custom ERP Time to production One week Migration required None 0404Security ## Built to clear the security review, not to argue with it. Most AI proposals die in IT. These are the properties that get the conversation past that point. * 01 ### Single-tenant isolation Your deployment runs in its own environment. Nothing is shared with another customer. * 02 ### Zero-retention models Prompts and responses are not stored by the model providers and are never used for training. * 03 ### Your permissions, mirrored Referent respects the access rules your systems already enforce. Nobody sees what they could not see before. * 04 ### No data duplication Answers are fetched from the live system at query time. We do not build a second copy of your database. * 05 ### GDPR European data protection requirements are part of the deployment, not an afterthought. * [ Read the security detail](/security) ## See it running on a system like yours. [Book a demo](/demo)[Sign in](https://dash.referent.app/onboarding) ## Be the first to hear about Referent news.