Process knowledge stays in the plant.
Manufacturers hold decades of process recipes, quality records, and supplier terms in systems that were never designed to be searched. Data.co brings private AI to that data on hardware you control, segmented by plant and kept away from the control network.
Trade secrets and export controls, not just privacy.
In manufacturing, the sensitive data is often the process itself: tolerances, recipes, tooling designs, and the corrective actions that took years to learn. Some of it may be subject to export controls or customer contract terms that restrict where it can be stored and who can see it.
Data.co runs inference and retrieval on servers inside your facilities or private cloud. Datasets carry plant, program, and export-control labels, and policies restrict which identities, including agents and contractors, can reach them. Operational technology networks remain separate; Data.co reads from historian replicas and exports, not from control systems.
Where AI earns its keep on the floor.
Maintenance assistant
Technicians ask about a machine and get answers from manuals, work orders, and past failure notes for that asset.
Quality investigations
An agent assembles nonconformance history, inspection data, and supplier records for an 8D or CAPA, scoped to the plant.
Supplier document review
Certificates and specs are checked against purchase order requirements, with exceptions routed to buyers.
Shift handover summaries
Local models summarize shift logs and alarms from historian exports into a readable handover.
Engineering change search
Find every ECO that touched a part family across ERP and PLM, with access limited by program.
How access is divided.
| Boundary | Example policy |
|---|---|
| Plant | Identities assigned to Plant A cannot retrieve Plant B process data |
| Program | Defense program documents restricted to cleared, named staff |
| Role | Contractors read manuals and SOPs, not recipes or supplier pricing |
| OT / IT | Agents read historian replicas; no write path to control systems |
| Supplier | Supplier portal agents see only their own POs and quality records |
Built for industrial sites.
- Runs on plant-local servers or AI workstations
- Operates with intermittent or no internet connectivity
- Reads from ERP, MES, PLM, and historian exports
- No inbound connections required from Data.co
- Per-plant deployments with central policy management
- Audit logs retained on site
Plant scope and export labels, written down.
Identities carry a plant attribute and, where relevant, an attribute your export compliance team maintains. Data that lacks the right attribute match is denied by default. These are illustrative examples, not a determination of what is controlled.
id: pol_mfg_plant_001
description: Process data is readable only within the owning plant
subject: { type: [user, agent] }
resource: { dataset: "process.*" }
action: [read, search]
when:
resource.attr.plant: { equals: subject.attr.plant }
effect: allow
explain: "Process data is limited to staff and agents assigned to the same plant."Illustrative example · final API surface documented in /docs
Start at one plant, then replicate.
- 1
Pick the pilot site
Choose a plant with a cooperative maintenance or quality team and accessible ERP and work-order exports.
- 2
Index the safe material first
Manuals, SOPs, and work orders give technicians immediate value and carry little process IP.
- 3
Add restricted sources
Recipes, supplier pricing, and program data join only after their labels and deny rules have tests in the repository.
- 4
Replicate the template
The next plant gets the same configuration with its own attribute, its own instance, and its own audit log.
Questions buyers ask
Does Data.co connect to our PLCs or SCADA systems?
No. Data.co reads from historian replicas, exports, and IT-side systems such as ERP and MES. It does not write to or sit on the control network.
Can each plant run independently?
Yes. Each site can run its own instance that keeps working if the WAN is down, with policies distributed from a central repository when connectivity allows.
How do you handle export-controlled technical data?
Datasets can carry an export-control label, and policies restrict them to identities with the required attributes. Determining what is controlled, and who may see it, remains your export compliance team's responsibility.
What hardware is required?
It depends on the models and user count. Many plants start with a single GPU server or AI workstation. Our infrastructure assessment sizes the workload before you buy.
Can customers' drawings and specifications be kept separate?
Yes. Customer-owned technical data can carry a customer attribute, and policies limit it to the program team serving that customer. That supports contract terms that restrict where customer data may be used.
Can contractors and integrators use the assistant?
They receive their own identities with narrower policies, typically manuals and SOPs only. Their access can be time-bound and revoked without touching employee access.
See it against your own use case.
A 30-minute technical walkthrough, policy simulation on your scenarios, and a deployment recommendation for on-prem, private cloud, or hybrid.