This guide is for owners and finance leads of manufacturing companies. Your nonconformance reports, corrective actions and work instructions record how real problems get solved. Here is what a plant can include, what has to stay out, and which published rules decide whether you fit.
AI labs are paying for records of real work: how a problem was noticed, investigated, decided and closed. A factory produces that record every shift.
Most of the early demand was for generic office work: email, chat, tickets and CRM notes. Practitioners say the next wave is vertical data, and they name manufacturing and lab and chemistry records in particular. That is a view from people working in this market, not a published buyer rule. Treat it as a reason to look, not as a price signal.
What the buyers publish is broader. micro1 states that "Operational data from every industry can contribute", and it lists SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, project histories and QA processes among the data it wants (as published, checked 7 October 2026). Its example categories do not include manufacturing by name. The closest are "Operations & logistics" and "Finance & accounting". Grepped says it welcomes every vertical. Mode lists ERP and finance systems such as NetSuite and QuickBooks, plus AutoCAD, among the sources it buys.
What failed, where it was caught, and the call to scrap, rework or use as is.
Five-why and 8D work that shows reasoning, dead ends and the fix that held.
Sampling plans, first-article steps and how inspectors escalate a doubtful part.
Company-written procedures, with revision history that shows why steps changed.
Engineering changes and supplier corrective action requests, with the back-and-forth.
Downtime logs, repair notes and the email threads that reshuffle a production week.
These are practitioner views, not published prices. Most plants will start at the first tier.
Exports of documents, tickets and messages after de-identification. Practitioners say this is the cheapest form of data.
Test tasks built from your records, for example "find the root cause from this NCR". Practitioners say these are worth roughly 10x raw data.
Simulated workflows an AI system can practice in. Practitioners say these reach 6 to 8 figures but need heavy engineering.
The rule of thumb: you can only license what you own and are free to share. In a plant, much of the most technical material belongs to someone else.
Walk the plant system by system. Most manufacturers find the same ten record types, with very different answers on whether they can go in.
| Record type | Typical system | Usually includable? | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOPs and work instructions | SharePoint, Google Drive, quality system | Usually yes | Company-written. Check for pasted customer specs. |
| NCR, CAPA and 8D files | Quality system, spreadsheets, email | Often, after scrubbing | Customer names, part numbers and people need consistent placeholders. |
| Quality and scheduling chat | Teams, Slack | Often, channel by channel | Workers' names and side talk; staff notice comes first. |
| Work orders and purchase approvals | NetSuite, QuickBooks | Often, without prices | Supplier pricing may sit under confidentiality terms. |
| Maintenance and downtime logs | Maintenance software, spreadsheets | Usually yes | Your own equipment, little personal data. Ask whether the buyer takes the export format. |
| Engineering change orders | PLM, email | Case by case | Often reference customer-owned designs. |
| Supplier corrective action requests | Email, supplier portals | Case by case | Contain the supplier's information; portal records may belong to the customer who runs the portal. |
| Customer drawings, models and specs | AutoCAD, CAD vault | Usually no | Customer-owned, under NDA, or possibly export-controlled. Mode lists AutoCAD as a source it buys, but that does not give you rights in a customer's files. |
| Process recipes and machine parameters | MES, controllers | Usually no | Trade secrets you may want to keep; possible export control. |
| HR, payroll and injury records | Paychex, HR system | No | Personal data about workers. Payroll systems appear on buyer source lists; personnel records still stay out unless counsel clears them. |
No program publishes a separate rule for manufacturers. The general rules apply. The question that matters most for a plant is how each buyer counts your people.
| Program | Published company payout | Published eligibility | What it means for a manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership | "$100k+ qualified", "$500k+ large-scale", "$1M+ highly unique" | 30+ employees; mature operations, documented processes, modern software tools; primarily English; U.S. prioritized, then other Western markets | Documented quality processes and SOPs match what it lists. Paper-only travelers and binders are harder to export. |
| Mode company data | "$100K-$5M" | 20+ full-time U.S. office employees; several years of records the company owns; U.S.-based teams strongest fit | Its calculator asks separately for desk and non-desk employees. Ask how your plant-floor staff count. |
| Grepped | "$20K-$5M" | Any vertical; also pays individual professionals for expertise | No published headcount minimum. It lists operations managers (SOPs, scheduling, vendors) among the experts it seeks. |
Last checked 7 October 2026. Sources: micro1.ai/data-partnerships and micro1.ai/company-referral; data.mode.inc; grepped.ai. Miro Advisory also publishes indicative ranges for operating datasets ("$100K-$1M+") and has no referral relationship with this site. Published ranges are ceilings and bands, not quotes. See all buyer programs compared.
Independent site. Some links are referral links: if your company signs with a buyer through them, the buyer may pay us a fee. You are not charged, and we never see your data.
Export control. U.S. export control rules, such as the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and, for defense articles, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), can restrict who may receive certain technical data. Drawings, process parameters and work instructions for some parts may fall under them. Ask your lawyer whether anything in scope is controlled, and where the buyer and its downstream recipients process data.
Intellectual property. Customer-owned designs, NDAs, quality agreements and supplier contracts can all limit what you may share. Trade secrets need care too. Ask how a license with confidentiality terms would protect a process you want to keep, or leave that process out.
Employees. Shop-floor chat and email contain workers' words and names. Ask what notice your staff should get, and read employees and selling company data.
General information, not legal advice. Talk to your own lawyer before you sign.
A scope is the written list of systems, date ranges and exclusions you agree before any export. Mode publishes that its agreed scope lists the approved systems and date ranges before any export.
Headcount, the office-to-floor split and the number of sites change the answer more than the industry does. Each company below is invented to show how the published rules apply.
Split: 9 in the office, 26 welders and fitters. QuickBooks, Outlook, a shared drive, and a paper quality binder.
Published rules: 35 people is above micro1's 30+ on its face. Mode's 20+ full-time U.S. office employees is not met on its wording. Grepped publishes no minimum.
Sensible scope: company-written SOPs, digital NCR emails and purchase approvals. The binder stays out until it is scanned and reviewed. Expect a small archive and ask whether a review is worth it for both sides.
Split: 28 office, 92 on the floor. Injection molding for automotive and consumer customers. NetSuite, a quality system, Teams, six years of records.
Published rules: clears micro1's 30+ employees and Mode's 20+ office employees on their wording.
Sensible scope: CAPA files, scrap and rework discussions, mold maintenance logs and change orders. Customer approval packages and customer drawings stay out, because the customers own or control them.
Split: 110 office, two U.S. plants and one plant in Germany. Some jobs are for defense customers.
Published rules: clears the published headcount numbers by a wide margin. Size is not the issue here; complexity is.
Sensible scope: start with the two U.S. plants, exclude every defense job after an export-control screen, and leave the German site for later because of GDPR and works council questions. Offer slices separately rather than signing one license over everything.
These are general questions for any data agreement. They are not claims about any named buyer.
Is the license exclusive, time-limited or perpetual? Can the buyer resell the copy? See exclusivity and resale rights.
Training only, evaluation, or both? Which downstream buyers may receive it?
Who pays if de-identification misses a customer name? Is liability capped, and does it expire?
What will you represent about employee and customer consent? Does anything conflict with customer NDAs or quality agreements?
One-off or recurring, milestones and acceptance criteria; audit rights over de-identification; deletion of originals and of the copy; termination and survival clauses.
Applying costs little. Preparing a plant's records does not. Answer these first, with your quality manager and your lawyer in the room.
Plants run on trust between the office and the floor. People learn about a data sale one way or another. It is better that they hear it from you first.
Say which systems and channels are in scope, which are excluded (direct messages, HR files, injury reports), and how names are removed according to the buyer's published statements. Many floor workers never touch email, so use a written notice they will actually see and name a person who answers questions. If you have a collective bargaining agreement, ask counsel whether it touches this. For EU sites, works councils may need to be involved; see GDPR and selling data for AI training.
Read NDAs, quality agreements and supplier terms before scoping. Some forbid any reuse of information about a customer's parts, even with names removed. Others are silent. Your lawyer can tell you which contracts need consent, which need notice, and which need nothing, and how to approach a customer if you do need to ask. Excluding a customer entirely is often simpler than asking.
Put these in writing and keep the answers. They apply to any program and are not claims about any named buyer.
Does plant-floor staff count toward your minimum, or only office employees?
Quality, maintenance and MES software is not on the published source lists. Ask about formats before anyone spends time exporting.
Which countries and which downstream recipients? Your export-control review depends on the answer.
If controlled or customer-owned data turns up after delivery, how is it returned or deleted, and how fast?
Can we license a different plant, date range or record type later, to you or to someone else?
Some buyer programs say they accept operational data from any industry. micro1 publishes that "Operational data from every industry can contribute", and Grepped says it welcomes every vertical (both as published, checked 7 October 2026). Whether your plant fits depends on headcount, years of records, ownership of the data, and what has to be excluded. Nobody can price your records without reviewing them.
Records that show a decision from start to finish: a nonconformance report linked to its root-cause analysis, the corrective action, the changed work instruction and the discussion behind it. micro1 names QA processes, SOPs and project histories among the data it wants. Single forms with no context are worth far less than connected histories.
It depends on the program. Mode publishes a minimum of 20+ full-time U.S. office employees, and its calculator asks separately for desk and non-desk employees. micro1 publishes 30+ employees without that split. Ask each buyer how it counts your team before you assume you qualify or do not.
Usually not. Drawings, models and specs supplied by a customer are often owned by that customer or covered by an NDA or quality agreement. Some may also be export-controlled technical data. Leave them out unless your lawyer confirms you have the right to license them.
Mode publishes that it "generally expects about three months from the first conversation through payment". Practitioners cite 60 to 90 days to close. Export-control and customer-contract review can add time. No buyer program guarantees acceptance, a price or a date.
It can. micro1 lists modern software tools among the things it looks for (as published, checked 7 October 2026). Paper travelers and binders have to be scanned first, and handwritten names on scans are harder to de-identify than typed fields. Start with what is already digital and treat paper as a later, optional slice.
Check your contracts first. If customer names, part numbers or specifications appear in your records, an NDA or quality agreement may require notice or consent even for a de-identified copy. Ask your lawyer which agreements matter and how to approach them. Do not assume the buyer's de-identification settles it.
Possibly, but expect more work. Personal data from EU sites falls under GDPR, and works councils may have a say over employee data. micro1 prioritizes U.S. companies and Mode says U.S.-based teams are the strongest fit (as published, checked 7 October 2026). Many groups start with U.S. plants only.
The checker runs in your browser and stores nothing. It compares your headcount, records and systems with what each program publishes.