Manufacturing Vault

The Manufacturing Vault is a controlled-handoff system between Engineering and Manufacturing. Engineering files do not silently leak into production: when an engineer allocates a Document, Firmware, BOM, or Schematic to manufacturing, S3Suite creates an immutable snapshot that manufacturing reads from. The engineering source can keep evolving; the vault snapshot stays frozen.

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Why a snapshot model

Without a snapshot, "the BOM in manufacturing" and "the BOM in engineering" are the same file. Engineering edits leak straight onto the production floor. Snapshots break that link by design:

• The vault entry is a frozen copy at allocate time
• Editing the engineering source has no effect on what manufacturing sees
• A new engineering version reaches manufacturing only when an engineer re-allocates it (a new vault entry)
• Unallocating requires a reason; the entry stays in history greyed-out

This is the discipline that makes "which exact files shipped on Lot 2024-001?" answerable.

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Concepts

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Quick start (3 minutes)

1. Allocate a file from Engineering

1. Open your project
2. Go to Engineering → Documentation (or Firmware, BOM, Schematic)
3. Find the file or record you want to send to manufacturing
4. Click the factory icon (Allocate to Manufacturing) on the row
5. Pick a variant (or leave blank for project-wide)
6. Confirm in the modal:

- The file's current version is pinned into the vault as a snapshot - A vault entry is created

The factory icon turns lime to indicate "allocated". Manufacturing can now see this entry.

2. View the vault

1. Go to Manufacturing → Manufacturing Vault
2. Files are grouped by category: Design Files, Software, Bill of Materials, Documentation
3. Each card shows the title, version, who allocated it, when, and a download button

3. Download a vault file

1. On any active vault card, click the file name (or Download released BOM)
2. A modal asks for the project's file security key (passkey)
3. Enter the passkey
4. The file downloads (or, for BOM, an XLSX is generated on the server from the frozen bomItems snapshot)

Tip: The project passkey is on the project settings page. It is a single secret shared across your manufacturing team for that project.

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Workflow: unallocating an entry

When a release is rolled back or a vault entry must not be used anymore, unallocate it (do not delete it).

1. Open Manufacturing → Manufacturing Vault
2. Find the active entry
3. Click Remove from Manufacturing
4. Enter a reason (1 to 1000 characters). E.g. "Found issue in firmware v2.3, rolling back to v2.2." This is mandatory.
5. Confirm

The entry stays in the list but is greyed-out with the reason banner. Manufacturing knows not to use it.

Note: You cannot DELETE a vault entry. The audit trail is permanent by design. That is what makes the vault trustworthy in a compliance review.

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Workflow: re-allocating after an Engineering change

Engineering edited the file. Manufacturing should pick up the new version.

1. Open Engineering → wherever the source file lives
2. Open the file detail page
3. The factory icon shows it is currently allocated (lime)
4. Click the icon. A modal asks: "Re-allocate this version to manufacturing?"
5. Confirm

S3Suite:

• Marks the old vault entry as superseded (greyed-out, with the system reason)
• Creates a new vault entry with the new version pinned

Manufacturing sees the new entry as active. The old one stays in the audit trail.

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Workflow: Send to Vendor reads vault snapshots

When you click Send to Vendor on a variant, S3Suite assembles the file packet from the vault, not from the live engineering folder.

1. Open the variant detail page (Manufacturing → Production Variants → click the variant)
2. Click Send to Vendor
3. The flow picks up active vault entries for that variant (filtered by source type if needed)
4. Pick the vendor, choose Email or Export ZIP, send

If any selected vault entry is unallocated, missing, or belongs to a different variant, the send refuses with a 409 error listing how many were missing. This is intentional. Vendors should never receive an inconsistent packet.

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Workflow: viewing the released BOM

The BOM vault entry includes a full snapshot of every component row at allocate time.

1. Open Manufacturing → Manufacturing Vault
2. Find the BOM vault entry
3. Click Download released BOM
4. Enter the passkey
5. The server generates an XLSX from the frozen bomItems and streams it back

The XLSX has columns: row number, part number, description, package, quantity, ref designators, manufacturer, supplier, unit cost, line total, currency, lead time, category, lifecycle, EOL year, single-sourced flag, alternative count, notes.

Note: This XLSX reflects the BOM at allocation time, not the current engineering BOM. Engineering edits made after allocation do NOT appear here. To pull newer changes in, re-allocate from Engineering.

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Reference

Allowed vault source types

• Document - any file under Engineering → Documentation (product docs, manufacturing docs, custom categories)
• Firmware - any firmware version under Engineering → Firmware
• BOM - a Bill of Materials with its full bomItems snapshot
• Schematic - a schematic file allocated as a first-class vault entry (added in v1.0.09)

File access security

• Downloads require the project file passkey, supplied via the download modal or as a query parameter
• The passkey is checked against the project's stored passkey on every request
• The download endpoint walks the vault entry's frozen attachment list, not the live engineering record (with one exception: legacy entries with no attachments fall back to the engineering source as a migration shim)

Common pitfalls

• "I allocated the wrong version." Unallocate with a clear reason, then re-allocate the correct one. Do not try to delete. The audit trail will not let you.
• "The download asks for a passkey I do not know." The passkey is on Project settings → File security. Anyone with Manufacturing access in the org needs it.
• "My XLSX export of the BOM looks different from the engineering BOM." Correct. The vault is a snapshot. The engineering BOM has moved on. Re-allocate to refresh.
• "Send to Vendor says 4 of 5 files are missing." Some vault entries were unallocated since you selected them. Refresh the variant page; selected files should re-populate from current vault state.

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Related docs

• Engineering Suite - where the source files live, with the factory icon to allocate
• Manufacturing Suite - the wider manufacturing flow (variants, lots, devices)
• Hardware Revision Control - for design-file revisions; Releases pin vault snapshots end to end
• Vendors - how to maintain your vendor directory so Send to Vendor is one click