Industries · Manufacturing & industrial

Location intelligence for manufacturers and industrial suppliers

See supplier trouble early, find distributors and buyers, and plan around heat and roads.

25ready-made templates
6kinds of use case
4one-minute stories
35blocks used
100hours a month saved by them all (an estimate)

Why manufacturing & industrial teams use xMap Flows

Manufacturers depend on suppliers far away and customers spread across regions. xMap Flows watches each supplier's plant, roads and port for storms and closures, finds distributors and buyers at home and abroad, discovers new manufacturers to sell parts or services to, and plans shift buses and heat breaks. A maintenance chat answers technicians with the nearest spare parts.

Supply chain surprises

Storms, closures and port queues near each supplier, scored every morning.

Distributors found at trade fairs

Distributors and buyers in new markets, scored as partners.

Sales lists of factories

New and growing manufacturers in your territory every week.

Heat on the shop floor

Heat alerts plan shifts and breaks.

Manufacturers, industrial distributors and plant teams finding distributors, suppliers and workers, and keeping plants running.

How a flow works for manufacturing & industrial

Every flow reads left to right: something starts it (a schedule, a message, an app event or new rows), it looks at an area, gathers data, lets xMap AI make sense of it, applies your rules, and sends the result where your team works. These are the blocks manufacturing & industrial templates use most.

  1. 1

    Where

    Choose the area: countries, cities, a radius around your own sites, or shapes you draw.

    Area of interest

  2. 2

    Data

    Bring in what is there and what is changing.

    Nearby places · Job postings · Demographics · News · Map business scan

  3. 3

    AI and your rules

    Score, rank, keep only what is new or fits, and match with your own data.

    xMap LLM · Jev decision · Place classifier · AI agent · Only new

  4. 4

    Where results go

    Send each result where your team works.

    Email · Reply · Show on a map · Make a report · HubSpot

Use cases and templates for manufacturing & industrial

Each template is a real flow on live data. Open it, change the city and the kind of place, test it and deploy it. Grouped by what the team wants to do.

Find customers and leads 13 templates

See them in the template gallery

Industrial distributors in a new country, scored, with the managing director.

When you enter a new country: industrial equipment suppliers and wholesalers in its main cities, scored by xMap AI as distributors for your products, the best 15 with the managing director from Apollo, into HubSpot. The right distributor makes or breaks a new country. The best candidates come ranked, with who to call.

Good for
A pump and valve maker · A machine tool brand · An industrial chemicals company
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 4 hours a month (an estimate)

Factories hiring operators, scored as equipment buyers.

Every Monday: manufacturers hiring production operators in your region, one per company, scored by xMap AI as buyers of new production equipment, with the plant manager from Apollo, into HubSpot. A factory hiring operators is adding capacity, and capacity needs machines. The plant manager is the person to reach.

Good for
An industrial equipment dealer · An automation integrator · A compressor supplier
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 6 hours a month (an estimate)

New workshops graded as spare parts buyers, to the reps.

Every month: truck repair shops and machine shops along your reps’ territories, the new ones only, graded by Jev as spare parts buyers, sent to the reps on WhatsApp. Workshops buy parts every week from whoever visits. Reps visit the best new ones first.

Good for
A truck parts distributor · A bearing and seal supplier · A lubricants company
Each run gives
A WhatsApp message
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

New manufacturers in the industrial zones, by industry.

Every month: manufacturers that appeared in your region’s industrial areas in the last year, grouped by xMap AI by industry, for the industrial services sales team, into HubSpot. A new factory buys services and supplies in its first year. The sales team sees them as they appear.

Good for
An industrial services company · A utility’s business team · An industrial bank
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Fabricators graded as welding supply buyers, with the owner.

Every month: metal fabricators and welding shops in your city, graded by Jev as buyers of welding gas and consumables, the good ones with the owner from Apollo, into HubSpot. Welding shops reorder gas and consumables constantly. The biggest buyers come first.

Good for
A welding gas supplier · A consumables distributor · A tool brand
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

Food manufacturers scored as packaging buyers, with procurement.

Every month: food and drink manufacturers in your region, the new ones only, scored by xMap AI as buyers of packaging, with the procurement manager from Apollo, into HubSpot. Food makers buy packaging in volume and switch for better service. Reaching procurement first wins trials.

Good for
A packaging manufacturer · A label printer · A packaging machinery dealer
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Garment factories graded as fabric buyers, with the merchandiser.

Every quarter: clothing manufacturers and textile mills in your region, graded by Jev as fabric buyers, with the merchandising head from Apollo, kept in a sheet for the sales team. Garment factories buy fabric every season. The biggest buyers and their merchandisers are the sales team’s list.

Good for
A fabric mill · A yarn supplier · A trims and accessories maker
Each run gives
A Google Sheet
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Warehouses and factories near your base, scored for forklift service.

Every month: warehouses and factories within 25 km of your service base, the new ones only, scored by xMap AI as clients for forklift maintenance, into HubSpot. Every warehouse runs forklifts that need service. New sites nearby are the easiest contracts.

Good for
A forklift dealer · A material handling service company · A battery service provider
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

Independent hardware and paint stores with the owner, for distribution.

Every month: independent hardware and paint stores in your country’s cities, the best-rated first, with the owner from Apollo, for the paint brand’s distribution team, into HubSpot. Paint sells through local stores. The best-rated independents are the stockists to win.

Good for
A paint manufacturer · A building chemicals brand · A tools brand
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Technical schools near your plant, with an apprenticeship idea.

Every year: technical and vocational schools within 40 km of your plant, with the head of the school from Apollo and a partnership idea by xMap AI, into HubSpot for the HR team. Apprentices become the next skilled workers. A partnership with nearby schools builds the pipeline.

Good for
A manufacturer’s HR team · An industry association · A workforce programme
Each run gives
New contacts in HubSpot
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

Electricians near your branch, each with a trade account offer.

Every month: electricians and electrical contractors within 15 km of your branch, the new ones only, each with a trade account offer by xMap AI, sent to the branch manager by email. Electricians buy where they have an account. New ones nearby are the branch’s next regulars.

Good for
An electrical wholesaler · A cable distributor · A lighting brand
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

Auto parts makers with purchasing, approved for outreach.

Every quarter: auto parts manufacturers in your region, with the purchasing manager from Apollo and an opening line by xMap AI, approved by you, into HubSpot. Tier-2 suppliers grow by winning parts makers. The purchasing manager is the door.

Good for
A tier-2 automotive supplier · A plastics moulder · A fasteners maker
Each run gives
New leads in HubSpot
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

New makers, hiring and distributors in one monthly memo.

On the 1st of every month: new manufacturers, factories hiring and industrial distributors in your region, joined by xMap AI into a one-page market memo for the sales director. One page each month tells the sales director where the industrial market is moving.

Good for
An industrial sales director · A chamber of industry · An industrial bank
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Site selection and expansion 1 template

See them in the template gallery

Industrial areas ranked by workforce and logistics, as a site memo.

When choosing a plant site: candidate industrial areas, each with the working-age people within 10 km and the trucking companies nearby, ranked by xMap AI as a site memo for the board. A plant needs workers and trucks. This compares candidate areas on both before the board decides.

Good for
A manufacturer expanding · An industrial park developer · An investment promotion agency
Each run gives
An email with the memo
Time saved
About 5 hours a month (an estimate)

Competitor watch 2 templates

See them in the template gallery

What rival manufacturers are hiring for, by function.

Every month: job postings of the rival manufacturers you name, sorted by xMap AI by function (R&D, production, quality, sales), written up as a competitor note for the strategy team. Job postings reveal new products and plants before announcements. Strategy sees them monthly.

Good for
A strategy team · A battery maker · An industrial analyst
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Rival plants from space every quarter, looking for expansion.

Every quarter: the latest clear satellite picture of each rival plant in your table, with a note by xMap AI on new buildings, yards or parking that suggest expansion. New buildings and bigger yards show expansion months before announcements.

Good for
A manufacturer’s strategy team · An industrial investor · A market analyst
Each run gives
An email with the pictures
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

Operations and alerts 4 templates

See them in the template gallery

Tomorrow’s heat at each plant, with a shift and break plan.

Every afternoon: tomorrow’s hour-by-hour temperature at each plant in your table, the hottest first, with a shift and break plan by xMap AI for the plant manager. Heat on the floor and in the yard hurts people and output. Plant managers plan shifts the day before.

Good for
A plant operations team · An EHS manager · A garment factory group
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 10 hours a month (an estimate)

Closures around key suppliers each morning, for procurement.

Every weekday at 6:00: road closures and roadworks around each key supplier in your table, with a note by xMap AI for procurement on which deliveries may be late. A late delivery stops a line. Procurement knows which suppliers may be late before they call.

Good for
A procurement team · A just-in-time plant · A food manufacturer
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 7 hours a month (an estimate)

Strikes, closures and shortages in the news that could hit your suppliers, each morning.

Every weekday morning: the business news read by xMap AI for strikes, port closures, plant fires, shortages and export bans that could hit your suppliers, each placed on the map, the new stories only, in a short brief posted to the purchasing channel in Slack and emailed. A delay is cheapest to handle on the day it is announced. A short brief each morning lets purchasing call suppliers before the line stops.

Good for
A plant’s purchasing team · A supply chain risk manager · An industrial distributor
Each run gives
A Slack post · A morning email
Blocks
Schedule → News → Only new → xMap LLM → Slack → Email
Time saved
About 11 hours a month (an estimate)

Where workers live, for shift bus routes.

Every quarter: the blocks within 8 km of your plant with the most working-age people, the 15 densest first, for planning shift bus routes, emailed with a map. Shift buses work when they stop where workers live. This shows the densest blocks around the plant.

Good for
A plant HR team · An industrial park · A staff transport company
Each run gives
A map · An email
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

Market data and research 4 templates

See them in the template gallery

Well-rated machine shops near your plant for overflow work.

Every quarter: the best-rated machine shops, metal fabricators and plastic fabricators within 50 km of your plant, each with what they likely do best by xMap AI, approved by the plant manager, kept in a sheet. When orders spike, the plant needs trusted subcontractors nearby. An approved list is ready before the spike.

Good for
A machinery maker · An automotive supplier · An aerospace parts shop
Each run gives
A Google Sheet
Time saved
About 1 hours a month (an estimate)

The best forwarders near your plant, approved for export quotes.

Every quarter: freight forwarders and customs brokers within 50 km of your plant, the best-rated first, each with what they likely handle by xMap AI, approved by the export manager. Exports depend on a reliable forwarder. An approved shortlist makes quoting new lanes quick.

Good for
An exporting manufacturer · A trading company · A food exporter
Each run gives
A Google Sheet
Time saved
About 4 hours a month (an estimate)

Schools, hospitals and people around each plant, for the safety plan.

Every year: schools, hospitals and care homes within 1 km of each plant in your table, with the people living around each plant, summed up by xMap AI for the emergency response plan. An emergency plan must know who is nearby. The section writes itself from the map.

Good for
A chemical plant · A plant EHS team · A local emergency planner
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 2 hours a month (an estimate)

The best scrap buyers near the plant, approved for quotes.

Every quarter: scrap metal dealers and recycling companies within 40 km of your plant, the best-rated first, approved by the operations manager, to ask for quotes on your scrap. Scrap is money left on the table. A few quotes from good buyers raise what it brings.

Good for
A metal fabrication plant · An automotive plant · A construction contractor
Each run gives
An email
Time saved
About 3 hours a month (an estimate)

Chat assistants and APIs 1 template

See them in the template gallery

A chat that finds urgent parts near the plant.

A chat for maintenance technicians: an AI agent finds the nearest open industrial suppliers, tool stores and electrical suppliers for an urgent part, with phone numbers and distances. A stopped line costs money every minute. Technicians find an open supplier nearby in seconds.

Good for
A plant maintenance team · A facilities team · A field service company
Each run gives
A chat page
Blocks
Chat → AI agent → Nearby places → Reply
Time saved
About 25 hours a month (an estimate)

Stories: what teams build

One-minute narrated stories of a flow at work. The scenarios and figures are illustrative, not customer results.

Machine tools

A factory hiring is a factory ready to buy

The challenge. Marek sells used machine tools in Krakow, on his own. Lathes, mills and presses, mostly to factories in southern Poland. A factory buys a machine about once in five years, and nobody tells him when. Marek cold-calls from an old list of three hundred plants. Nine in ten say no. When one is really ready to buy, a bigger dealer usually got there first.

The flow. With xMap Flows, Marek built Radar. Every Monday at seven, Radar finds the factories around Krakow hiring engineers and machine operators, looks each one up on the map, skips the ones already in his customer list, reads each job ad for the machines they run, keeps the best ten, and emails him the week’s calls.

The result. This Monday, Radar finds twenty-three factories hiring. One in Wieliczka wants three machine operators for a new line. Marek calls before nine, and on Friday he sells them two used lathes. A job ad is a factory saying it is growing. Radar makes sure Marek hears it.

23factories hiring this week
10calls that matter
2lathes sold by Friday

Blocks: Schedule → Job postings → Map business scan → Match with my table → xMap LLM → Sort and limit → Email

Watch the one-minute story →
Industrial staffing

A Monday brief that beats the factory’s call

The challenge. Luis runs the Guadalajara branch of a national staffing agency. He supplies operators and pickers to factories and warehouses. On Monday mornings, plants call wanting fifty workers by Wednesday. He hears about new plants on the radio, and about hiring drives when a rival’s bus is already at the gate. His Monday brief to recruiters is a guess.

The flow. With xMap Flows, Luis built Roster. Every Monday at six, around the El Salto industrial corridor, Roster finds the plants hiring operators and pickers, reads the Jalisco business news for plants about to open, writes the week’s brief, and emails it to every recruiter.

The result. This Monday the brief names fourteen plants hiring and two new ones opening in spring. The recruiters spend the morning calling candidates, not guessing. When a plant calls for fifty pickers, Luis already has thirty waiting. Luis’s Monday brief used to be a guess. Now it is a head start.

14plants hiring this week
2new plants opening
30pickers ready before the call

Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Job postings → News → xMap LLM → Make a report

Watch the one-minute story →
Commercial banking

Trouble at a borrower, read the same morning

The challenge. Ethan leads credit monitoring for small business loans at a big Chicago bank. His team watches over two thousand borrowers. A borrower’s trouble usually shows up in the local news weeks before a missed payment: a fire, a lawsuit, a plant closing. Nobody has time to read every paper. Last winter a warehouse fire made the evening news, and the bank found out a month later.

The flow. With xMap Flows, Ethan built Waypoint. Every morning at six, Waypoint reads the city’s business news and keeps stories about fires, closures, layoffs and lawsuits, matches them with the bank’s borrowers, writes what each story could mean for the loan, and posts it to the credit team’s channel.

The result. On Wednesday, Waypoint read three hundred stories and found two about borrowers: a fire at a bakery supplier in Pilsen and layoffs at a printing firm. Ethan’s team called both owners before lunch, and reworked one loan before a payment was missed. Ethan’s team used to read about trouble a month late. Now they call the same morning.

300stories read each morning
2borrowers flagged on Wednesday
0payments missed first

Blocks: Schedule → News → Match with my table → xMap LLM → Microsoft Teams

Watch the one-minute story →
Restructuring advice

The supplier filed. Her clients knew by nine.

The challenge. Lea is an independent restructuring adviser in Berlin. She helps family manufacturers when a supplier gets into trouble. When a key supplier files for insolvency, her clients have days to find another. The court notices are public, but nobody reads them every day. Last year a client heard three weeks late, and a production line stood still.

The flow. With xMap Flows, Lea built Lens. Every morning at seven, Lens reads Berlin’s insolvency news for new filings, keeps the ones that supply her clients, writes what each filing means for the client, emails the client from Lea’s inbox, and books a call with them the same day.

The result. On Tuesday, Lens spots that a gear maker in Spandau has filed. It supplies two of Lea’s clients. Both hear from her before nine, and by Friday each has a second supplier lined up. Neither line stops for a day. Lea can’t stop a supplier failing. She makes sure her clients hear it first.

2clients warned before nine
3 wksearlier than last time
0days of lost production

Blocks: Schedule → Web page watch → Match with my table → xMap LLM → Gmail → Google Calendar

Watch the one-minute story →

All 137 stories →

The blocks behind it

Blocks are the building pieces of every flow. These are the ones manufacturing & industrial templates and stories use, most used first. Each has its own page with its settings, examples and a short film.

ScheduleTriggerStarts the flow on a timetable.EmailActionSends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.xMap LLMxMap AITell the AI what to do in plain words.Area of interestWhereSets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.Nearby placesxMap dataPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or aHubSpotAppPowerful CRM that offers tools for sales, customer service, and marketing automation.ApolloYour dataThe people to talk to at each company, and the company’s details, from your own Apollo account (apollo.io): decision makers by job title with their LinkedIn and work email; or the company’s size, induOnly newLogicLets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.Sort and limitLogicPuts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.ApprovalLogicStops the run until someone says yes.Job postingsxMap dataLive job postings: who is hiring, for what, and where.FilterLogicKeeps only the items that match a rule.My dataYour dataBrings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.Google SheetsAppCreate, edit, and collaborate on spreadsheets onlineJev decisionxMap AIAsks TypeSafe’s Jev model one typed question about each place: yes or no, pick one of your options, or a score on your levels.DemographicsxMap dataWho lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).Place classifierxMap AIAssigns clean categories and merges duplicate places.Calculated fieldLogicAdds fields worked out from the others: a number, a text or a yes/no.NewsxMap dataStories from news feeds (RSS or Atom) or a website’s news page: title, link, when, the source and a short summary.Map business scanxMap dataFinds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.Match with my tableYour dataLooks each incoming item up in one of your tables or saved lists (My data), for example your customers.Weather forecastxMap dataThe weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.Traffic incidentsxMap dataRoad closures, roadworks and other incidents on online maps right now, with where they are.WhatsApp BusinessAppSend text, media and template messages from your WhatsApp Business number.SlackAppChannel-based messaging platformSatellite imagesxMap dataRecent satellite pictures (Sentinel-2, about 10 m per pixel, a new pass every few days) of each incoming place, a point or the Area of interest: when it was taken, how cloudy, and the picture itself.ChatTriggerStarts the flow when someone writes in its chat: the chat window in the editor, or a chat page you can share or put on your website.AI agentxMap AIAn AI agent: for each incoming message it thinks, uses the blocks you link to its Tools port (data, xMap AI, lookups, your tables, other flows, apps), remembers the conversation and writes an answer in {{reply}}.ReplyActionAnswers whoever started the flow, on the same channel: the app or system that called its Webhook / API gets the answer back, and a message from Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams, SMS, Outlook or DiscorShow on a mapActionShows the results as points on a map, with the area of interest.Make a reportActionTurns the items that reach it into a clean PDF report with your logo and colour: the summary an xMap LLM block wrote for the whole list, the figures, charts of kinds and cities, a map and the list.Microsoft TeamsAppRuns an action in Microsoft Teams.Web page watchxMap dataWatches web pages for you.GmailAppEmail service by GoogleGoogle CalendarAppGet organized and stay on schedule

Every block →

More templates that fit manufacturing & industrial

Made for other roles, useful here too.

Learn and get help

The ideas behind these flows, step-by-step guides and help articles for the blocks this industry uses most. More in Resources, or see how xMap Flows compares with other tools.

Guides and decks

Questions

Can xMap Flows warn about supplier risk?

Yes. For each supplier plant from your own database, it checks the weather, roads and the shipping port, scores the week's risk and alerts buyers.

Can it find distributors abroad?

Yes. Wholesalers and distributors of your category in a target country, scored as partners.

Does it find industrial customers?

Yes. New and growing manufacturers and workshops in your territory, sent to your CRM.

Which data is live?

Live: xMap's places database (300M+ places of more than 5,000 kinds), live business listings from online maps, job postings, road incidents, ships (AIS), satellite pictures, weather forecasts, news from the feeds and pages you choose, travel-time areas and routes on the road network, and residents by age (Demographics, in about 100 countries), live road speeds and congestion (Traffic Flow; it does not count cars), footfall around each place (Mobility Footfall, in most of the world, about 10 days behind), plus regional datasets where xMap offers them, such as cars counted on the roads of the United Arab Emirates (Road traffic history). Catchment returns sample figures for now, and every result made from it says so.

Do I need to write code?

No. A flow is built from blocks on a canvas, from a ready-made template, or by describing it to Ask xMap in a sentence; Ask xMap builds it, tests it and fixes what fails. Developers can also use the API and the MCP server.

How fast can a manufacturing & industrial team start?

Hire one of the AI employees above: answer two questions (the city and the kind of place), or write one sentence to make it yours ("for dental clinics in Lyon, to WhatsApp every Monday"), and it runs in your own account with results you can see. A new account can also type its website and meet three AI employees already tried in its city. Or try the home page first: no account needed.

Can an agency or consultancy offer this to its clients?

Yes. Your logo and colour on the app, emails and reports, emails from your own domain, the app on your own address, and a read-only page for each client with its results, map and weekly report. See the Partners page.

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See it on your own city

Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.