We didn't study Industrial AI. We shipped it.
Zhero is an Industrial AI practice run by a working Director of Operations. Four production systems — scheduling, quoting, ERP integration, field diagnostics — built and running inside a Canadian SME manufacturer. We assess your plant the way we built ours.
Client named under NDA during evaluation.
Reimbursed by NGen and NRC-IRAP for the professional fees of an Industrial AI readiness evaluation and implementation plan.
Your net cost, if you qualify. We price the assessment at the reimbursement cap — never above it, so nothing lands on your side of the ledger.
Final reports are due to NGen by the end of 2026, and funds are awarded first-come, first-served until they run out.
Most AI providers have never run a plant. That shows up in the plan.
An AI roadmap written from outside a factory tends to assume clean data, spare capacity, and a team with time to adopt something new. None of those are usually true. We write plans that survive a Monday.
We start at the constraint
The first question is not "where could we use AI," it is "what is actually limiting throughput, margin, or delivery." Sometimes the answer is a model. Often it is a scheduling rule nobody has revisited in a decade.
We know what your data really looks like
Not a warehouse. An ERP with three years of half-filled fields, a shared drive, a spreadsheet one person maintains, and a whiteboard. We have built production systems on exactly that, and we scope against it honestly.
We will tell you when it isn't AI
A readiness evaluation that concludes "you are not ready, here is the sequence that gets you there" is a useful result. You are paying for a decision you can act on, not a recommendation to buy something.
Readiness is four separate questions.
NGen's program defines readiness across managerial, technological, data, and skills requirements. We score each one independently, because a plant can be strong on three and blocked entirely by the fourth.
Managerial
Sponsorship, decision rights, appetite for change, and whether there is a real budget behind the intent.
Technological
Systems inventory, integration surface, shop-floor connectivity, and the infrastructure a solution would have to live on.
Data
What exists, where it lives, how good it is, who governs it — and whether it can actually drive a decision today.
Skills
Who will operate, maintain, and improve what gets built, and the specific gaps between that and your current team.
Eligibility & fit call
We check the eligibility facts, walk through what the assessment would look at in your plant, and tell you plainly whether it is worth your time.
- Program eligibility confirmed
- ITA step explained
- No obligation, no deck
Industrial AI Readiness Assessment
The full evaluation across all four pillars, plus the Industrial AI Implementation Plan that NGen requires. We price it at the reimbursement cap, never above it, so nothing lands on your side.
- Readiness Evaluation Report — scored, four pillars
- Use-case portfolio — value and effort scored
- 12–24 month roadmap — sequenced and budgeted
- Build-vs-buy calls and risk register
- On-site visit and executive readout
Automation & AI enablement
Automating a workflow end to end, or standing up AI tooling your team can safely use. Quoted separately from any funded plan, deliberately.
- Quick-ROI audit — where the payback is
- Automation sprints — one workflow, done properly
- AI environment setup and team enablement
The grant funds the evaluation and the plan — never the build — and we say so before you ask. Implementation is a separate conversation with separate economics.
Your next hire might be a task, not a person.
Most SME manufacturers add headcount because of task volume — re-keying data between systems, rebuilding the same report every Monday, walking the floor to find out where a job is. That work automates. The judgment you actually wanted to hire for does not.
Find the fastest payback
A focused pass over how work really moves through your business, looking for recurring tasks with a measurable hours-per-week cost and a clean automation path — ranked by payback, not by novelty.
Automate one workflow properly
Not a prototype. Migrated at parity so the output is provably identical first, with conflict detection, a tested rollback, a kill switch, and documentation you keep. The way the systems on our proof page were built — which is why they still run.
Stand up an AI environment
Most manufacturers' first AI problem isn't a model — it's that there's no safe, governed way for anyone to use the tools, so people either don't, or do it through a personal account with company data in it.
Are you eligible for the $15,000?
NGen's test has exactly three parts. Answer them here and you will know in under a minute — nothing is sent anywhere.
How many people does your company employ?
Across all Canadian locations, including part-time staff.
Is the company incorporated and operating in Canada?
A Canadian subsidiary of a foreign parent can still qualify if it is separately incorporated here.
Do you work with an NRC-IRAP Industrial Technology Advisor?
An ITA is a National Research Council field advisor assigned to your region. The program needs a reference from yours.
The funding runs out before the deadline does.
Applications are accepted until the money is gone. If you are eligible, the cost of finding out is a half-hour call.