Authority Continuity for Manufacturing
A production change, a maintenance override, or a quality-hold release already requires specific delegated sign-off. An AI agent proposing one needs the same check, before it reaches the line.
Plant-floor authority is delegated by role and shift, not by whoever happens to be looking at the system
Manufacturing already runs on tightly delegated operational authority: who can approve a production parameter change, release a quality hold, sign off on maintenance work, or authorize a supply chain exception, often varying by shift, plant, and role. This exists because the cost of an unauthorized change on a production line is immediate and physical, not theoretical.
An AI agent monitoring a line or supply chain and proposing an action doesn't reduce that cost. It removes the person who would otherwise have checked their own authority before acting, which is exactly the check that needs to move to before execution, not after.
The same authority-continuity layer, evaluating your delegation
Your organization already has this authority: it's built into an approval matrix, a sign-off chain, a signing policy. The same Runtime Authority engine evaluates your own Authority Graph and Runtime Policies against every Intent: AI reasons, your organization authorizes, Runtime Authority decides. What changes by industry is whose authority it's evaluating, and what the workflow on either side of it looks like.
Where this shows up in manufacturing
Production changes requiring sign-off
A parameter or process change an agent proposes is evaluated against the specific role and shift authority delegated for that change type.
Maintenance authorization
A maintenance action or override an agent initiates is evaluated against delegated maintenance authority before it's applied.
Quality-hold overrides
Releasing a quality hold an agent recommends is evaluated against the specific quality authority delegated to release it, escalating where that authority isn't clearly held.
Supply chain exceptions
A supply chain exception (an expedited order, a substitute supplier) an agent proposes is evaluated against procurement and risk authority before it's committed.
Governance defines authority. It was never evaluated at the moment of action
A plant's authority matrix (who can sign off on what, by role and shift) is written for a person to check against their own badge and title. It's never been evaluated automatically against a proposing agent, because nothing existed to evaluate it between the proposal and the system executing it. Runtime Authority's Authority Graph models that structure directly; Runtime Policies compile the specific conditions a proposed change has to satisfy.
Every decision produces evidence at the moment it's made (which authority was checked, what the outcome was), so a quality or safety review doesn't depend on reconstructing who approved what from a shift log.
The scenarios above illustrate how that evaluation would apply to plant-floor actions. They're candidate workflows we're validating with early design partners, not a description of production or maintenance systems already running this on a live line today.
See PayReality evaluate your own manufacturing workflow
Bring an existing approval policy from your organization. We'll show you the decision, in real time, before anything executes.