Digital demand network

Turn the supply chain into a living demand network

HiggX SignalMesh connects the parties, transactions, commitments, and real-time events that make manufacturing happen.

Traditional supply chains are drawn as a sequence of linear handoffs. Real manufacturing works differently. Every request for quotation, order, delivery, and production commitment depends on a changing network of customers, manufacturers, suppliers, systems, machines, people, and agents.

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Graph of parties

UBL documents and events

Open MQTT exchange

SignalMesh makes that network explicit and operational. It represents the parties participating in buying and selling transactions as a graph, connecting each party to the demand, capabilities, transactions, commitments, and events that define its role.

Grounded in real manufacturing relationships

Developed through more than a decade of manufacturing quotation experience with Quotation Factory.

Oasis
Oasis

Network context

The network behind every transaction

Most business systems show only one company’s view of a transaction. SignalMesh preserves the wider relationship context across company and system boundaries.

Within the network, participants can:

  • Publish and receive demand.
  • Exchange requests for quotation and quotation responses.
  • Accept responsibility for work through explicit commitments.
  • Report progress and operational exceptions as they occur.
  • Share authorized events with customers, suppliers, and preferred partners.
  • Coordinate people, systems, and autonomous agents around the same transaction context.

The result is more than connected software. It is a shared digital representation of how demand moves through a manufacturing network and how every participant responds.

Commitments and events

From commitments to observable behavior

SignalMesh connects what parties agreed to do with the events that show what is actually happening.

As transactions progress, participating companies can publish operational signals about requests, responses, acceptance, production, delivery, and exceptions. HiggX can relate these events to the relevant party, transaction, and commitment, making real-time behavior observable across the demand network.

This gives people and authorized agents the context to identify risks earlier, coordinate routine work, and respond when conditions change. Over time, the network can organize itself more effectively around real demand, available capability, accepted commitments, and current operational evidence.

People and companies remain accountable. Agents provide coordination and operational scale within their declared roles and authority.

Open MQTT standard

Open event exchange with MQTT

SignalMesh includes an MQTT-based adapter organized according to Unified Namespace principles. Metalworking companies can publish operational events and subscribe to authorized events from their own operations, suppliers, and preferred suppliers.

Customers and other network participants can also subscribe to relevant events through a coordinated opt-in and opt-out process. This process determines:

Which events are shared

Which parties may receive them

When access begins or ends

Both publication and subscription use the open MQTT standard. Participants can therefore connect applications, machines, and agents to the demand network without depending on a proprietary messaging protocol.

Open UBL standard

UBL documents with a matching event language

SignalMesh has adopted UBL—the open Universal Business Language standard—for standardized business processes and document exchange.

UBL standardizes documents such as requests for quotation and quotation responses. SignalMesh adds a corresponding standard for the events surrounding those documents. Events such as RFQ Sent, RFQ Received, Quotation Response Sent, and Quotation Received are mapped directly to the relevant UBL documents and transaction stages.

Together, these standards provide two connected layers:

UBL documents describe what is exchanged.

SignalMesh events describe what happened, when it happened, and where the transaction stands.

SignalMesh defines standardized events across the UBL process and document landscape so companies, applications, and agents can interpret transaction activity consistently. A participant can understand both the content of a business exchange and its real-time state.

Interoperability

Built for an interoperable manufacturing future

SignalMesh provides the foundation for a digital demand network that is open to different companies, systems, and technologies. It does not require every participant to replace its existing applications or adopt one central system as the owner of the entire process.

Instead, it gives the network a shared structure and language:

  • A graph for parties and transactions.

  • UBL for interoperable business documents.

  • Standardized events mapped to UBL processes.

  • MQTT for open publish-and-subscribe communication.

  • Coordinated subscriptions for controlled event sharing.

  • Explicit commitments and real-time evidence for accountable coordination.

This allows a metalworking company to participate from its existing operational environment while becoming part of a broader, future-proof demand network.

Reference application

The backbone of Quotation Factory

Quotation Factory is a current reference application built on the HiggX platform. It uses SignalMesh and its UBL-related events to coordinate quotation activity across customers, metalworking companies, suppliers, systems, and agents.

Requests and responses become part of a connected transaction rather than isolated documents in separate inboxes and applications. Each relevant event updates the shared operational context, helping Quotation Factory coordinate the journey from incoming demand to a commercially defensible and manufacturable quotation.

The same foundation can support a broader network in which companies transact, commit to work, exchange real-time events, and coordinate increasingly complex activity through autonomous agents.

Relationship outcomes, demonstrated

"Supplier response expectations are explicit and time-bound, so we see which promises are at risk long before a due date passes."

65%

Expectations on track

28%

Faster supplier response

Sarah Mitchell

Sarah Mitchell

Manufacturing Manager

"Agents run the coordination inside bounded authority and escalate the moment judgment is needed, so the team spends its day on the calls only people can make."

5x

Routine work delegated

31%

Fewer escalations missed

Elena Novak

Supply Chain Lead

"Every requirement change now arrives as an attributable event, so estimating and production work from the same relationship context instead of chasing each other."

3x

Earlier exception discovery

42%

Less manual follow-up

Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson

Operations Director

"When a delivery slips we settle it from the evidence trail instead of reconstructing email threads, so a dispute closes in an afternoon rather than a fortnight."

7x

Faster dispute resolution

39%

Less rework on claims

Priya Raman

Quality Manager

"We can trace every commitment to the party who accepted it and the evidence behind it, which changed how we hold delivery accountable."

4x

Relationship visibility

36%

Commitments met on time

David Reynolds

David Reynolds

Managing Director

Live demand network

A network that can see and organize itself

SignalMesh transforms the old-fashioned supply chain from a static sequence into a live demand network.

  1. 01

    The graph is its backbone

    Each party is connected to the demand, capabilities, transactions, commitments, and events that define its role.

  2. 02

    Commitments give it accountability

    Participants accept responsibility for work through explicit commitments.

  3. 03

    Events make it observable

    Operational signals are related to the relevant party, transaction, and commitment, making real-time behavior observable.

The rest of the platform

Coordinate as one connected network

By combining open standards with shared transaction context, SignalMesh enables manufacturers, customers, suppliers, applications, and agents to coordinate as one connected network—without losing the identity and responsibility of the parties involved.

Talk to our teamExplore HiggX SignalMesh