Automating the estimating-to-quotation workflow

How a made-to-order manufacturer cut drawing time and lifted quote throughput, generating priced bills of materials straight from the costing workbook.

Estimating and bill of materials automation for made-to-order manufacturing

Priced bill of materials generated automatically from the estimating costing workbook

Switchboard technical datasheet completed automatically from the unit selections, ready for the quotation pack

The challenge

GA production was the bottleneck capping how many quotes could be issued each week.
Bills of materials were re-created manually for every quotation, slow and error-prone.
Datasheet packs were compiled by hand for each job.
Engineering handover relied on verbal and email context, so job data was lost or duplicated.

What we built

AI reads the customer specification, flags out-of-scope items and proposes a unit selection to confirm.
The estimator prices the job in the existing costing tool, human judgement stays where it adds value.
A structured BOM is generated automatically from the GA, matched exactly to the drawing, with no re-keying.
Datasheets are compiled automatically from the costing-tool selections.
Everything is assembled into one branded quotation pack, plus a structured engineering handover.

The results

~90% fewer BOM and datasheet errors.
More quotes per week from the same team.
Customers receive an itemised BOM and a visual with the quote, a genuine point of difference.
322 itemised lines across 12 units generated, with parse checks confirming every selection mapped.

The economics

Equivalent tools procured conventionally take six to eighteen months and cost tens of thousands.
Built by a domain expert, delivered in days to weeks at negligible external cost.
Changes cost minutes rather than weeks, no translation layer between the problem and the build.

What transfers to your business. Any made-to-order manufacturer whose quote involves configuration, drawings and parts lists can automate the drafting, re-entry and packaging around the human judgement that adds the value.

Other case studies

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Could this work on your process?

For one tool, a free 90-minute process walk and a fixed price within 48 hours. For bigger work, a two to three week assessment, and you keep the roadmap either way.

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