Automated Manual Inventory and Material Take-offs

Summary

One of our retail clients had a well-developed CAD system in use by their approved architecture firms. They also had a group of estimators that did manual take-offs from printed plans which were then used for pricing, and ordering fixtures and materials for their new stores and existing store remodels. We saw an opportunity to help our client save time and money by automating the estimator’s process using the existing CAD system.

We worked closely with our client and their suppliers to determine best practices for calculating equipment, sales fixtures, interior finishes, materials, etc. Once we had buy-in and approval for the automated approach, we embedded metadata into the CAD plans for fixtures and materials. Then, we created an automated process that would take embedded data for fixtures and materials from the CAD plans to create an Excel file that the client could import into their purchasing software. The automated quantity take-offs increased speed, accuracy, and efficiency. Because we used the client’s architectural library, continuity was maintained regardless of the architectural firm doing the work.