A U.S. manufacturer of aluminum patio structures had a problem. They were launching a new motorized louvered-roof system, but their quoting process depended on one employee manually calculating materials and pricing in a spreadsheet.
Salespeople couldn't prepare quotes themselves, and customers had no way to see what their finished product would look like.
The company needed a better system, and they needed it quickly.
What We Built
In just five weeks, we developed custom software that allowed their sales and production teams to:
- Configure products in 3D: Choose dimensions, layouts, lighting, fans, and other options while seeing exactly how the structure would look.
- Calculate materials automatically: Generate a detailed list of required parts based on the manufacturer's actual product specifications.
- Get accurate pricing: Pull current material prices from the company's existing spreadsheet.
- Generate quotes in minutes: Create professional quotes with pricing, specifications, and product images.
- Catch configuration errors: Prevent users from selecting product combinations that couldn't be manufactured.
The tool also removed the need to rely on one employee's knowledge to prepare quotes. Anyone on the team could follow the same process.
And it didn't require expensive infrastructure. The software ran directly in a browser, without dedicated servers or ongoing software licensing fees.
The Results: Faster Quoting and an Unexpected Discovery
The biggest improvement was making a complicated quoting process faster, easier, and more consistent.
But during testing, something interesting happened.
The manufacturer questioned the software's calculations because its estimates were about 20% lower than their existing spreadsheets.
We investigated the differences and found that the company's spreadsheets were incorrectly costing certain materials. On one project alone, the error overstated material costs by more than $11,000.
After correcting the discrepancies and refining the software, its estimated material costs came within 0.6% of the manufacturer's corrected production figures on a validated reference project.
The company now uses the tool for quoting and production quality checks and has commissioned a second customer-facing configurator.
What Could Custom Software Do for Your Manufacturing Business?
This project involved patio structures, but similar tools could help manufacturers of windows, doors, outdoor living products, and other building materials.
And it doesn't have to be a quoting tool.
At Bespoke Mind, we build custom software and AI tools to help manufacturers solve problems such as:
- Manual quoting, pricing, and material calculations
- Costing errors that affect profitability
- Repetitive order processing and data entry
- Delays between sales, engineering, and production
- Complicated product configurations and dealer sales processes
- Other time-consuming workflows that could be automated
Every manufacturing business operates differently. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is replacing a complicated spreadsheet. Other times, it's connecting processes that don't work well together.
If there's a process in your business that's taking too much time, creating costly errors, or slowing your team down, let's talk about whether a custom-built tool could help.