Redwood Precision Fabrication & Supply

Custom Architectural & Structural Steel Fabrication

redwoodfab-example.com

(503) 555-0294

rfq@redwoodfab-example.com

Portland, OR

38 Employees (Shop Floor & Engineering)

Inquiry Scope

PROCESS EXAMINED

Architectural Blueprint Takeoff, Steel Price Quoting & Material Reservation

Audited the estimating process for commercial bids, focusing on how takeoff dimensions move from general contractor PDFs into vendor RFQs, spreadsheet costing models, and shop floor inventory reservations.

Operational Reality

THE CONTEXT & BOTTLENECK

Redwood produces high-tolerance custom steel components for general contractors. Surging raw material price volatility caused quoting delays of 6 to 9 days, resulting in lost bids and compressed profit margins.

Inquiry Protocol: Artifact Trace, Estimator Shadowing & Event-Driven Audit — Tracked 35 active Request For Quotes (RFQs) through estimating, engineering takeoff, material reservation, and shop-floor release. Shadowed 3 senior estimators and 2 laser cutting operators.

Observed Workflow Friction & Bottlenecks

Estimators manually copied structural steel gauges and beam lengths from PDF prints into an 18-tab Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Mill price sheets were updated weekly via email attachments, with estimators frequently quoting outdated steel costs.

Shop inventory was tracked in an on-premise 2011 SQL server with no real-time reserve status.

Field Observations

DAY-BY-DAY ON-SITE SHADOWING JOURNAL (5 DAYS ON-SITE)

A chronological journal recorded by From Creation engineers embedded on-site with Redwood Precision Fabrication & Supply.

Day 01

Day 01: Estimator Shadowing & RFQ Intake Tracing

8:00 AM – 4:30 PM (8.5 Hours)

Focus Area: Blueprint takeoff & PDF data extraction manual work

Shadowed lead estimator Tom through 8 incoming commercial bid packages. Timed how long it took to extract structural steel specs from architectural PDFs.

Specific Activities & Observations:

•Timed structural beam takeoff from 3 complex commercial drawings.
•Observed manual copying of dimensions into multi-tab spreadsheets.
•Traced how RFQ emails are filed and prioritized.

Key Friction Uncovered: Estimators spend 4.5 hours per quote manually transcribing dimensions from PDFs into Excel. No automated extraction or standard layout existed across different general contractors.

Day 02

Day 02: Steel Mill Supplier Price Sheet Audit

8:30 AM – 4:00 PM (7.5 Hours)

Focus Area: Raw material volatility, supplier price lags & margin slippage

Audited 40 recent supplier quote emails against the pricing Redwood sent to contractors. Compared mill indices to estimator spreadsheet lookup tabs.

Specific Activities & Observations:

•Compared spot mill prices against quote values across 25 past contracts.
•Interviewed purchasing manager on mill price change notification schedules.
•Audited 3 contracts where Redwood lost money due to price spikes.

Key Friction Uncovered: Mill steel prices were fluctuating up to 14% week-over-week. Estimators were quoting from a price tab that was updated on average every 18 days, creating severe margin erosion.

Day 03

Day 03: Shop Floor Inventory Reservation Observation

7:00 AM – 3:30 PM (8.5 Hours)

Focus Area: Stock availability verification between estimating and laser cutting

Spent the shift on the fabrication floor with lead laser operator Mike and warehouse inventory clerk Carlos.

Specific Activities & Observations:

•Observed sheet plate picking and laser cutter feed queueing.
•Audited legacy 2011 SQL inventory database against physical racks.
•Traced what happens when an estimator assumes stock that has been cut.

Key Friction Uncovered: The SQL database recorded total physical plates but lacked a "reserved for job" flag. Plates counted by estimators were frequently cut for another job hours earlier.

Day 04

Day 04: Vendor Evaluation Audit (The $50k ERP Proposal)

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (8.0 Hours)

Focus Area: Auditing the enterprise ERP contract Redwood was considering

Reviewed the detailed specification of an enterprise ERP system proposed by a commercial software vendor with CFO Evelyn Choi and the Shop Foreman.

Specific Activities & Observations:

•Mapped ERP vendor feature list against observed shop floor needs.
•Evaluated required hardware upgrades and retraining hours.
•Calculated 14-month implementation risk and ongoing maintenance fees.

Key Friction Uncovered: 85% of the proposed ERP features were unnecessary administrative overhead. The shop floor loved their barcode scanners; the estimators loved Excel. Replacing both would degrade shop productivity.

Day 05

Day 05: Lean Microservice Architecture Presentation & Signoff

9:00 AM – 1:30 PM (4.5 Hours)

Focus Area: Demonstrating the $6,500 AWS Lambda bridge directly into Excel

Presented working technical proof-of-concept syncing live steel mill prices into Excel via an AWS API Gateway bridge.

Specific Activities & Observations:

•Demonstrated live Excel pricing sync with real-time mill index.
•Presented ROI timeline comparison: 18 days vs. 14 months for ERP.
•Obtained unanimous leadership decision to reject ERP and enact lean bridge.

Key Friction Uncovered: Leadership canceled the $50k ERP purchase contract, saving $43,500 in capital and avoiding substantial organizational disruption.

Strategic Comparison

THE CONTRAST: ADVICE VS. CLIENT DECISION

An honest, side-by-side record of From Creation's engineering recommendation contrasted against the practical operational path client leadership decided to enact.

From Creation Advice

Recommended AGAINST Full $50k ERP Software Replacement

Unlike traditional enterprise software vendors who proposed replacing Redwood’s entire shop ERP for $50k+, From Creation recommended KEEPING their core shop system and deploying a targeted $6,500 automated material pricing bridge.

Proposed ArchitectureAWS Lambda + Amazon Textract for PDF takeoff assistance + real-time steel mill pricing API bridge directly into Excel.

Projected ROI & CostProjected 18-day payback period versus 14-month high-risk ERP overhaul.

What the Client Decided

Decided: Accepted Lean Microservice; Deferred Full ERP

Redwood leadership enthusiastically adopted our lean recommendation, avoiding a disruptive multi-month ERP migration while solving their acute pricing latency problem.

Strategic RationaleThe shop floor loved their existing barcode scanning terminals; replacing everything would have triggered severe shop floor downtime.

Enacted SolutionIntegrated an automated steel pricing microservice that directly updates estimators’ existing Excel models via AWS API Gateway.

Results & Validation

OUTCOME & STRATEGIC TAKEAWAYS

Quoting Latency Dropped from 7.5 Days to 4 Hours

92% reduction in quote calculation turnaround

$43,500 in upfront software capital expenditure saved

28% increase in awarded commercial bids

“Two other consulting firms told us we had to buy a $50,000 ERP system. From Creation came in, watched our estimators work for five days, and told us our spreadsheets were actually fine—we just needed live steel prices.”
— Evelyn Choi, Chief Financial Officer, Redwood Precision

Engineering & Operational Lesson

Good engineering is knowing what NOT to build. Delivering high-impact micro-solutions builds far greater trust than selling bloated software.