Customer Success Examples
Engineering Intent has decades of experience designing and implementing engineer-to-order, and configuration/design automation applications. Here are just a few of the types of products and systems that can be automated with Knowledge Bridge.
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Commercial furniture
Commercial Furniture systems can be highly customized and configured and must be visualized and priced before customers will buy. Once the order is won, the furniture must be versioned and managed effectively to retain profit margins and deliver what customers expect.
Missing parts or incorrectly sized components can result in expensive field work. Knowledge Bridge not only configures, but also provides compelling, graphical quotes during the sale process, creates manufacturing and procurement data, and outputs detailed assembly instructions for installation.
Commercial Vehicles
Many commercial vehicles are highly tailored to very specific needs. Knowledge Bridge allows you to manage all aspects, including detailed costing but also every aspect of optioning and designing custom vehicles.
It ensures that requested options fit your dimension and configuration constraints. Knowledge Bridge maintains an accurate BOM, builds a detailed, customized quote, and generates renderings and drawings, speeding sales and design – and helping to put a lock on quality.
Cranes
Cranes are hardly ever "one size lifts all". All types – jib, gantry, rail, etc. – are generally custom tailored to meet varying load and dimensional conditions based on unique customer facilities and workflows.
Knowledge Bridge ensures that each crane is designed strictly to engineering rules and specifications. With kBridge, custom cranes can be designed, quoted, specified and fabricated just as easily as catalog products.
Curtain wall & building facades
Building facades can be highly complex, requiring engineering and automation tools that integrate with BIM, CAD, ERP, CAM and more. Knowledge Bridge dramatically reduces engineering and costs while increasing quality, even on projects that are totally unique.
Duct Systems
Ducting is one of several building systems that must be tailored to the constraints and geometries of each building's envelope yet must maintain correct airflows and pressures. With Knowledge Bridge, rule-driven duct layout removes guesswork, integrates with BIM, and eliminates surprises and expensive re-work in the field.
Elevator & elevator components
Engineering Intent has extensive experience with elevator systems and components, from customized signal equipment, to mechanical equipment, to the configuration of complete elevator systems. Knowledge Bridge enables elevator equipment manufacturers to deliver tailored products that meet local codes as well as customers' performance and aesthetic expectations.
Home building
Increasing levels of automation in home building mean that custom homes no longer require cutting and installing stick by stick on site. But that requires a configuration platform capable of high levels of customization. Knowledge Bridge is a powerful custom home configuration engine, offering unparalleled visualization, quoting, and order engineering capabilities.
HVAC Systems
No two buildings are alike and a properly designed HVAC system can make the difference between comfort and complaints. Tailored HVAC solutions require extensive rules-driven configuration, and Knowledge Bridge meets this industry's biggest challenges by driving customized solutions to meet customer requirements.
High-pressure Seals
High-pressure seals are a perfect example of an engineer-to-order challenge. Unique customer requirements, performance characteristics, and operating environments all require engineering at the time of sale. Knowledge Bridge captures the engineering knowledge required to configure this highly complex product, dramatically reducing sales overhead while ensuring manufacturability.
Hydraulic pumps & motors
The practically infinite combinations of performance, dimensions, materials, pressures, and application requirements mean that hydraulic pumps and motors are often highly configured. products. And that means quoting isn't an 'off-the-shelf' exercise. Knowledge Bridge powers engineer-to-order configuration of complex hydraulic products, speeding the sales process and leading to higher margins and quality.
Logistics automation
Logistics automation and material handling systems have become increasingly sophisticated. They require specialized components and custom installation. Only then will a system deliver efficient and error-free throughput. Knowledge Bridge's custom UI includes fast 2D and 3D Snap-Drag™ graphics that can be graphically manipulated to create configured conveyor solutions quickly. And kBridge helps you present them in a compelling ways to your customers. After the order is received, Knowledge Bridge drives a CAD system directly to create models, detailed drawings, shop orders, and other data. making order engineering fast and highly efficient.
Oil & gas equipment
The oil and gas industry demands customized equipment to maximize output and comply with environmental regulations. Equipment manufacturers increasingly benefit from automation tools, reducing the overhead of quoting and specifying complex, highly engineered components. Knowledge Bridge is a solid platform that answers these challenges, freeing time to innovate new offerings.
Oil & gas facilities
Whether greenfield or renovation, hydrocarbon facilities have no time to spare when installations are planned and bid. The pressure is on vendors to deliver quotes on large-scale projects quickly, with no margin for error. Knowledge Bridge manages industrial configuration challenges, reducing risk while meeting tough project milestones.
Paint finishing systems
From automobile finishing to aircraft painting to powder coating for industrial equipment, and more, paint and finishing systems are increasingly complex. Specialized airflow, exhaust, lighting, filtering, and other variables make each job unique. Knowledge Bridge speeds both quoting and order engineering for the finishing industry.
Plastic injection molding equipment
How many plastic products do you encounter every day, and how often do designs change? Injection molding increasingly has to support dynamic product design while providing competitive pricing. In addition, delivery schedules are more and more compressed. Knowledge Bridge enables the injection molding industry to reduce quote time and effort – and reduce the risks in this fast-paced segment.
Playground equipment
Communities want to provide the most play for the buck. Custom configuration of playground equipment has become commonplace. Knowledge Bridge helps playground providers deliver highly visual and compelling proposals that meet community budgets and mandates – and at the same time, please community planners and boards.
Power generation & power distribution
Delivering power to homes and businesses requires a wide range of engineered, configurable products married to off-the-shelf elements. Knowledge Bridge enables companies in this highly competitive industry to quote faster, better, and with greater confidence than ever before.
Precast concrete
Precast concrete products, such as underground utility vaults, present significant configuration and engineering challenges. From varying load requirements to correctly positioned connections to correctly engineered rebar, all benefit from rule-driven solutions. Knowledge Bridge helps precast companies reduce the cost of sales while ensuring manufacturing viability.
Refrigerated grocery merchandising
Grocery stores and chains require temperature-controlled presentation equipment that is energy efficient, with little to no downtime. Brand and design standards add another layer of complexity. Pressures are on manufacturers to deliver compelling proposals that distinguish them from the competition. Knowledge Bridge makes customized quoting more effective and less time-consuming – and best of all, can generate fabrication-ready information once a job has been won.
Refrigeration systems
Refrigeration faces burgeoning demands for more cooling, more efficiency, and less ecological impact. And every store, every location involves entirely different demands. Quoting new systems is time consuming and engineering-intensive. But designing and quoting refrigeration systems is incredibly fast and accurate thanks to the power and cloud-driven scalability of Knowledge Bridge.
Switchgear
Electric switchgear equipment is highly configurable. It has to be to meet the unique demands of each installation. Designing to meet the often extensive requirements can be tedious and time-consuming if done manually. With Knowledge Bridge automation, however, solutions can be developed with speed and ease, with a vast reduction or elimination of design error.
Transformers
Transformers are the classic engineer-to-order product. Especially, mid and high voltage transformers are designed to the specific requirements of each customer. Engineering Intent has years of experience working with transformer manufacturers to automate detailed transformer design. Often the detailed electrical calculations are done outside of the automation system, then harnessed by the system to drive the design. Hard-core engineering requirements as well as the many options available on larger transformers, as well as the customer-specific packaging requirements, all require many hours of manual engineering — hours that can be eliminated with automation via Knowledge Bridge.
Turbines
Turbine design spans the spectrum from stock turbines with pre-designed internal turbine workings to fully customized installations. Stock, of course, still has to be customized to handle specific customer packaging requirements and options. And fully customized systems require extremely time-consuming and highly iterative design engineering, including mechanical, aeronautical, thermal, acoustic, and structural engineering, all performed concurrently. Both types of customization are far easier when the relationships and iterations are handled automatically by Knowledge Bridge.
Walk-in coolers
Walk-in coolers are most often customized, panelized assemblies that must be tailored to each installation. Each installation has to meet differing geometric, performance and environmental conditions. Knowledge Bridge helps cooler manufacturers reduce sales engineering time and effort. And kBridge goes even further to automate the output of fabrication and assembly data once a job is won.
Warehouse rack systems
As automation has driven logistics, the need for rack systems has become more specialized & customized. Quotes and orders for a rack project must manage sprawling configurations that involve thousands of parts. Knowledge Bridge maintains these specialized project details for design, quote generation, and packing and assembly instructions.
Windows and doors
The market for customized windows and doors is huge, from remodel and retrofit to new construction. In a highly competitive industry, multiple vendors compete on the same projects, meaning the quote-to-win ratios don't allow for time-consuming, resource-intensive quotes. kBridge provides quick, accurate, and compelling quotes in just minutes, and shows the customer what they're getting in full 3D.