⚡ Shop Optimization Assessment

Technology & AI consulting — shop floor walk-through

AI & Technology Consultant
📡 Known Intel
Design Software: Cabinet Vision (keep — not replacing it)
Maturity: Established operation, been around a long time
Focus: Everything AROUND Cabinet Vision — the gaps, the manual work, the stuff between systems
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1"Walk me through a job end to end — from the first customer call to final install."
Reveals every bottleneck and handoff. Where does work stall? Where do things get repeated? Where does info get lost between people or systems?
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2"Where do you lose the most time or money that better technology could fix?"
Straight to the pain. An established shop knows exactly where it hurts — they've lived with the workarounds for years. This is where your value starts.
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3"What happens between Cabinet Vision and the shop floor? What fills that gap right now?"
CV handles design — but scheduling, job tracking, costing, customer updates, inventory? That's all gap territory. That's where you come in.
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4"If I could build you one system that doesn't exist today, what would it do?"
The dream question. Gets them thinking beyond incremental fixes. Their answer tells you what they've given up trying to solve — that's the big opportunity.

🖥️ Systems & Gaps

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What happens AFTER a design leaves Cabinet Vision? Where does it go?
What are you using for everything CV doesn't cover — scheduling, costing, customer comms?
Where does information get re-entered or passed along manually?
What's tracked in spreadsheets, whiteboards, or someone's head?
Any tools you've tried and dropped? Why?

📋 Quoting & Job Costing

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How do you quote a job today — CV estimate, spreadsheet, experience?
How long does a typical quote take to produce?
After a job ships, do you know what it actually cost vs. what you quoted?
What's your quote-to-close rate?
Have you ever tracked labor hours per job? Per station?

🏭 Production & CNC

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What CNC equipment are you running? (Brand, age, capabilities)
How do you schedule jobs through the shop? (Software, whiteboard, verbal?)
How do you track where a job is in the pipeline right now?
What causes the most rework?
How's your nesting handled — CV's optimizer, separate software, manual?
What's your material waste running at?
What's the biggest production bottleneck right now?

👥 People & Communication

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How do shop floor and office communicate? (Text, radio, walk over?)
How do customers get updates on their jobs?
How many people on the team? What roles?
Where does tribal knowledge live — in someone's head, or documented?
What's the training process for new hires?

📦 Materials & Inventory

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How do you track hardware and materials inventory?
How often does a job stall because something's out of stock?
Do you use CV's BOM to drive purchasing, or is it separate?

🎨 Finishing & Delivery

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In-house finishing or outsourced? What type?
Is color matching ever a pain point?
How do you coordinate delivery and install schedules?
Do you install, or do contractors handle that?

🌐 Infrastructure

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Internet connectivity in the shop? Wi-Fi on the floor?
Any shared servers, NAS, or cloud storage?
Tablets or computers on the shop floor?
Any cameras or sensors currently in use?

💡 Optimization Opportunities

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Quick Wins — Days
Live job dashboard — real-time job status replacing whiteboard/verbal
Automated customer updates — text/email when job hits a new stage
Photo documentation — photo at each station auto-attached to the job
Digital intake form — tablet form creates the job record, no paper
High Impact — Weeks
AI quoting assistant — historical job data → accurate auto-estimates
Nesting optimization — can save 10-15% on sheet goods
Job costing tracker — QR scan at each station, real cost vs. quoted
Inventory alerts — predict hardware needs from upcoming jobs, auto-reorder
System connectors — bridge the gaps between existing tools automatically
Transformative — Months
Full digital thread — design → CNC → assembly → install, all connected
AI quality inspection — camera at CNC exit, detect defects before assembly
Predictive scheduling — AI optimizes job flow by capacity, labor, deadlines
Machine learning on job history — predict timelines, costs, bottlenecks from patterns