Kirby Structures
Estimation & Quoting Platform for Buildings
Kirby Building Systems operates a sophisticated pre-sales engineering and estimation process supporting the design and manufacture of pre-engineered steel buildings. Customer opportunities arrive as complex inquiry packages containing technical specifications, building requirements, drawings, correspondence and commercial information that must be interpreted and converted into structured estimation inputs before a commercial quotation can be prepared. Cylix designed an AI-powered estimation and quoting platform to introduce intelligent automation into this process.
The platform transforms incoming inquiry documents into structured project information, automatically populates Kirby's Quote Request Form, identifies missing or conflicting requirements, retrieves comparable historical projects, incorporates current steel-market information and prepares a traceable draft commercial quotation using Kirby-controlled pricing logic. A dedicated Estimator Workbench provides Kirby's commercial teams with a centralized environment for reviewing project requirements, assumptions, pricing, historical comparisons and AI recommendations before final quote approval. The solution establishes the first operational foundation for a broader AI-enabled engineering and manufacturing ecosystem within Kirby.
Solution Implemented
Problem Statement
Estimating a pre-engineered steel building requires significantly more than calculating material quantities and applying a price. Each opportunity begins with a collection of customer information that may be distributed across PDFs, Microsoft Word and Excel files, email correspondence, specifications, drawings and other technical documents. Estimators must identify relevant building parameters, interpret project requirements, reconcile conflicting information, identify missing data, normalize measurements and convert the available information into Kirby's internal Quote Request Form. The process also requires commercial teams to consider previous projects, current material pricing, fabrication requirements, freight, buyouts, overhead, margins and project-specific assumptions. Much of the initial effort therefore involves collecting, interpreting, validating and restructuring information before an estimator can focus on the commercial opportunity itself. Cylix identified an opportunity to create an intelligent pre-sales layer that automates these repeatable information-processing tasks while bringing relevant engineering and commercial context directly to the estimator.
A central architectural principle of the platform is combining AI-scale information processing with human commercial expertise.
The AI platform performs the high-volume analytical work:
Extract → Structure → Validate → Compare → Retrieve → Explain → Prepare
Kirby's estimators apply professional judgment:
Review → Refine → Decide → Approve
This architecture allows AI to accelerate complex industrial workflows while preserving the commercial experience and expertise of the people responsible for the final decision.
The estimation platform creates more than an isolated quotation tool. Every customer inquiry processed through the platform begins creating structured, normalized and traceable project information that can be reused throughout future engineering and manufacturing workflows.
The architecture creates a foundation for expanding AI capabilities across areas such as:
- Engineering decision support
- Project and building classification
- Design intelligence
- Material and cost optimization
- Commercial analytics
- Enterprise system integration
- Engineering handover
- Fabrication intelligence
- Manufacturing planning
- Operational performance analytics
This creates a path toward an increasingly connected AI-enabled lifecycle spanning inquiry, estimation, engineering and manufacturing.
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