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Secure AI Tool Extracts and Processes Critical Data to Ease Quoting
October 29, 2024Comments
Paperless Parts introduced Wingman, the company’s secure, artificial-intelligence (AI)-powered automation tool within its quoting platform. Wingman automatically extracts critical details from quote packages (prints, models, emails, etc.)—information from a print that most directly impacts costing and pricing—thus enabling quicker production of accurate quotes. Automatically extracted information includes more than 10,000 ASTM, AMS, Mil-Spec, Nadcap and OEM-specific process/material specifications, threads and processes. It highlights them on prints, and presents their definitions next to the print. It pulls threads, common process keywords, part and revision numbers, controlled unclassified information, materials and 3D models from 3D annotations in 3D PDFs.
“We would love a world in which buyers were always sending model-based definitions, but the reality is that prints aren’t going anywhere anytime soon,” explains Jason Ray, co-founder and CEO of Paperless Parts. “Time and time again, we hear from our customers that quoting from prints is a central pain point and that quote packages are getting bigger and more complex.”
Quoting off of a print with dozens of details—specs, tapped holes, true positions, brazing, honing, welding—proves complex for estimators, as they may need to sift through each detail manually. With so much information to process, even the most experienced estimator can overlook critical details that impact the accuracy of a quote.
Wingman is designed to handle inconsistencies and quirks that come with engineering documents, from varied callouts to different fonts. Wingman performs the tedious work to bring them into a simple format, according to company officials, that allows users to focus instead on delivering accurate quotes.
Using AI, the process becomes more robust over time as the tool is employed. And, Paperless Parts currently is developing AI models to identify additional geometric dimensioning and tolerancing specifications, according to company officials.
See also: Paperless Parts
Technologies: Management