For manufacturers who bid against a specification

AI specification review for manufacturers.

Give it the customer's specification, the drawings and the addenda. It lists every requirement that affects your price, with the page it came from, and it shows you where the documents disagree. Your estimator starts from that list instead of page one, and still makes every call.

Book a DemoHow we test it →
From public bid documents
  • p.102A waterfront specification names one product for the gangway deck.
  • p.117The drawing in the same package, sheet CM-5.01, calls for grooved timber on that gangway.
  • 668 ppIn a treatment plant book, the requirements for one machine sat in fourteen separate sections.

Both problems are easy to see once they are on a list. They are hard to find at the end of a long day, fifteen pages apart in a 179-page package.

What our software found in one package

A specification review is mostly finding things.

The Town of Cape Vincent, New York posted its waterfront improvements bid package on its website. It is 179 pages, with floating docks and a gangway, and anyone can download it. We read it page by page, and then we ran it through our own software.

179
Pages read
44 sec
Reading time
214
Statements, each cited to its page
7
Places the drawings and the specification disagree

About forty of the 179 pages carry the requirements that set the price: the specification around pages 86 to 104, and the drawings around pages 110 to 117. The rest is bonds, insurance and the other trades. The seven disagreements include two decking materials for the same structure, and two deflection limits on the same page.

This was a reading result, not a pricing result. Some requirements sit on a single drawing sheet: the gangway length, 46 feet, appears on exactly one sheet, and the specification only says to see the plans. We publish what the software found, and what it got wrong, on our pilot page.

Video: AI Estimating Software Demo: A 179-Page Bid Package to a Draft Quote (4:07)
What the Cape Vincent package asks for →Our scorecard, including the mistakes →
What a specification review has to cover

The requirements that change your price are never in one place.

Mavlon reads the whole set together, because each part of it settles a different part of the price. Where an example comes from a public document, the document is named.

Your product section

The product itself: its size, materials, performance and the makers it names.

In the Cape Vincent package, page 102 names one product for the gangway deck.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
The drawings

Dimensions, quantities and details that the specification leaves to the plans.

Sheet CM-5.01 calls for grooved timber on the same gangway deck, and the gangway length, 46 feet, is on one sheet only.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
Other trades' sections

Motors, controls, coatings and testing that are part of your scope but written somewhere else.

In a 668-page headworks book, the requirements that changed the equipment price sat in fourteen separate sections.

Hailey, Idaho headworks, 668 pages
The front of the book

Bonds, warranty, damages for late delivery, and whether an equal may bid.

A 4-page bar screen specification from Odessa, Missouri says on page 2 that substitute materials or work shall not be permitted.

Odessa, Missouri bar screen, 4 pages
Reports and supplements

Site conditions and data that other pages depend on.

In a water tank book, page 143 says no subsurface report is known to exist. Page 234 points to the report bound into the same book.

South Eastern Water Association, Kentucky, 356 pages, read by a person
The addenda

What changed since you last priced it.

Addenda routinely change quantities and sometimes change the product entirely. Quoting from a superseded addendum is a common way to lose money.

Our guide to quoting from a specification book
What your estimator gets

AI specification review, as a list you can check line by line.

Four kinds of line come back, and every one carries the page it came from. The examples are from the public documents in our dock guide and our specification book guide.

01

Every requirement that changes the price

Wherever it sits in the set, each requirement comes back with its page, so checking it takes seconds instead of a search.

214On the Cape Vincent package, 214 statements came back, each cited to its page.
02

Where the documents disagree

When the specification and a drawing say different things, both pages are shown. Nothing is quietly decided for you.

p.102, p.117One product named in the specification, and grooved timber on the drawing, for the same gangway deck.
03

Questions for the customer

Where the documents close a door or leave a gap, the sentence is shown, so the question can go out before you price.

p.2Substitute materials or work shall not be permitted. Is an equal allowed to bid at all?
04

Whose scope it is

Yours, the contractor's or another trade's. A specification is usually written to the general contractor, not to you.

ElectricalWho supplies the starter and the local control panel, and which drive maker is named.
Then the quote

When you are ready, the same reading becomes a first draft of the quote, priced from your own past quotes, price lists and cost sheets. You can also use the review on its own, to decide whether to bid before anyone prices anything.

What it does not do

It does not decide whether your product meets the specification, and it does not decide whether an equal will be accepted. Those calls belong to your engineer and the customer's engineer. When the documents conflict, it shows the conflict and does not resolve it. It does not write your exceptions for you, and it does not set your price.

When it fits, and when it does not

The value is in the long set. A short specification does not need us.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

  • Your customer's engineer wrote the specification and the drawings, and your product is one part of the job.
  • The set runs to hundreds of pages, and the requirements for your product are spread through it.
  • The specification, the drawings and the addenda arrive together, and they do not always agree.
  • You answer with a compliance list, a clarifications page or a list of exceptions.
  • Your estimators spend more of their time reading than pricing.
Short, clean requests

You do not need us when

  • The specification is two to four pages and names the product plainly. We ran two like that, and ten minutes of careful reading would have found the same things.
  • You quote from a CAD model of a part. A quoting tool that reads geometry fits that better.
  • You write the specifications yourself, as an architect or an engineer. Tools for writing and checking your own specifications fit that better.
  • Your customers order from a catalogue by model number.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this sort with that in mind. If most of your requests are short and clean, you do not need this, and we would rather say so now. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Do not take our word for it

Test any AI specification review on a set you have already quoted.

Hand any vendor, including us, a full set that your team has already quoted, and compare what comes back with what your team found.

  1. Does it read the whole set, or only the section you point it to? On the public Hailey book, the requirements for one machine sat in fourteen sections.
  2. Does every requirement come back with its page?
  3. When a drawing and the specification disagree, does it show both pages? The Cape Vincent package has seven such places.
  4. Does it find a requirement that sits on a single drawing sheet, like the 46-foot gangway length?
  5. Does it surface the sentence that decides whether an equal may bid, like the one on page 2 of the Odessa specification?

Score it the way you would score a new hire. Did it find the item? Did it cite the page? Did it show you the conflict, or quietly pick a side?

Download the Cape Vincent package →Our pilot protocol and pass bar →
What we have published so far
  • Cape Vincent, New York waterfront package, 179 pages: read in 44 seconds, 214 statements each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree.
  • Hailey, Idaho headworks book, 668 pages: the 14 sections relevant to the equipment, found without being told where to look, and their requirements pulled with page references in 102 seconds.
  • Odessa, Missouri bar screen, 4 pages: the sentence on page 2 that says substitutes are not permitted.
  • These are reading results. The pricing column on our pilot page is nearly empty, and the page explains why.
The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.
We did the reading first

Guides and a tool for reading a specification.

GuideReading bid packagesWhat five real public packages taught us.GuideOr approved equalWhen to bid and when to walk away.GuideQuoting custom gangways and docksThe nine decisions, read from a public 179-page package.GuideQuoting water and wastewater equipment from a spec bookWhere the scope hides, and what three public packages showed.GuideSwitchgear submittalWhat engineers actually reject, from four public records.ToolSpecification compliance matrixAn Excel template for answering a specification line by line.
What is AI specification review?

It is software that reads a specification, with its drawings and addenda, and lists the requirements in it. Mavlon does this for the manufacturer who has to quote against a customer's specification. It lists every requirement that affects the price with the page it came from, shows where the documents disagree, and turns the gaps into questions. Your estimator reviews the list and makes the calls.

How is this different from the specification tools sold to contractors and architects?

Most of those tools help the people who write or manage a specification: architects, engineers and general contractors. Mavlon is built for the manufacturer on the other side, who receives the specification and has to price against it. So it looks for what changes your price and your scope, not for problems in the design.

Does it read the whole set, or only my section?

The whole set. On a public 668-page headworks book, the requirements that changed the equipment price sat in fourteen separate sections, and the software found them without being told where to look.

Can it tell us whether our product complies?

It finds each requirement and shows you the page, so your engineer can answer it line by line. It does not decide whether your product complies, or whether an equal will be accepted. Those decisions stay with your engineer and the customer's engineer. Open the compliance matrix template.

Does it also draft the quote?

It can. The same reading becomes a first draft of the quote, priced from your own past quotes, price lists and cost sheets, for your estimator to check. You can also use the review on its own. Read how the draft quote is built.

Who sees our customers' documents?

An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves, and your documents are never used to train AI models. Deployment options and encryption are set out on our security page. Read the security page.

Questions manufacturers ask

Asked plainly, answered in writing.

Bring one specification you have already quoted from.

We read it together on a call. Compare what it finds against what your team found. If you would rather not share a document on day one, we can read a public specification together instead. An NDA is signed before anything of yours moves.

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