For builders of custom machines and equipment

AI quoting for custom machine and equipment builders.

Every machine you build is designed for one customer, and the request arrives as that customer's documents. Give Mavlon the specification, the drawings and the addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price, each with its page number, and drafts the first quote in your own pricing logic. Your estimator checks it and decides the number.

Book a DemoHow we test it →
From three public requests for custom equipment
  • p.9A dam crane specification asks for nuclear rules of construction, in one sentence.
  • p.16A fire department wants its custom pumper 120 days after signing, when the normal wait was 12 to 18 months.
  • p.22A substation bid form has one blank for the whole price. Page 42 says to price two spare breakers separately.

None of these describes the machine. Each one is a sentence in the customer’s document, and each one moves the price or the risk.

What three public packages had in common

The industry changes. The shape of the request does not.

We read three public bid packages from three unrelated industries: a town waterfront, a water treatment plant and an electrical substation. In all three the document was written by somebody who does not work for you, your equipment is a small part of it, and your whole answer goes on one line.

179
Pages for a gangway and floating docks
668
Pages for treatment plant equipment
230
Pages for two switchgear lineups
1
Line on the bid form for your whole answer

Two of the three were also run through our software. On the 179-page waterfront package it returned 214 statements, each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree. On the 668-page treatment plant book it found the 14 sections that carried requirements for the equipment.

The price of a custom machine comes from your own rules: your rates, your formulas and what similar jobs cost you. What your rules cannot know before reading is what this customer asked for. That part is in the document, for this job.

What the three packages had in common →Our scorecard, including the mistakes →
The whole request, not only the machine

Every part of the request settles a different part of the price.

Mavlon reads all of it together, because the answers are not in one place and not in one form. Each example below is from a public document, with its page.

The specification

Performance, materials, standards and tests.

A federal crane specification names 43 publications on its first three pages, and one sentence on page 9 asks for nuclear rules of construction.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 27 pages
The drawings

Sizes and counts. Quantity is most of the price.

In a substation package, seven drawing sheets at the very back hold the count. The specification text alone cannot give it.

Marblehead Municipal Light Department, 230 pages
The bid form

The shape of your answer, and what you promise by saying nothing.

One blank for the whole assembly on page 22, and a clause on page 42 that tells you to price two spare breakers separately.

Marblehead Municipal Light Department, 230 pages
Delivery and schedule

Risk that has no line on the machine.

A fire department asks on page 16 for a custom pumper 120 days after contract signing. The normal wait at the time was 12 to 18 months.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
Testing and acceptance

A test that somebody has to stage, and what the machine must survive.

Page 9 sets a crane load test at 125 percent of rated load. Page 23 asks for test weights of 200,000 and 250,000 pounds.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 27 pages
The general sections

Hours that never get a line of their own.

A design and manufacturing schedule with thirteen named milestones, reissued every month, and a 60-month warranty on the whole assembly.

Marblehead Municipal Light Department, 230 pages
What your estimator gets

AI quoting for custom machines, as a reading you can check line by line.

Four kinds of line come back. The examples are from the public documents read in our guides, each with its page.

01

Every requirement that changes the price

Each one carries the page it came from, so checking it takes seconds instead of a search.

p.84A five year cellular data plan for a fire truck's telematics system.
02

Whose it is

Yours, the installer's or the owner's. The documents are usually written to the contractor, not to the builder.

p.6Capacity calculations for the building under a crane, with a professional engineer's stamp.
03

Questions for the engineer

Where the documents disagree, both readings are stated. Nothing is averaged and nothing is quietly chosen.

p.102, p.117The specification names one deck product. The drawing calls for grooved timber. Which one is meant?
04

Services you price in days

Tests, training and site visits, pulled out of the prose so they reach the quote.

p.26Six hours of training and three sets of manuals, after a rehearsal of the load test and then the witnessed one.
Then the quote

A first draft, priced from your own rules: your rates, your formulas and your past quotes, exported in your own quote format. Your estimators' corrections become the rules for the next quote, and the margin stays with you.

What it does not do

It does not design the machine, and it does not create drawings. It does not fill in the customer's forms. It does not decide whether a requirement is a mistake. It puts the question in front of your estimator. It does not decide your margin, and it does not decide whether you bid.

Not a configurator

A configurator starts from your catalogue. Mavlon starts from the customer's document.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

  • The request is the customer's own specification and drawings, written for one project.
  • Your equipment is a small part of a much longer document.
  • Tests, schedule, warranty and paperwork carry as much risk as the machine.
  • The documents disagree with each other, and you have to ask before you can price.
  • One quote takes days of reading before the arithmetic starts.
Standard machines

A configurator or a price list is the right tool when

  • The customer chooses from your models and options.
  • There is no specification from the customer, only a duty and a budget.
  • You sell the same machines again and again.
  • What you are short of is speed on repeat work.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this sort with that in mind. If most of your quotes are standard machines with options, a configurator will serve you better than we will, and we would rather say so now. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Do not take our word for it

Test it on documents that are public.

Each of these is in a public document. Hand the document to any vendor, including us, and see whether the software finds the item without being told where to look.

  1. Waterfront package, 179 pages: the two decking materials for the same gangway, on page 102 and page 117.
  2. Treatment plant book, 668 pages: all fourteen sections that carry requirements for the equipment.
  3. Substation package, 230 pages: the one blank on the bid form on page 22, against the clause on page 42 about two spare breakers.
  4. Crane specification, 27 pages: the nuclear sentence on page 9, raised as a question.
  5. Fire truck request, 99 pages: the delivery of 120 days on page 16, before anything else.

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?

The three packages, side by side →Our pilot protocol and pass bar →
What we have published so far
  • A 179-page public waterfront package: 214 statements, each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree.
  • A 668-page treatment plant specification book: the 14 sections relevant to the equipment, found without being told where to look.
  • The crane, fire truck and substation documents on this page were read by a person, for our guides. No software run on them is published yet.
  • The fair test is a quote of your own that you have already priced.
The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.
We did the reading first

Guides and a tool for people who quote custom machines.

GuideQuoting custom equipment before the design existsWhat three public bid packages had in common.GuideReading bid packagesWhat five real public packages taught us.GuidePre bid risk assessmentA risk register read from the customer's document, page by page.GuideQuote turnaround timeWhere the days go in a 21 day bid window.GuideHow to capture estimator knowledgeThe five places quoting knowledge actually lives.ToolQuoting system health checkTwelve questions, scored on the page.
What does AI quoting for custom machines look like in practice?

The software reads the documents your customer sent: the specification, the drawings, the bid form and any addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price with the page it came from, sorts whose scope each one is, shows where the documents disagree, and drafts a first quote from your own pricing rules. Your estimator reviews it and decides the price.

Our requests are private specifications from customers, not public bids. Does it still apply?

Yes. The reading is the same job: a document written by the customer's engineers, a set of drawings, and requirements spread across both. Our published examples are public bid packages only because private specifications are confidential. The fair test is one of your own, under an NDA.

Does it use our past jobs?

Yes. Your past quotes are one of the three things the draft is priced from, together with your own formulas and your estimators' corrections. That is why the draft lands near what you would charge and not near an industry average.

Is Mavlon a configurator?

No. It works from the opposite end. A configurator starts from a model of your machines and prices the options somebody selects. Mavlon starts from the customer's documents and works out what is being asked for, which on a custom machine is the part nobody has a model for.

How do we find out whether it works on our quotes?

Bring a quote you have already priced. The pilot is a blind test on your own past quotes, scored against a pass bar that is agreed in writing before anything runs. The whole protocol is published on our pilot page. Read the pilot protocol.

Who sees our customers' specifications?

An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves. Deployment options, encryption and the controls that keep your documents out of model training are set out on our security page. Read the security page.

Questions machine builders ask

Asked plainly, answered in writing.

Bring one request you have already priced.

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 package together instead. An NDA is signed before anything of yours moves.

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The newsletter

Field Notes

The numbers that change your next quote. Once a month.

  • 01A material price that shifted this month, with the number.
  • 02What contracts in one segment actually closed for.
  • 03A real bid package taken apart page by page.

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