// For metal fabricators
AI for metal fabricators, starting with the paperwork that ships with the steel.
For owner-led structural steel, sheet metal and custom fabrication shops. The first job is mill test reports matched to the job and built into the cert package, checked by your QC lead before anything leaves the yard. Estimating is open too. Both run on copies of past work, with no logins to your systems.
- First job
- MTRs into the cert package
- Also open
- Estimates from bid packages
- You send
- Copies of 20 to 30 past jobs or bids, after an NDA
- We touch
- No inventory, estimating or accounting system
- Calls kept
- Your QC lead accepts material; your estimator prices
- Price
- A range on the first call
// Jobs in the shop office
Where a fab shop's office work stacks up
Mill test reports and cert packages
Each MTR tied to its PO line, heat number and the spec the customer called out, then gathered into the package that ships with the job, for your QC lead to check.
Read the mill test report pageEstimates from drawings and bid packages
Takeoff, weights, cut, weld and finish operations and the questions for the GC, drafted from your own past estimates for your estimator to check and price.
Read the estimating pageChange orders from revised drawings
When a new revision or bulletin lands, the steel that changed is listed against the set you bid, and a change order request is drafted for your project manager.
See the change order requests pageMaterial buys from the cut list
The bill of materials checked against stock and usable drops, with any cert or domestic-steel requirement carried onto the purchase order your buyer places.
See the cut list buying page// Why mill certs first
The cert package already has a checker
The MTR job comes with its own answer key. Every job you have shipped went out with a cert package that someone on your QC side assembled and checked, so each AI draft can sit beside the package that actually left, heat by heat. The person who did that checking, the one who knows your material paperwork best, becomes your reviewer.
How much paper a job needs depends on the project. AISC separates identification, showing that the specified grade and size are the ones being used, from traceability, tying a specific piece in the finished structure to its own mill test report for the life of the structure. Traceability costs more and applies when the contract documents call for it, so each package is judged against what its project asked for.
Certified shops already work this way. AISC certification audits, run under AISC 207, the Standard for Certification Programs, look for a documented material identification procedure and for MTRs on purchased material. Under the International Building Code (Section 1704.2.5 in recent editions), a shop the building official has approved can fabricate without special inspection on its premises, then files a certificate of compliance when fabrication is done. Both rest on complete records.
Those records sit in different places. Tekla PowerFab lets you enter the mill's heat number when material is received against a purchase order and attach the MTR to that heat; many shops keep scanned PDFs and a spreadsheet instead. The proof of concept works from copies and exports either way.
The trades under this page also weld to different codes: AWS D1.1 for structural steel, D1.3 for sheet steel up to 3/16 in. thick, D1.2 for aluminum and D1.6 for stainless. Each brings its own procedures and welder qualifications into the package, so your reviewer picks jobs that match the mix you take.
Estimating is the second open test because it carries more judgment: labor per operation, shop load and what the GC left out. It drafts from your past estimates and prices only from your own history and rate sheet.
// Across industries
Jobs compared with other industries
Quote automation
Compliance documents
Change orders
// How it runs
Shipped jobs first, then a live month
- Step 01
One job, on work you shipped
Once the NDA is signed, your QC lead picks 20 to 30 shipped jobs and sends copies of the supplier POs, MTRs and the package each went out with. If paperwork can't leave the shop, we build look-alike jobs together.
- Step 02
Your reviewer decides
The owner names the reviewer before anything moves, and the success criteria and a price range for the live job are written down with them. Your reviewer then scores each draft package against the real one.
- Step 03
About 30 days live
After a yes, new jobs get draft packages for about 30 days. Your QC lead approves each one before it goes out, and accepting or rejecting material stays with them.
Each job is priced on its own: a range on the first call, then a fixed price after the proof of concept and before you sign.
For cert packages the range turns on how many jobs ship a month and how many heats a typical job carries; for estimating, on how many bids you price.
// Questions
Questions fabricators ask
We're a sheet metal shop, not a structural shop. Does this fit?
Will AI decide whether our material is acceptable?
Our MTRs are scanned PDFs from several mills and service centers. Is that a problem?
Do you need access to Tekla PowerFab or our accounting system?
Can it price our bids?
Rob Eason, founder
// Book a proof of concept call
Start with jobs that already shipped.
A 30-minute call with Rob. You'll be asked for your company and role, the job you would test first, and roughly how many jobs ship or bids go out each month. Send no MTRs or drawings until the NDA is signed.
- Co-owned a 60-employee financial services firm and sold his share to his partner.
- Ran GOSO Technologies, a Boston solar company rated 5/5 across 24 Google reviews.
- 5/5 across 83 reviews in HighLevel's Certified Admin Directory.
- 4.3/5 from 6 Google reviews of Massmarket AI.
- Every directory and Google review, critical ones included, is shown word for word at massmarket.ai/reviews.
- Takes every proof-of-concept call himself.