From estimated margins to actual job-level profitability.
A Singapore structural steel fabricator replaces end-of-month guesswork with real-time project costing that tracks every cost element — material by weight, labour by hours, subcon by scope — against the original estimate.
What changed in the actual operating flow
Each case is about the workflow surface that moved, not a generic technology implementation.
Where they were.
The fabricator produced structural steel, pressure vessels, and custom metal assemblies for marine, oil & gas, and construction customers in Singapore and the region. Forty fabrication staff, eight office staff, three subcontractors for galvanising, painting, and NDT.
Job costing was a month-end exercise. The estimator quoted based on material weight, estimated labour hours, and subcon rates. After the job shipped, the accountant spent days reconstructing actual costs from delivery notes, timesheets, and subcon invoices. The comparison between estimated and actual was available three weeks after month-end — too late to affect the next quote.
Material consumption was tracked by purchase order, not by job. If a project used 2.3 tonnes of 10mm plate but the PO was for 3 tonnes, the remaining 0.7 tonnes was "in stock" — but nobody knew if it was usable offcuts or scrap.
Subcontractor costs were tracked by invoice, not by job. A galvanising invoice covering three projects was split manually by the accountant. The allocation was often approximate.
The system.
- A project costing system where every cost element is captured at the point it occurs. Material issue: operator scans the project barcode when cutting material, and the system records the weight consumed (from the cutting program output) against the project. Labour: fabricators clock in/out per project via a tablet on the shop floor.
- A subcontractor management module where each subcon scope is created as a work order against a project. Goods-out to the subcontractor and goods-in from the subcontractor are recorded with inspection results. The subcon invoice is matched to the work order, and cost posts to the project automatically.
- A real-time project dashboard showing estimated cost vs actual cost by category (material, labour, subcon, overhead) for every active project. The project manager sees margin erosion as it happens — not three weeks after month-end.
- A material yield tracking module that records cutting program outputs (from SigmaNEST) and calculates material utilisation per project. Offcuts above a minimum size are returned to stock with dimensions recorded. Scrap percentage is tracked per material type and thickness.
- An automated project cost report generator that produces a per-project PDF with full cost breakdown, variance analysis, and lessons learned — replacing the three-day manual compilation.
What changed in the numbers.
What changed day-to-day.
The estimator started quoting from actual data instead of memory. Three job types that had been consistently underquoted were repriced — the margin recovery paid for the system in two months. The accountant stopped spending three days per month reconstructing job costs. The project manager stopped waiting until month-end to discover that a project was losing money.
“We found three job types where we had been underquoting for years. The combined margin recovery in the first quarter after go-live was more than double the system cost.”
Eleven-week build. Paid discovery mapped the estimating, fabrication, and subcontractor workflow. Cutting program integration (SigmaNEST output parsing) and shop floor tablet deployment included. EDG grant application submitted during discovery.
If your job costs are a mystery until month-end and your material yield is a guess, talk to us about a project costing system built for metal fabricators.
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