What I Like About Sum+It

Issue #11240 - July 2019 | Page #41

By Todd Drummond

It is time to forget about using a truss design program, price book, or square-foot multiplier when estimating roof and floor truss projects. For many decades, truss companies have been looking for ways to dramatically improve their design team’s capacity, but every effort has fallen short—until today! Sum+It has created a true truss designer multiplier that is as significant as auto-pucks have been for assembly tables and computers have been for automating saws. Finally, there is a Web-browser application that dramatically improves designers’ productivity. Sum+It is 5 to 10 times faster than using truss engineering programs for pricing roof and floor projects accurately.

“Like most truss manufacturers using modern truss design software, we had fallen into the trap of doing our quotes as if they needed to be shop ready. We knew we were putting way too much effort into our quoting, but what could we do? As soon as I was introduced to Sum+It, I knew we had the solution if it worked. We were up and running with Sum+It after a very fast training session and with very little data collection. Sum+It works!!!” Bruce McHugh, V.P. Operations/G.M., Peterborough Truss & Floor LTD.

In the past, the methods employed by alternative truss engineering programs for bidding projects have used square-foot multipliers or price books. Both methods have big flaws and are not widely used, yet they have been tried again and again over many decades.

The square-foot multiplier is widely considered by many as basically making an educated wild guess that accounts little for the accuracy of market material cost fluctuations or the wide variety of conditions that add to or subtract from the expected cost of any potential project.

Price books require a very knowledgeable individual to discern the differing conditions for complexities. They require an extensive predesigned truss database that few are willing to dedicate the needed time to develop. And finally, keeping price books up to date with proper costing is normally very cumbersome.

Now, there is Sum+It!

Web-browser application
Simple and easy to use
Customized adjusted labor, material costs, and markup to match your existing pricing with ±5% accuracy!
No truss layouts or engineering is needed or generated.

Using Sum+It is easy, fast, and very accurate. Sum+It is not a price book, square-foot multiplier, or database search engine. Why is Sum+It so fast? The user simply divides each project into sections and uses built-in modifiers to account for differing conditions. Sum+It requires no predesigned truss database, yet all of a project’s costs are calculated using sophisticated algorithms that have been years in development (protected via copyrights). No engineering truss drawings or layout is generated. [Please note that for continued intellectual protection, it is intentional that screenshots of the user interface are not shown in this article.]

“We at GR Truss have been able to eliminate our lead time for producing reliable quote pricing on our complex roof and floor truss projects. What used to take many hours and sometimes days for each potential project now only takes minutes. Sum+It states the goal is to price within ±5% of the truss programs, but often the quoted price is within a few dollars. To say that we are pleased with the speed and results is an understatement. No other program on the market will allow a truss company to reduce the demands of the design team like Sum+It. One designer can now do the work for quoting projects that five designers did in the past. This truss quoting program is truly a game changer.” Gerry Greco, Sales Manager, GR Truss

Your company’s costs are all inputted into the defaults of the application to accurately estimate expected costs and proper pricing.

Lumber
Plate
Labor (Man-Minutes, BF, Material Costs, or Others)
Optional Overhead
Margin Rate

All of your products, including hardware, can easily be added and integrated so you can incorporate the hangers, LVL, and rimboard that your roof and floor projects need, too.

TDC is Proud to be Representing Sum+It as Part of my Services. Register and request a demo at https://app.sum-it.ca/#/ or contact me for a Demo. Most demos take only 20 minutes and there is a 45-day free trial period!

There are many valid reasons that Todd Drummond Consulting (TDC) is the right source for learning about the very best and latest practices to keep your company competitive. No hype, just simple real-world expertise that goes far beyond what many expect. Whether you are a new or longtime operation, save your company a great deal of time and money by getting professional lean manufacturing help and training to improve all of your processes, not just manufacturing. TDC uses proven and practical lean manufacturing best practices combined with industrial engineering principles. So before you buy equipment, get TDC’s advice! TDC does not receive referral fees from any equipment or plate vendors, and you can trust TDC for unbiased vendor and equipment recommendations shaped only by customer experiences. Please don’t simply accept my word about TDC’s services though: Read the public testimonials that many current and past clients who have decades of expertise and experience have been willing to give: https://todd-drummond.com/testimonials/.