Kara Olin: Also with us today is Nicolas Sanabria. He is our director of product design, and he'll be showing you guys how to implement the best practices discussed in this webinar in our soon-to-be-released new product, SpeCurate.

SpeCurate is a ground-up rebuild. It's a new product, not, just an update of Fohlio. I think you guys are really gonna love what is featured in this new product. It is 10 years of feedback all put into one incredible product.

Alright, so let's get started with Precision by Design, and how to customize your work.

This session is for anyone who designs work that doesn't come out of a catalog. So it's guest room case goods, custom vanities, restaurant banquets, reception desks, fabricated metal, stone with a specific edge profile. If you've ever opened a crate on site and felt your stomach drop, this webinar is for you.

So before we start, I just wanted to do one quick poll. If you guys could fill that out. Think about the last time you created a custom piece that arrived wrong, and what was the root cause of that?

So while you're answering that, let's start with why custom work is different.

So when you specify a stock sofa, the manufacturer has already made a thousand decisions for you. Frame construction, seat depth, foam density, stitch pattern. You pick an SKU and a fabric, and the SKU carries everything else.

A custom banquet has no SKU. Every one of those thousand decisions is either written down by you or made by someone else, usually the fabricator, sometimes the installer, and occasionally the owner's rep on a site walk.

That's the core problem.

Custom work doesn't fail because fabricators are careless. It fails because the spec left a decision open. And someone filled that gap with a reasonable guess that wasn't yours.

In our experience, those gaps show up at four points. So concept to spec. The idea lives in a sketch, the brand standards, or in your head. What reaches the spec is a description like walnut mat, slim profile. Slim to you is three quarters of an inch, and slim to the shop might be an inch and a quarter.

Then there's spec to shop drawing. The fabricator translates your spec into their drawings. Anything ambiguous gets interpreted.

If you don't review the shop drawing against the spec line by line, you've approved their interpretation.

And then, there's revision to floor. You know, that's the owner's brand team changes the stain after approval. You email the fabricator, the email reaches the estimator, but not the finisher. The old sample stays taped to the booth.

And approval to invoice. The approval… the owner approved a number, then freight, crating, and finish-up charge, and a field measurement or adjustment arrived separately. Nobody lied, but then the owner feels lied too.

So let's get back to that poll. I'm going to share the results.

Notice that most of these aren't craft failures, they're information failures. The piece was built correctly to the wrong information, and the cost of fixing it climbs at each stage. A wrong dimension caught at spec costs you five minutes.

Caught at shop drawing, it costs a day in a red line.

Caught after fabrication, it's a remake, a new lead time, and a call with the owner whose opening date just slipped on a 150-key hotel at $200 a night and 70% occupancy.

Every week of delay is about 150K in room revenue that never comes back.

But caught at install, it's all of that, plus standing… a crew standing around and a GC sending you their delay cost.

So let me give you an example. Maybe it will sound familiar.

A design firm is renovating the lobby bar of a 150-key hotel. The reopening date is already announced. The star of the room is a curved, upholstered banquet that wraps around the bay window. Channel tufted back, slim base, deep green velvet.

The concept on the concept board, it looks great.

First, concept of spec. The spec says channel tufted back, 18 inch C, green velvet. That's it. It doesn't say how many channels, how wide they are, or whether they follow the curve. And it doesn't say whether that 18 inches is measured with cushion compression or not.

Next, the shop drawing. The upholsterer draws seven wide channels because that's their standard, but the designer was picturing 11 narrowed ones.

But they're on the job site, they're looking at it on their phone, and the outline looks right, so they approve it.

Then a revision. The brand team decides the green looks too dark in the morning light and picks a lighter one. The designer emails that the upholsterer the change and the fabric order gets updated.

But the welt cord and the piping along the edges comes from a different vendor, and nobody tells them. So 3 weeks before reopening, the banquet shows up in light green with the dark green trim instead of being one consistent color.

And then finally, the invoice. The curve needed a special form the shop didn't have, so the fabric was calculated for a straight run, so they needed 2 more yards.

And a curved frame doesn't ship flat, so the freight just went up. The owner approved $14K, and the final bill came to $19K. So whose fault was that?

Not really the vendors.

They built exactly what the document said, and where the document was silent, they made reasonable guesses.

Every one of these problems goes back to the decision that never got written down or got written down in one place and then not the others.

So ask yourself.
On your current projects, How would you describe your custom specs?

So, are they mostly written descriptions? Are they descriptions plus sketches? Are they dimensioned drawings with notes? Or are they full specs with tolerances and hold points?

If most of you landed in the first two, you're in good company. That's where we see most firms are. The rest of the session is about moving one step to the right on that scale without adding hours to your week.

So, the goal for the next 40 minutes is simple. Move every decision as far to the left on that curve as possible, and make sure it stays decided.

And then one more note, because it looks like a handful of you are in that endpoint, with full specs and tolerance hold points, that's awesome. So, something else we're going to cover in this webinar as well is

How to make sure you're doing that as efficiently as possible and saving your designers time. Not just your designers, but everyone on the team time.

So here's the worry I hear from most designers. If I spec every detail, I lose the flexibility that makes custom work custom.

I'd argue the opposite. A precise spec protects the creative decisions by making it clear which ones are yours.

It also tells the fabricator exactly where they're free to use their craft.

The tool for this three parts is a the tool for this is a three part split. For every custom item, each attribute belongs in one of three buckets.

So there's fixed intent, which means anything that is non-negotiable. So the transaction counter height on a reception desk because accessibility rules set it. The stain color because the brand standards called for it.

And you want to make sure you write these as exact values with units. Then there's tolerance.

You have decided the amount within a specific range. For example, depth 21 inches, plus or minus a quarter inch. Veneer book match grain variation within the approved sample range.

Tolerances turn arguments into measurements.

And lastly, there's fabricator discretion. This is deliberately left open and said so.

Joinery method, internal box construction, hardware mounting.

Writing fabricator standard to be shown on shop drawings isn't a gap, it's a decision to delegate, and it asks the shop to show you what they chose. If an attribute isn't in one of those buckets, it's a gap, and the gap gets filled by someone else.

So let's look at a common example.

Here's a line you've all seen on a guest room FF&E schedule. Custom vanity, king suite, typical, walnut, matte finish, floating 60 inches, double sink.

Now, here's that same vanity written with intent, tolerance, and discretion.

I'm not gonna read it out, because that's a mouthful, but notice 3 things.

Every unit, every number has a unit. The finish points to a physical dated sample rather than a word like mat, and the last line names a whole point, so nobody builds 40 of them before the wall is final.

Second. So, instead of writing slim, chunky, standard, write a dimension with a unit and a tolerance. Instead of matte, natural, warm, write a sample ID, a sheen value, and who approved it. And instead of to match, write to match what, where, and under what light. And instead of similar to, write specific attributes that must match and those that may differ. And instead of the ambiguous TBD, write who decides by what date and before which milestone.

Now let's get back to our banquet. Here's what it should look like with the 3 buckets and a hold point. Fixed intent, 11 vertical channels, each 2.5 inches wide, radiating with the curve, so each channel is perpendicular to the sea edge.

So that's 5 more lines than the original. It takes maybe 10 minutes to write, and it closes every one of those gaps that cost this owner $4,000 and a very uncomfortable call 3 weeks before opening.

So let's spend a couple minutes on samples, because this is where Finnish disputes are won or lost.

A sample is only useful if everyone is looking at the same one. So, treat samples like drawings. Give every sample an ID. S04 beats the darker walnut one from Tuesday.

You want to make sure you write the ID on the back of a physical sample, and in the spec. So, keep a control sample. When you approve a finish, the fabricator keeps one signed sample, and you keep its twin. If the delivered piece is disputed, you compare it to the control, and not to anyone's memory.

We also want to make sure that we state the lighting. That's stain and paint look different under different lighting. If a finish must match on something on site, say where and under what lighting it was approved.

Then, approve on the real substrate. A stain on a maple chip is not the same on a stained walnut veneer, which I'm sure you all know.

A quartz sample is not the same as the slab. For stone, we see many designers now require approval of the actual slab, or photos of them, with the layout before it gets cut.

So stone is worth its own minute, because it's expensive, it's irreplaceable, and it doesn't forgive.

For custom stone, a reception desk top, a bar die, a run of guest room vanity tops. A firm should be able to document the slab by lot number or tag, not just the material name.

The vein direction and bookmatch, or continuous flow layout, drawn on the template.

Edge profile with a dimension section. Eased edge definition varies across shops, so you want to be specific. Thickness, including any mitered buildup and where seams are allowed. And cutouts with fixture cut sheets attached.

If you take one idea from this segment.

A word describes a feeling, and a number describes a thing. Put feelings in your concept presentation, and put numbers in your spec.

One last framing. Every custom spec has three readers.

The owner and the brand read it to confirm you met their intent and their standards. The fabricator reads it to price and build. And then the installer reads it to put it in the right place.

Before you send a spec out, re-read it once as each of those people. If the owner can't recognize their vision, add the intent. If the fabricator would have to guess, add a number. And if the installer would have to call you, add the field condition.

Last point in this segment.

A spec line is a summary.

The evidence lives in attachments. So for every custom item, you should be able to point to the sketch or an elevation.

The approved finished sample photo with its ID, the relevant fixture or hardware cut sheet, and the field measurement record. Keep them attached to the item itself, and not in a separate folder someone has to go find. If the fabricator has to ask for it, it's already late.

So, a great spec is necessary, but it's not sufficient. Your spec will be read by an estimator, redrawn by a drafter, cut by a machinist, finished by someone in a spray booth, and installed by a crew that's never seen your mood board.

Every one of those is a translation, and translations drift.

So this segment is about 3 controls. The submittal loop.

One current version, and hold points.

Let's start with the submittal.

For custom work, the submittal isn't a formality. It's the moment you find out whether the fabricator understood you.

A firm should be able to run this loop for every custom item. First, the fabricator submits the shop drawings, finished samples, and any material cuts.

The designer reviews those against the spec, line by line, not against memory.

And the designer returns one of three statuses, approved, approved as noted, or revise and resubmit.

Every note is written on the drawing and attached to the item, never only in a phone call.

And fabricators start on an approved or approved as noted submittal.

A timing note, submittal timings vary by item type, so for many custom pieces, shop drawings come after the order is placed, because the fabricator won't draw until they're engaged. So, for contractor-supplied architectural items.

Submittals often happen before the order.

So know which one you're dealing with, and put it on the schedule.

So, here's a practical habit.

Print or screen share them side by side, the spec next to the shop drawing, and check off each attribute. That's dimensions, reveals, grain direction, hardware locations.

Anything on the drawing that isn't in the spec, question it.

And anything that's in the spec that isn't on the drawing, flag it. That second category is where most remakes hide.

Now, revisions. So, the most dangerous document on any custom project is the second most recent version.

It looks right. It's in someone's inbox, and it's wrong.

A firm should be able to answer 3 questions for every custom item in under a minute.

So that's what is the current approved version, and when was it approved?

What changed from the last version, and who asked for it?

And has the fabricator acknowledged the change?

If any of these means searching through an email.

The revision process lives in someone's head. Put a revision number and a date on every spec and drawing.

Or, better yet, have a system that automatically captures the version number with the change log on the item itself. That's date, what changed, who requested it, who approved.

And ask the fabricator to document their confirmed receipt, not just a got it on the phone.

Last, hold points.

So, these are milestones where work stops until something specific is signed off.

The common ones in commercial renovations that we see are field verified before cutting, model room approval before the production run, and pre-install check before shipping.

So you want to write hold points into the spec itself, as we did on the vanity.

They protect both the fabricator as much as they do you.

And… When you review a shop drawing, you're not really hunting for mistakes.

Most of what's on a shop drawing isn't wrong from the fabricator's point of view, it's just their default.

Your job is to find every place where their default doesn't match your design intent.

The same few things come up again and again. So that's reference points.

A dimension is taken from a different edge than the one you care about. So you want to ask for the dimensions that matter to you. There's small deviations, so a reveal, a thickness, a radius that's a little bit off.

Small on paper, but very visible once it's built.

Silence. If the drawing doesn't show something, it usually means, like, our standard. And their standard may be different from yours, so ask them to show it.

and cutouts. They're often placed for drafting convenience, not where the fixture actually goes.

And missing hold notes. If a hold point isn't on the drawing, the shop floor won't see it.

So a few habits that make this faster. You want to make sure that you review in the same order every time. That's overall dimensions, then material and finish, then details, then hardware and cutouts, then notes and holds.

So use one color for must change and another for questions, and write the spec reference next to the red line so that the drafter can check it without calling you.

Let's fix that email at that sanker banquet.

A revision notice should contain item and revision, so that's Banquet B1, Revision 3, dated October 2nd.

What changed? Body fabric changed from color 14 to color 09 on the same line.

Welt changes with it, same welt, same dye lot.

What did not change was frame, channel layout, and seat height unchanged from Rep 2. Who needs to act? You'll say upholsterer, fabric, vendor, and welt supplier.

And the cost and schedule impact.

For this example, it would be, none expected, please confirm with two business days. And the acknowledgement, please reply, confirming you've received Rev 3 and removed Rev 2 from the floor.

So, two lines on that list do most of the work. What did not change stops people from re-questioning settled decisions.

And naming every party who needs to act in what would have… is what would have saved the welt.

The upholsterer isn't going to go forward with your email,

The upholster isn't going to forward your email to a supplier they didn't know was involved.

Everything we've covered works better when your fabricator knows it's coming.

At the kickoff of any custom piece, tell them how you'll run submittals, what your whole points are, and how revisions will reach them. Then ask how they prefer to receive changes and who on their team needs to see them.

Good fabricators love this. It protects them from being blamed for gaps in the document, and it means fewer remakes eating into their margins too.

One more note on communication. Not everyone needs every document. The fabricator needs the spec drawings and the samples, but not your owner pricing. The owner and brand reviewers need to see the approved selections and renderings, but not their trade cost.

And then your GC and installer need the drawings and the hold point sign-offs.

When everyone works from the same source, like a cloud based system instead of a spreadsheet that you have to create different versions for each person.

With the cloud-based system, it's much easier for everyone to see only their part, and fewer people to be tempted to work from a stale PDF.

Speaking of who sees what, let's talk about margin and owner trust.

Owners remember the first number you show them. It's the one in their budget and their pro forma. Every dollar you add after approval spends trust, even when the addition is legitimate.

So, the aim is to show the real number the first time.

Here's an example. Designer quotes a custom quarter pendant at $2,000 each. The fabricator's price for the piece. That's great. But by the time they're installed, the true cost is closer to $5,000 each. That's overseas freight, creating, import duties, a finish up charge, and an electrician's time for a non-standard canopy.

Each cost was tracked in a different place, so no one saw the total until the invoice arrived.

Across 30 fixtures, that's 90,000 the owner never budgeted for.

So for custom work, we want to make sure that we price the parts up. So, a firm should be able to see, for each custom item, the fabrication costs, that's the maker's price for the piece itself.

Components and materials, especially customer-owned material fabric or stone you're supplying separately: Soft cost, freight, crating, duties, storage, and delivery.

Install, that's trade times, especially for anything non-standard.

And tax and markup. Apply consistently, so the client price follows from the cost, rather than being set by feel.

When those roll up into one client price before approval, the conversation changes from, why did this go up, to…

Here's what it takes to build this.

And of course, custom projects change. That's fine.

What damages trust is change without a record. So we want to make sure that whenever there is a change, we are describing the change and its reason, showing the cost and schedule impact before work proceeds, getting the owner's written approval, and updating the spec, the drawings, and the fabricator all in the same day.

So let's run our banquet's fabric change through that process. Let's say the owner's brand team wants the lighter green. The designer writes one short change notice to the owner.

You've asked to change the… Body fabric.

From color 14 to color 09. The fabric is the same price per yard and carries the same flammability and abrasion ratings. Because the curve needs two additional yards regardless, there's no cost change from the revised quote. The mill shows a 2-week lead time on color 09, which moves delivery from November 6th to November 20th. Still ahead of the December 1st FF&E install, so the reopening date holds. Please approve by Friday, so we can hold the dialogue.

That's five sentences. The owner knows what changed, what it costs, whether it touches the opening date, and what's needed from them.

And then the designer can issue revision three to the upholsterer, the fabric vendor, and the weld supplier.

Total time, let's say 15 minutes.

I also often hear, when should a custom item be a fixed price, and when should it be an allowance?

So a fixed price works when the design is resolved, and the fabricator has quoted against a complete spec.

That's the goal for most custom pieces before the owner approves.

An allowance is honest when a real decision is still open. The slab hasn't been selected, or the brand hasn't chosen between two fabric grades.

Say what allowance covers, what it excludes, and whether it converts to a fixed number.

Then there's a contingency, which covers the unknown. You can't design away, so that's especially in renovations. You don't know what's behind guest room walls until demo, and on a 150-key hotel, that's 150 times that you find that out.

So many firms carry a stated percentage on custom and field fit items and explain it upfront.

So owners rarely object to a contingency that was in the budget from day one. They object to surprises.

The mistake to avoid is presenting any allowance as if it were a fixed price.

If a number is still moving, label it. That label is a small act of honesty that pays for itself the first time something changes.

And, one internal habit, before a custom price goes to the client, someone on your team should be able to answer.

What's our cost? What's our markup? And what's the margin on this item after freight and install? So, custom pieces are often where firms either earn their reputation or quietly lose money.

And if you only find out at project close which pieces lost money, you can't price better for the next project.

So we want to make sure that we track the actual cost against the quoted cost on every custom item, and review the gaps as soon as possible, so that you can resolve them before it becomes a big issue.

Finally, how you present to the client matters. So you're all very aware of what making sure things look beautiful. So a branded document shows the image, the approved finish, the key dimensions, and the price reads as a professional service. You wanna make sure that the documents you're presenting to the client look professional.

However, if you share with them a spreadsheet with a million columns, it reads as a problem that the client now has to solve.

You want to give the clients the view that helps them decide and keeps the working detail for your team and your fabricator.

So, for the next few minutes, I'll pass the mic over to our head of product design to show how a firm could run the processes we've covered in SpeCurate, Folio's new specification platform.

So, Specurate is set to launch around this month, so everyone listening now, you are at the forefront of this revolution. All of the covered processes so far can work on paper or in a spreadsheet, and plenty of great firms do run this way.

What a platform adds is keeping the standard and the spec, the material, and the client document connected.

So nobody works from a stale copy. It also speeds up time to spec and reduce a huge amount of error.

I'll use the same, yeah, Nicolas, do you want to share your screen?

Nicolas Sanabria: Yes, thank you, Kara!

Let's check this. Alright, so I'm going to be showing you a quick demo of what we're preparing for Fohlio, and how it can help you specify faster and create all your processes even faster. So, let's start with set your firm standards. So, as default, Fohlio is going to be giving you different segments, for example, architectural, finishes, FF&E, and OS&E.

From here, you will be able to see all categories that are related to these segments right here.

And you will be also able to, like, explore them, like, for example, we're gonna go to Fabric, and we will be able to see product types, and also, like, different columns and fields that this, can refer to the category and the product type, so you will be able to quickly

Align with the things that work in your workflow, and, like, specify the items and fields that you might need.

For example, if a prototype is not in your, category, you can quickly create a new one.

So I'm here in Fabric, I can just create, for example, a performance fabric.

And then once I do that, I'll be able to, same thing, create the fields that I need for my specification, as well as being able to say, like, some key points that I need when I'm specifying these type of things. So basically, right here, you're creating a custom fabrication template.

For any time… any time that you need a performance fabric, for example.

So, let's do the same scenario with, let's say, a bet.

So, I'm going to create a custom fabrication template for a vet. My vet is going to be called…

The round king bed, for example.

So, I'm going to be needing all these inputs that have already been selected by default. Maybe I don't need to specify the style, because it's going to be…

Very unique. So, I can go here, and I can say, like, for this, round king bed, I'm going to need, most probably, a material. Might be maybe wood, might be, any fabric.

or maybe metal. So you'll be able to put the slots here, so when you use this prototype in your specification, you will have everything pre-established for you, just telling you quickly to add those items that you have pre-specify. So, quick action, very easy, and standard, specification for you and your whole team.

So you don't forget anything, basically.

Yeah, this is.

Kara Olin: This way, the same questions get asked every time, so that you make sure that you get the answers you need, and it actually gets written down. No one has to remember, okay, what's needed for this item? It's in a structured format. They go, oh, I need to add this.

Nicolas Sanabria: Correct. Yeah. So same thing as Kara mentioned. So you can also create some sort of, like, instructions or requirements that you need for the for that same category. So for all beds, I can say, like, I need

This type of instructions are there going to be, also surfaced in my new product type.

As well as requirements. So, like, I could add all the requirements that I need for the creation of this, template, and I also will be able to, insert them as default in that prototype. So, again, every time that you use it in a project, you will have everything.

Really specified for you.

So, that also brings me to, the catalog. So, most of you probably do a lot of custom fabrication template, and custom fabrication products, or different, types of products that need some sort of, like, different fabric or different material itself. So, for most of you, you probably have a library full of swatches, wood samples, and many other things that you would like to touch to see and to maybe show your client.

So basically, what we're doing here in Catalog is just having a library for all those materials. So all that library that you have physically, you will be able to set it up here. So I'll show you better here how it looks like.

So, basically, you will be able to have, for example, all leather, marble, and all those samples and all those materials that you might have in a physical library. And then, for example, we have here a Volo leather.

Which includes 4 different finishes. So you can click on it, and I can see, okay, my Volo leather comes in Latte, in Cognac, Saddle Brown, and Ivory. I can also quickly see, like, how many products are actually using this type of material.

And how many times have been purchased as well in different projects, so I get more sense of, like, how many times I have used each color, each finish, and each product, to give me an insight of, like, do I really need this item in my physical library or not? Right.

Kara Olin: What's awesome about that is it shows what projects it's been used on as well, and so when you're calling an item, you're not just calling a material record, you know, you don't have duplicates of the material record, there's just one that lives in one place that's attached to different projects.

So you don't have to worry about it.

Nicolas Sanabria: Thanks.

Kara Olin: Copying over data from one to the next, one project to the next.

Nicolas Sanabria: Exactly, and quickly, you can just say, like, I'm going to be using this into my round, bed, for example, that we just, created.

That also brings me to the products catalog. So, in product catalog, you will be able to link those materials. So, for example, I have here a chair, and this chair is using 3 different materials that basically built my, chair.

And I can also link any type of item that could be a complement to my, product. So, for example, I have here a lamp, so my component is going to be a… my link item is going to be a shade.

It could be a bulb. It could be anything that is related to accompanying or complete that product for you. So quickly, once you have everything ready in your catalog, you will be very quickly able to use those items in your projects.

You comment, Kara?

Kara Olin: No, you covered that perfectly. Thank you.

Nicolas Sanabria: Alright. So let's maybe see a little bit of, like, how a product specification will look like.

So, from here, we will have, all the list of items that, you can bring from the catalog, but for example, you start your specification, as Kara mentioned, maybe on a different platform. You have started maybe with a presentation in Canva, or you started in Miro, on an Excel.

Maybe you have spec books given from your, from your supplier or manufacturer. So, basically, you can quickly add them here. So, there's different ways that you can add them, which I'm going to show you right here. So, basically, if you have, for example, a manufacturer or, like, in a retail place, you can just

Just add the link, and the platform will get all the information from you. You can import that information via AI by using PDF or an Excel sheet, for example. So you can just add the link here, and the system will be able to

Gather all that information for you, and add all the items right here by asking you quick questions about, how to map in the corresponding column.

So everything gets set up and specified correctly, or as I mentioned, you can just bring it from your catalog or collection.

So, ideally, we want to speed up all this process of specification and make your workflow smarter and faster as well. So, from here, you will be also able to, like find all those areas, all those categories for a quick search of your items, and make sure that everything is correct. Maybe if you want to see the categories of the

First floor, for example, you can also do so.

So everything will help you kind of like manage all of that.

And,

Kara Olin: And you can also just add an item manually if you just click on the add button. If you want to type it in manually, you don't want to do the import from Weblink.

Nicolas Sanabria: Exactly, yeah.

Kara Olin: the.

Nicolas Sanabria: And something new that we have when you add manually is that when you add it manually, everything will be smarter. So, for example, if I'm going to be adding a Arnold sofa.

So, the system will understand the word sofa, or the word share, like, anything related to the categories, and it will be able to suggest you right away with the information that you need.

As well as if you describe the item by dimensions, materials, finishes, and some other fields, it will be able to fill that all the information for you, so you don't have to, like, manually, field by field insert everything. So I can say, like, sofa…of… 10 inches… material is…Velvet… gray… And then the system will be able… right now it's not working, but it will be able to show you all the… fill up all those, all that information for you, just by describing it right here.

So, again, quick, action, quick introduction of your specs, and make it a bust.

And just to conclude this quick, this quick demo, we also want to create a little bit more, like, e-brand settings for you, kind of, like, create that branding that you have created for your firm, across the platform. So, like, you will be able to have here, for example, all your logos, what's the color palette of your platform.

What's your preferred font? Like, how the headers will look like, images, basically set up all those brand settings that you would like.

Especially when you share documentation to your clients or manufacturers, you want to keep that branding always, strong anywhere regardless of the system that you're using. So Fohlio and with the new platform SpeCurate wants to, like, have also your branding in in, always in mind.

So basically, you can create that.

As well as, for example, if you want to create different reports, again, for, like, external collaboration.

So, you will be able to create, your own report, report, templates. So, in this case, we will be giving you some default templates, for example, for FFN specification, table view, and so on, kind of like more…

Industry standard templates across, again, all the platform.

But if you like to also create your own one, you just you'll be able to just do this. I can put here just a test.

And then, quickly, I can, identify my cover page and add the information that I might want to include, or maybe not include.

You can also create your index page where, like, all the product information will be here. You can also select the columns that you… or the information that you want to include. As well as how you want to create those PDF or, Excel, spec book, for example, and what fields do you want to share. So you can just create, for example, this one is going to be my template for, vendors or suppliers, or manufacturers, and maybe another template for when I'm showing the spec book to my client.

So, maybe my client does want to see the image, maybe doesn't need to see the SKU number. So, those type of things, you will be able to create it, and it will be as easy as how you work, maybe, with Canva, PowerPoint, or Miro, you just, like, you have all these parts, and you can quickly just, like, drag and drop them right here.

Move them around, and then you will be able to do your reports very quickly.

Any… Addition, Kara?

Kara Olin: You covered that well. I don't know if you want to show any of the procurement features that are still in the works.

Nicolas Sanabria: Yeah, so for procurement, we are working on a very extensive, procurement section. Basically, we're still working with, all of our clients, just to gather more information and make sure we

Kind of, like, go through all your workflows to make sure we can, have a cohesive, workflow for all of the different, ways that all the firms work with.

But basically, in a project view, you will be able to have a purchasing area where you can manage all those preferment insights. So, for example, we have RFQ.

We have submittals, we have ready to order, which will be a list for procurement to take actions on, like, POs, supply invoices, client deposits, and any other things. You will be able to just hide or add any columns that you might need here.

And then if you want to have a little bit more, like, an overall view of all your projects, you can just go to the procurement, tab, and here you will have basically similar features, just with an overall view of all your, projects, and just control everything at once as well.

So, still working on that, but,

Yeah, making sure that we work with this.

And he follows the best approach for all of them.

Kara Olin: Yeah, so if you remember from segment four on the submittal loop, what we're working on right now is having in Specurate, you'll be able to note if a vendor submittal arrives flagged, that you can mark it that it needs your review, and you review it, request changes, or approve it, and only completed submittal continues to a purchase order.

That's the no fabrication without approval rule built into the flow.

Nicolas Sanabria: And again, also to speed up the process of specification. We have also… we know that vendors, mainly like to use their systems, and maybe send all the information via PDF. So basically, for RFQ, for example, you will be also able to import the document that, a vendor has giving you, for example. So, in this case, my vendor is James. I'm going to upload his document.

Just let's say this one and then quickly, all the information is going to be filled out for me, on each item that, the vendor has provided.

So, quick… entry point, quick data import, as well, and if maybe the document is not enough, you can also add it manually. So, basically, what we want to do is, like, use all that information.

Take in consideration all the different alternatives that maybe external people that doesn't work in our company, might have different workflows as asked, so trying to gather all that information together in one system.

So, that is everything from me, like, a really quick demo. If you have questions, please let me know.

Back to you, Kara.

Kara Olin: All right.

Thank you, everyone. Let's get to your questions. Actually, before we get to your questions, feel free to pop those into the chat if you haven't already.

We are offering a free workflow assessment to check out your processes, see how you can improve them, if there's any area to be more efficient. I'm going to post the link for booking that in the chat, so feel free to click on that if you're interested.

And with that, let's get into questions.

So we do have one few come in. We got My fabricator doesn't

Produce shop drawings for small pieces. What then?

I would say ask for a marked sketchup with the key dimensions and a finished sample. So the format matters less than having something you can actually check against the spec.

Anything to add to that, Nicholas?

Nicolas Sanabria: No, I think you may already know.

Kara Olin: We got… How do I handle an owner or brand team that changes direction after fabrication starts?

I would say run it through a change control, so make sure that the impact on SCOS… the impact on cost and schedule is written down, and that the owner approves it, and then update the fabricator the same day. Very much what we went through during this webinar, you know.

Have things in writing.

Or documented on Specurate, that is in writing.

And then, got another question. I hope that answers your question, let me know if it didn't.

How tight should tolerances be?

I mean, I guess that's really up to you. It depends on what the part is, like so counters, reveals appliance openings, you know.

You can be looser where the eye won't catch the difference, and ask your fabricator what they can hold on.

Yeah, so it really depends on parts, and your design, how tight you want to be in each aspect.

Won't this much detail slow down design? That's a fun question.

So I would say it actually makes things faster, and you also want to compare, is slowing down your design

What's more important? Having to design that at project completion, it matches your design intent, and it's on time, on budget, and if it's not, you know exactly where. Or would you rather you know, a really fast design, where things show up, you end up with surprises, you know, things are delayed, and you don't know why it was delayed, or things appear wrong, and you're like, well, whose mistake was that? And you don't know. It's better to make sure you have everything documented, that way you're covering your butt, and even with a system like SpecRead, it's going to speed up your process. So documenting all these things shouldn't take all that much time, because it's being done by the system already.

It's speeding up your design in the sense that if it's all in one system, you can add it to the project quickly. You can upload to the project, you can quickly export into the different formats that you need, rather than trying to manually create those different presentations.

Nicolas thoughts? I don't know.

Let me repeat the question.

Nicolas Sanabria: Yeah, maybe repeat the question, please.

Kara Olin: Won't this much detail slow down design?

Nicolas Sanabria: Well, so as I mentioned, like, speaking of Ray, we're trying to, like, meet all, like, the workflows that you guys might have in your own, company or your firm. So, like you can add as much detail as you need for your workflow. We're trying to, like, gather all that information that you guys, might manage, and, basically.

Like, if the workflow does not need to be as precise as you need. You can… we can adapt, or, like, your workflow can adapt or SpeCurate can adapt, sorry, to your workflow, so you only specify what you need, and you keep always your workflow as it is. So, we are showing all the detail, we're showing all this to, like, make you have a very accurate and less.

Like, damage prompt, Or mistake from, actions, but yeah.

We're trying to follow the best practices that you guys follow as well.

Kara Olin: We got someone else. We're on folio today. Do we have to move to SpeCurate?

Yes and no. So, all of your current projects are going to stay on Folio through project completion. We're not going to try and force you to migrate to SpeCurate. You can finish those projects on Fohlio. The idea is more that, when SpeCurate is fully launched with all of the features, that you will start any new projects on SpeCurate, because it should be the much better experience, faster, easier to use, more AI capabilities.

I don't know why you would want to stay on Folio if it has everything that you need, but we're not going to make you change your existing projects to be to migrate it all over, because we know you guys have a lot going on.

You don't want to have to deal with learning a new system in the middle of a project.

All right, no more questions.

Okay, so just to close, 4 habits you can start on your next custom piece.

Sort every attribute into fixed tolerances or fabricator discretion.

Sorry, fixed intent tolerances for fabric discretion. Anything left over is a gap. And review shop drawings against spec line by line, flag what's missing, and note.

Not just anything that's wrong. So, and then keep one current version with a change log and a fabricator acknowledgement.

And then price parts up, and show the full number before the client approves.

Thank you all for joining. Thank you, Nicolas, for demoing SpeCurate. I hope you guys really enjoyed this presentation. We'll be sharing the recording and slides by email within two business days. And if you're looking for a NARI certification, we'll send that over in the follow-up email as well.

If you'd like to see the workflow on your projects, we are offering that free workflow assessment to everyone who attended this webinar. The link is in the chat, and it's also going to be in the follow-up email.

Your custom work deserves better than an endless spreadsheet.

Thank you all once again for joining us as we discuss Precision by Design. I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Nicolas Sanabria: Thank you all.