The Complete Steel Fabrication Management Software Suite
The all new Tekla PowerFab is a comprehensive software suite that provides a systematic, collaborative approach to managing your fabrication. Developed specifically for steel fabricators, it delivers a smooth, continuous, and real-time flow of information throughout the project lifecycle.
Four Products To empower your entire workflow
Tekla EPM
For all your production needs from estimating and purchasing to project management, inventory, and production control.
Tekla EPM Go
For real-time paperless production operations and visualization.
Tekla Structures EPM Modeler
For model-based estimation workflow, scheduling, reports, construction sequencing, and more.
Trimble Connect
For viewing and real-time visualization that can be shared with all project parties.
Complete and connected steel fabrication with Tekla PowerFab
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Key Benefits
- Manage your entire fabrication process in one easy-to-use software suite
- Intuitive functionality and designed specifically for fabricator workflows
- Improve productivity and reduce errors with real-time information
- Visualize, communicate and share relevant information with all project stakeholders
- Utilize powerful mobile tools for project and operations-level productivity
- Integrate with industry leading software and equipment
Tekla PowerFab is ideal for
Complete fabrication management for steel fabricators
Take charge of your fabrication process with Tekla EPM
The core of the Tekla PowerFab suite, Tekla EPM (formerly known as FabSuite) brings to the Tekla PowerFab bundle a complete software system that includes everything a steel fabricator could need: Estimating, Project Management with Scheduling, Production Control, Material Optimization and Inventory Control as well as Purchasing and Order Entry.
Usability that supports your workflow
Each component seamlessly integrates with the others: Enter data once, and it moves smoothly through your entire workflow. While built upon industry best practices, Tekla EPM is flexible by design. You can customize the tool to fit within your existing processes and procedures.
Tight integration with other software and equipment
Tekla EPM provides open interface and is designed to interact and exchange data with various software systems. It offers interoperability with a number of valued compatibility partners. Tekla EPM, like all Tekla software products, also has an open API so that you can choose to build your own productivity tools.
Estimating
Submit Solid Bids with Confidence
The estimating capabilities included in Tekla EPM give you the speed and accuracy you need to stay competitive and profitable in today’s market. Preparing bids is simpler and less time-consuming because tedious recapitulation activities are done automatically.
The Tekla EPM provides unmatched takeoff entry speed by allowing each user to fully customize the layout of both display fields and data entry fields. You can also import a bill of materials from the estimate model created with Tekla Structures or from any electronic source. The estimating functionality takes optimizing your material cutting into consideration for even greater savings.
Tekla EPM allows you to create accurate estimates mitigating the risk of over or under bidding.
Project Management
Detailed and Organized Project Management
The project management functionalities in Tekla EPM give your project managers complete visibility and traceability of important project information. Manage all of the important contract information for your project, including drawing logs, transmittals, and requests for information (RFIs). You can organize all of your job specifications in one centralized location for quick reference. You can also collect and store project notes from conversations, e-mails, and job site meetings.
Automatically import bill of materials information, revision details, and drawings from any electronic CAD source. CNC files (CAM) + (DSTV) can be automatically downloaded from any CIS/2 compliant 3D detailing systems. RFIs, change orders, and transmittals can be created, logged, and tracked using the easy-to-use document control system. This helps to reduce the time required to maintain this level of information detail.
Detailed and Organized Project Management
Say goodbye to frequent questions: “Where is that drawing?” “Was it sent to the shop?” “Was it sent for approval?” “When was it returned from approval?” Eliminate these questions by keeping all relevant information in a centralized location, allowing the information to flow smoothly to everyone involved.
Visualizing and sharing the progress information in the 3D model helps transition from reactive to proactive project management.
Quickly Generate and Manage Schedules
The advanced project scheduling feature will revolutionize the way you schedule and track projects. Manage multiple baselines of the same schedule to conduct ‘what-if’ scenarios. Rivaling purpose-built project management packages, these scheduling features will make your job easier:
- Adding links and dependencies between tasks.
- Viewing and manipulating multiple project schedules in a single Gantt chart.
- Overlaying the baseline values on the Gantt chart.
- Updating statuses with single click.
- Viewing schedule historically to identify changes.
Project Management
Visual Real Time Production Control
Your shop manager can efficiently route material and jobs through your production environment. The shop layout is represented virtually, allowing various types and sequences of material to be routed to the most effective workstations.
Track Material Easily
All job members can be visually tracked using production status window. You and your team can see individual pieces and assemblies, as well as entire projects or material across multiple projects. This keeps the workflow for your entire shop running smoothly and efficiently.
Tekla EPM integrates with third party barcoding software and scanners to save time and prevent data entry errors.
Route CNC Files Automatically
CNC files (when processed during import) will be automatically routed to their appropriate machine when prompted. Avoiding manual data entry by your line operators ensures that each piece is fabricated as instructed in the 3D model.
Combining
Optimize Material Efficiently by Combining
Combining is our term for nesting of material. It combines the lengths of similar material together such as wide flange beams, angles, flat bar, round bar, channels, tube steel, and plates. The end result is to form the most economical cut for the material. Also, material costs and waste can easily be tracked.
Efficiently optimize large material lists to price, quote or buy. You can also produce multiple reports, such as a stock pick list, a detailed cut list, or bill of materials sorted list.
You will get requests for quotation, automatically generate purchase orders, and reserve inventory for specific jobs all at the touch of a button.
Determine Best Material Usage
You can determine best material usage by setting a range of filters including material shape, description, drawing numbers, and/or sequence data, just to name a few. This helps ensure that each piece of material is properly purchased and utilized.
Inventory Control
Track and Control Inventory in Real Time
Get detailed tracking of your entire inventory, across all jobs and with real time updates as material is received and consumed in your workflow. Track all the items in your inventory by the job number, using standard steel nomenclature. Reserve items for specific jobs, or return them to stock if they aren’t needed for a current project.
Tekla EPM integrates with third party barcoding software and scanners to generate labels for raw material and allow for automatic removal of inventory when labels are scanned during production. This tracks the usage of each piece and maintains full traceability of the material.
Comprehensive Reporting
The Inventory Module maintains a complete history of your inventory and provides a wide variety of reports. You can print or view reports that show the quantity on-hand, the desired stock level, and the reorder quantity necessary to restore desired stock levels. The stock reorder list will notify you that certain items have fallen below the preset reorder level that you created. You can even revalue your drops, and return them to stock for later use while maintaining full traceability.
Purchasing
Purchase Material More Efficiently
Simplify your material requisition process by automating and optimizing the generation and tracking of purchase orders. Requisition can be generated automatically from information transferred from other parts of Tekla EPM – no need to re-enter the data. You can also import material requisitions from detailing programs (Tekla Structures, AutoCad, SteelCad, SDS/2, and more).
Get a complete picture of the material you need to order or take from stock for a particular project and easily produce purchase orders: When ready to place an order, simply assign the appropriate requisition items to each purchase order. By grouping the items requested you can obtain maximum economy and efficiency.
Control Costs
Powerful reporting tools make cost control and scheduling easy. Be certain that your organization is spending efficiently by ensuring that material has been delivered on time and is ready to use, determining costs of a project, and monitoring the long-term unit costs with vendors.
Order Entry
Manage In-house Retail Operations
Manage all the tasked related to over-the-counter sales. You can create quick quotes, orders, delivery tickets, and invoices, with the order tied to inventory control.
Access, visualize and share – also on mobile
Unparalleled mobile tools for real-time information
Tekla PowerFab offers you unparalleled tools for collaboration and visibility. You can easily visualize the job progress in the model and share the visualization – including via mobile.
Tekla PowerFab delivers unrivaled insight to your estimate and enables you to visualize project progress improving communication with all members of the project team. It is a powerful combination of MIS and BIM, driving improved collaboration, accurate estimates, cost savings and overall efficiency.
Device independent interface to fabrication data
Tekla EPM GO is the device-independent web interface for users to view and update live information in your database. The mobile, real-time access to your data helps to reduce the piles of paperwork that accumulate in a fabrication project, and speeds the flow of information throughout your organization.
Tekla EPM GO gives you an efficient method of viewing and recording the production and shipping status from the shop or the field in real time.
Access, view and update – virtually anywhere
With Tekla PowerFab tools, project managers can view and modify the status information for any job both at a project level and drilled down to a specific task. This can be used to see an overview of the project as well as drill down to find a specific part.
Permissions are granular so that fabricators can grant access to their customers and sub-contractors on a project-by-project basis. Engineers, architects, detailers, and more may view any information that they have been given access to – without having to install any software.
Unparalleled model viewer with collaboration tools
Improve productivity and achieve savings at every stage of the fabrication process
Tekla PowerFab is a powerful management software for steel fabricators. Improve accuracy, productivity and achieve savings at every step:
Estimating gives you the speed and accuracy you need to stay competitive and profitable in today’s market.
Combining optimizes the use of material and minimizes waste through advanced nesting algorithms.
Purchasing simplifies your material requisition process by automating and optimizing the generation and tracking of purchase orders.
Project Management provides detailed traceability of important job and project information. A new level of shareable visibility into the real time information allows managers to act more proactively. The advanced project scheduling feature revolutionizes the way you schedule and track projects.
Inventory Control provides detailed tracking of your entire inventory, across all jobs and with real time updates as material is received and consumed in your workflow.
Production Control makes routing material and jobs through your production environment efficient.
Order Entry provides service centers with a system to handle telephone or walk-in sales complete with quotes, invoices, and ties to inventory control.
Simplify bidding, then reduce waste
Route jobs through production and track inventory
Handle back-office tasks with ease
Industry-wide compatibility
Powerful integration with software and equipment
Tekla software provides open interface and is designed to interact and exchange data with various software systems and industry leading technologies. Also Tekla PowerFab offers interoperability with a number of industry leading solutions.
You can integrate Tekla EPM and Tekla Structures with your own processes, applications and build your own productivity tools using the Tekla Open API™ programming interface for seamless data transfer.
Tekla EPM is designed to work smoothly with Tekla Structures, but also interact and exchange data with various software systems and technologies, such as:
Machinery
- Controlled Automation
- Raptor (Peddinghaus)
- Ficep/Steel Projects
- Steel Solutions
- Vacam (Voortman)
Detailing
- Advance Steel
- SDS/2
Nesting, barcode and other
- Radley Corporation
- P2 Programs
- ProNest
- ShopData Systems
- SigmaNEST
- Soft Scan / SoftSteel
- Infra-Metals: Infra-Metals and Tekla EPM exchange steelXML data.
For Estimators
Fast, accurate and consistent estimates: powerful tools enable model-based estimating workflow
Tekla PowerFab provides estimators with powerful estimating tools designed specifically for steel fabrication workflows. This software suite offers a complete set of tools for efficient model-based estimating. Create estimates with complete confidence that all costs have been included and your bid is accurate and competitive.
The model-based estimating process drives greater accuracy giving you the confidence that your bid will lead to profitable work. Never price the unknown: maintain an up-to-date database of supplier pricing and delivery details for informed, accurate estimates. Comparing scenarios is also simple with model-based estimating.
Key Benefits
Speedy, Accurate Takeoffs
- Meet tight deadlines and bid with confidence.
- Material and labor details accurately reflect your shop-specific process: no need to guess the connection materials and labor.
- Facilitate fast and accurate steel fabrication with as little scrap as possible.
- Optimized user interface speeds up the manual entry process.
- Benefit from import options from engineering models, detailing models, or on-screen takeoff software (e.g., Bluebeam).
Optimized material
- Combine your material take-off against purchasable lengths to get vendor pricing.
- Use actual pricing from vendors based on how you buy.
- Access to anticipated scrap value for the project.
Better consistency between estimators
- Promote transparency between estimators.
- Standardize the estimating process such as labor calculations.
- Improve future decision making by referring back to historic data.
Easily generate bid proposals
- Standardize/customize parts of the documents.
- Customizable standard text for your scope.
Create miscellaneous assemblies using Parametrics
- Save time by adding assemblies such as stairs or railings by answering a few simple questions, rather than taking off the assemblies component by component.
Synergies from better communication
- Easier collaboration through consistent use of the same model and format from estimation to construction.
As your process becomes more efficient, you can concentrate on strategic estimating.
For Project Managers
Manage projects and schedules proactively with real time information
Tekla PowerFab delivers real-time information, and intuitive functionality in a tool that has been specifically designed for steel fabrication project management workflows. Manage your projects more proactively by anticipating and solving potential problems before they occur.
Stay up-to-date on project profitability by tracking estimate vs. actual cost in real time. Encourage easy collaboration and clear communication with all stakeholders through the consistent use of the same model and format from estimation to construction.
Key Benefits
Move from reactive to proactive project management
Visual model helps to anticipate potential problems in the shop and on the job site.
Leverage real-time status data to quickly submit invoices
Efficiently manage the project schedule
- Control the detailing (drawing log and status).
- Optimize purchasing schedule.
- Shop schedule.
- More efficient jobsite coordination:
- Lotting made easier with visualization.
- Scheduling the just-in-time deliveries.
Manage drawings
- Change orders (design changes).
- Transmittals.
- RFIs.
- Visibility also to detailers to be able to avoid rework when it’s too late.
For Production Managers
Benefit from paperless production and inventory information
Key Benefits
Balance the shop workload
- Easy to follow multiple projects running simultaneously through the shop.
- Just in time production for labor and machinery.
- Model-driven CNC data entry – less room for errors.
Optimize production schedule
- Route the material and projects through the shop floor.
- View and optimize availability of shop resources.
- Efficiently route to subcontractors (e.g., galvanizing).
Minimize in-production handling
- Control logistics within the shop and yard.
Mobile-friendly interfaces provides all stakeholders with constant access to job phase tracking, inspections, etc.
- Cutlists and other work orders easily available.
- View drawings – also in 3D.
- Receive material into inventory.
- Update production status in real time.
- Inspections and quality assurance.
- Load trucks and ship material.
- No need for data entry afterwards.
Productivity of labor
- Empowered production team is more productive when everyone knows what to do now and next.
- Possibility of checking the part and assembly information from model if needed – on desktop or mobile.
- Labor hour recording in real time.
This technology can help increase each worker’s efficiency, speed, and accuracy, providing your company a leg-up on competition through greater productivity.
For Purchasers
Optimized, efficient process for error-free purchasing
Key Benefits
Accuracy through importing accurate bill of material from detailing software
- Accurate cut lengths of material.
- Accurate labor associated with material finishes.
- Accurate quantities of buy-out items (bolts, nuts, etc.).
Optimize material by combining/nesting into purchasable sizes
- Model based sequencing/phasing enables just-in-time deliveries.
Elliminate material errors using requisitions and generating purchase orders
- Automated process mitigates risk of over and under buying.
- Automated pricing process by submitting a request for pricing and then import the best price to the project.
Track material for quality assurance
- Trace and document heat numbers – also for material in inventory.
- LEED certification.
- AISC certification.
Advanced, purpose-built technology that delivers a competitive advantage through greater productivity and profit.