ACIST increases productivity, saves time for Tennessee company

The Client
Alexander Metals, Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., is a commercial subcontractor that specializes in the promotion, sales and installation of architectural building products. For more than 25 years, Alexander Metals has experienced steady growth as well as national recognition for quality workmanship and ethical business practices.

The Challenge
GMTEC Software approached Alexander Metals to be a beta test site for ACIST in the summer of 2006. ACIST is a contract glazing software solution designed specifically for the glass and metal industry - to eliminate ordering mistakes of glass, and fabrication mistakes of metal systems. Alexander’s primary reason for participating in the beta test was to implement an automated solution that would free up time for more project management.

The Results
With ACIST, Alexander experienced substantial time savings, as well as increased accuracy.

"We save 2-3 man weeks per job using ACIST," said Anthony Hayes, Drafting Supervisor/IT Manager with Alexander Metals. ACIST replaced the organization’s former manual process, producing a glass/metal takeoff and cut list that’s quicker, more accurate, and now handled by draftsmen instead of project managers.

In addition, Hayes said that ACIST has provided:

• Better business operations: "We wanted an automated solution to increase our drawings’ accuracy," Hayes explained. "ACIST did that."
• Improved shop drawings: 10-30% faster, depending on the job; More detail in the shop drawings; Faster turnaround times for shop drawings,
• More time for the project managers to actually manage current projects, instead of doing take offs

The Healthway’s Headquarters building in Franklin, Tenn. (pictured here) is among the successful projects Alexander Metals has completed using ACIST. The software was particularly helpful in the accurate materials takeoff of both the window walls and the glass curtain walls.