“We do AI” tells you nothing. This is the list of what Fenwick Automation actually automates in construction and trade businesses, task by task.
For each one: how it’s usually done now, what a system can do, how we’d build it, and what stays with a person. That last part isn’t optional. We never let a system run unchecked where a mistake costs money or safety, and nothing goes to a client without a person seeing it.
1. Enquiry processing
Now: Enquiries arrive by email, phone and web form. Someone reads each one and works out whether it’s a job you want.
What a system can do: Read the enquiry and its attachments. Pull out the scope, site, dates and client. Check it against your rules: area, job size, type of work. Flag what’s missing.
How we’d build it: This is the Lead qualification route. The build checks.
What stays with a person: Deciding whether to take the job.
2. Quote preparation
Now: An estimator retypes the enquiry, finds a similar past job, prices it and writes it up in the format that client expects.
What a system can do: Price the standard lines against your own rate card and rules. Draft the quote in the client’s format, with the assumptions listed.
How we’d build it: This is the Estimation route. The build drafts. More in how to automate a construction quote without getting the price wrong.
What stays with a person: The price. The estimator prices the awkward parts, corrects the draft and presses send.
3. Method statements
Now: Someone finds the last similar one, changes the site, client, dates and names, then chases the drawings and data sheets.
What a system can do: Draft the method statement from your template with the job details already in. Attach the certificates and data sheets that belong to that job.
How we’d build it: This is the RAMS pre-fill route. The build assembles. More in how long a method statement takes by hand.
What stays with a person: The safe method of work, and the signature.
4. Risk assessments
Now: Copied from a previous job and edited. The risk is that a hazard from the old site stays in and a new one gets missed.
What a system can do: Pre-fill the assessment from the job details and the hazards you’ve recorded on similar work. Highlight what’s different about this site so it gets looked at.
How we’d build it: Part of RAMS pre-fill. The build assembles.
What stays with a person: Every hazard and control. A competent person reviews the assessment for this site and signs it.
5. Permit packs
Now: Forms, certificates and sign-offs gathered by hand. A job starts late because one certificate had expired.
What a system can do: Assemble the pack, check dates on certificates, chase the missing piece and keep the register.
How we’d build it: The build assembles. More in what you can automate in a permit pack.
What stays with a person: The authorisation, and the isolation check on site.
6. Client reports
Now: At the end of the month someone pulls figures from three places into a spreadsheet, then types them into the client’s report format.
What a system can do: Pull the figures from where they already sit and draft the report in each client’s format.
How we’d build it: This is the Reporting route. The build assembles.
What stays with a person: Reading it before it goes, and anything that needs explaining to the client.
7. Email processing
Now: A shared inbox. Someone sorts it by job, saves attachments to the right folder and forwards what needs an answer.
What a system can do: Match each email to its job, file the attachments and flag the ones that need a reply.
How we’d build it: Usually part of a bigger build rather than a build on its own.
What stays with a person: Answering anything that needs judgement. Anything the system can’t match goes to a person rather than a guess.
8. Pulling information out of PDFs
Now: Purchase orders, delivery notes, certificates and schedules get read and retyped.
What a system can do: Read the PDF and put the facts in the right fields, with the original document attached so anyone can check it.
How we’d build it: A step inside another build, most often quoting, RAMS or reporting.
What stays with a person: Checking any figure that feeds a price or a safety document.
9. Job updates
Now: A job is won, started or finished, and someone updates the job system, the CRM and a spreadsheet. Often it doesn’t happen, and nobody trusts the records.
What a system can do: Update the records when the status changes, so nothing is typed twice.
How we’d build it: This is the Automating CRM updating route. The build drafts or updates directly, depending on what your software allows. We find out which in the audit.
What stays with a person: Anything the system flags as unclear.
10. Chasing outstanding information
Now: Chasing drawings, certificates, signatures and quote answers, usually from memory, often in the evening.
What a system can do: Track what’s outstanding on each job and draft the chaser to the right person at the right time.
How we’d build it: We have quote chasing running right now. The same approach works for drawings, certificates and signatures.
What stays with a person: Seeing anything that goes to a client before it’s sent, and deciding when to stop chasing.
Where to start
Start with the task that happens most often and takes the most expensive person’s time. If someone in your business does it by hand more than once a month, it’s a candidate. If it happens twice a year, leave it alone.
To see what the time adds up to, there’s a worked example in how much time automation can save a small construction business. For what we are and how we work, read bespoke automation for UK construction and trade businesses, or see how we build AI automation and who we are.
What will go wrong
- Your templates aren’t as standard as you think.
- The same information lives in three places that disagree.
- Somebody’s spreadsheet is load-bearing.
- Version one will miss something your most experienced person handles by instinct. That’s what the parallel run is for: the new system runs alongside the old way until your team trusts it.
Next step
Book the 10-minute call. Tell me which of these ten takes your team the longest. You’ll leave knowing whether it’s worth building and a rough estimate of what it would cost.