Predictika · Industrial control panel quotes
An AI sales agent prepares a control-panel quote for a fictional customer: panels with their power supply, cooling, enclosure, communication module and I/O modules, plus variable-frequency drives. Before it goes out, the agent sends it to Predictika’s validator, which checks it against design, hazardous-area and commercial rules, compares the net total the agent states with its own, and returns a verdict with every reason.
This validator models the rules for a control-panel quote from a fictional manufacturer (Meridian Controls, MC-4000 panels). It handles any quote built from these parts and terms, not just the scenarios shown below.
It does not cover other Meridian products, custom design work, multi-site projects, or real product data. Meridian Controls, its catalog and its prices are invented for demonstration.
7 scenarios in workflow pairs · click one to switch
Before sending, the agent must call
What this means
Our assessment of what a typical rules-based CPQ (product rules, price rules and validation rules, as in Salesforce CPQ or Revenue Cloud) does with the same cases. It is a judgment about effort and reliability, not a claim that nothing can be built.
| What the validator catches | Typical rules-based CPQ | Predictika |
|---|---|---|
| Redundant supply, cooling and load sizing | Only with care Redundancy above 30 A, cooling type and load sizing are chained conditions, usually a selection rule plus a validation rule per part family, and they can run in the wrong order on a single save. | Each part is data in a catalog; the same rules evaluate every combination in one pass. |
| Hazardous-area combinations | Only with care The purge type, enclosure rating and certificate depend on the area class, so each is a conditional rule on a different object. | The area class is evaluated with every other rule, and all three problems are named together. |
| Volume tiers, warranty and commissioning | Only with care A tier that counts I/O across panels, a percent-of-hardware warranty with a minimum and a block commissioning price are separate price rules that must be kept in step on every change. | Counts, tiers and charges are derived across the quote on every call and reconcile to the net total. |
| Concession authority and lead time | Only with care An approval band, a hard maximum and a lead time against need-by are separate validation rules, each needing its own approval routing. | Concession and lead time are derived on each call and returned as items for a person. |
| The net total the agent states | Only with workarounds Comparing a stated figure with a computed one means a separate rule per layout, and price rules rarely run on stated figures. | The stated net total is a field in the request and is checked against the computed net total. |
| Every problem returned in one answer | Only with workarounds Rules tend to fire as the quote is built, so a problem raised late can hide an earlier one. | Every rule is evaluated at the end of input and all findings come back together. |
Every rule is checked on every call, in whatever order the choices arrive, and one problem never hides another. Blocking findings stop the quote; approval findings need a person to sign off; everything else is computed.
| Rule | Effect | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | block | A panel above 30 A needs a redundant power supply, and a redundant supply needs active cooling |
| 2 | block | The power supply must cover the panel load at the 80 percent continuous-load limit |
| 3 | block | The cooling rating must cover the panel heat load, with 25 percent more above 40 degrees C ambient |
| 4 | block | The I/O modules on a panel must fit the slots of the enclosure |
| 5 | block | A hazardous area needs a purge system (Type X for Division 1), a hazardous-rated enclosure and a hazardous-area certificate |
| 6 | block | The certificate must cover the ship-to region |
| 7 | block, approval | A price concession above the 5 percent sales authority needs approval; above 10 percent blocks |
| 8 | approval | The longest lead time on the quote must fit the customer’s need-by date |
| 9 | computed | Price is panels (supply, cooling, enclosure, communication module, purge system and I/O) plus drives; I/O volume tiers of 5 percent (20 or more modules) and 10 percent (40 or more) apply to I/O only |
| 10 | computed | Warranty is 8 percent of the net hardware with a $500 minimum; commissioning is priced by panel count |
| 11 | block | The net total the agent states must match the validator net total within $1 |