Predictika · excavator quoting: hammer fit, undercarriage, lead time, discount and total price
An AI sales agent prepares a hydraulic excavator quote for a fictional customer, with the total price it expects. Before the quote goes out, the agent sends it to Predictika’s validator, which checks it against bucket, hammer, undercarriage, transport, service agreement, lead time and discount rules, compares the total the agent states with the one it computes, and returns a verdict with every reason.
This validator models Cat 320, 336 and 352 excavators with buckets, track shoes, hammers, auxiliary hydraulics, technology packages and a customer value agreement. It handles any combination of machine, attachment, ground, haul limit, service agreement, quantity and discount choices the model supports, not just the scenarios shown below.
It does not cover other Caterpillar machine families, real list prices or contract terms, job-site design work, or any real customer.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer, carrier and prerequisites across several choices at once | Only with workarounds Hammer weight range, auxiliary hydraulics and the guard all depend on each other and on the machine, and each combination tends to become a separate rule. | All conditions are evaluated together on every call, whatever order the choices arrive in. |
| Bucket duty and size by machine and material | Only with care Duty and size limits depend on both the machine and the material and have to stay in step with the catalog. | The bucket and machine rows supply the limits, and the same value drives the check and the message. |
| Undercarriage and transport weight | Only with care Shoe range, soft-ground flotation and a transport weight that adds three components are doable but spread over several rules. | The weight is computed once and compared with the haul limit, then returned as an approval with the figures. |
| Customer value agreement terms and hours | Only with care Term and total-hour limits are simple alone but interact with Grade 3D and with price. | Term, hours and price come from the same computed figures. |
| Lead time with add-ons | Only with care Lead time that grows with Grade 3D and a hammer needs coordinated rules. | The lead time is computed once from the machine and the add-ons and compared with the weeks needed. |
| The total price the agent states | Only with workarounds Comparing a stated total with a computed one means a separate rule per quote layout, and price rules rarely run on stated figures. | The stated total is a field in the request and is checked against the computed total. |
| Every problem returned in one answer | Only with workarounds Rules tend to fire as the quote is saved, so a rep often fixes one error and meets the next. | All findings come back together, whatever order the choices arrived in. |
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 | The bucket size must be within what the machine is rated for |
| 2 | block | Rock digging needs a severe-duty (SD) bucket |
| 3 | block | A hydraulic hammer must fit the carrier weight range of the machine |
| 4 | block | A hydraulic hammer needs an auxiliary hydraulic circuit and the falling object guard |
| 5 | block | Track shoe width within the machine range, and wide enough for soft ground |
| 6 | approval | Transport weight over the customer haul limit needs an oversize permit or split shipment |
| 7 | block | Cat Grade 3D needs a customer value agreement (CVA) with connectivity |
| 8 | block | A CVA term is 1 to 5 years and covers at most 15,000 hours |
| 9 | block | Lead time is the machine lead time, plus 4 weeks for Grade 3D and 2 weeks for a hammer, and must fit the weeks the customer needs |
| 10 | approval, then block | Dealer discount authority: a rep can give 4 percent, a sales manager up to 8 percent (12 percent on a fleet of 3 or more), beyond that blocked |
| 11 | computed | Total price is the machines with attachments and options, less discount, plus CVA hours and freight by transport tonnes |
| 12 | block | The total price the agent states must match the validator total within $1 |