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Waterloo Healthcare: building a hospital cart in 3D
Waterloo Healthcare·
Waterloo Healthcare has manufactured steel and aluminium procedure carts for hospitals for over 50 years. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the company supplies specially designed hospital carts available in a wide range of options.
That range is the problem a configurator solves: a procedure cart is specified drawer by drawer, and every hospital wants a different arrangement.
What the client needed
Configure online
An online tool that allows customers to configure their products, and to download the specifications and images of the configured product.
Drawer arrangement
Users needed to add, remove and rearrange drawers — the defining choice on a procedure cart.
PDF documentation
The configurator had to generate a PDF document with the product information for the configured cart.
Enquiries by email
Completed configurations had to reach the company as enquiries received by email.
Colours, frame and locks
Users also needed to change colours, frame type and the locking system.
An internal version
The company wanted a second version for internal customer service staff, so they could produce custom renderings to send with quotes.
The solution
The build used the basic modules in the Simplio3D SEL library, enabling real-time 3D visualisation, a PDF generator, and the ability to create snapshots for images. Product options let customers change the type of cart, the colour and the locking system, and drag to rearrange the drawers as desired.
The client supplied CAD files, which were processed and exported to .gltf for the best rendering performance. Emails were triggered from the configurator by connecting to an email web service through its API.
How a cart is specified
Choose the cart
The customer selects the cart type and size to start from.
Set frame and colours
Frame type, frame colour and drawer colour are chosen and shown on the model.
Arrange the drawers
Drawers are added, removed and dragged into the arrangement the department needs — the decision that defines the cart.
Pick the locking system
The locking system is selected, which on a hospital cart is a specification requirement rather than a preference.
Generate the document and submit
The configurator saves an image, generates a PDF with the product information, and submits it for a formal quote directly from the website.
The configurator
Results
Customers specify their own cart
The tool allows customers to virtually create the procedure cart platform they want, save the image, generate a PDF and submit it for a formal quote, all from the website.
A competitive advantage
Customers can create a preliminary proposal in minutes.
Less back-and-forth
The configurator minimises back-and-forth communication on specification.
A tool for the sales team
Sales staff have a quick tool to work with during enquiries, including an internal version for producing custom renderings.
In the client’s words
We got great feedback thanks to this new tool for our customers, because it allows us to send them a complete quote.
John BergmannPresident · The Bergmann Group
What a project like this would add today
This was an early implementation, and much of what was custom then is standard now. Drawer rearrangement of this kind maps onto modular projects, which provide drag-and-drop assembly with snap-point alignment, rotation, mirroring and undo. The advanced modular system is an Enterprise capability. Quote capture is handled by Forms mode, with submissions collected under Requests rather than only arriving by email.
Since then, AI has been added: a configurator can be generated from a product description, an assistant can audit an existing project’s options and logic, and the MCP server lets an agent connect with a scoped token to evaluate logic and calculate pricing under a propose-and-confirm model. None of these were part of the original build.
Configure-price-quote for complex equipment
Rule-heavy products with a formal quoting step are exactly what the CPQ tooling is for.
Bouw, implementeer en schaal 3D-commerce.
Bezit een 3D-productconfigurator om verkopen te stimuleren en direct vanuit uw website offertes te genereren
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