Material Intelligence
Material Intelligence provides analytical insights into material usage, pricing trends, price history, and risk signals across Darwin estimates. It transforms material lines, price list history, and project baseline state into read-only portfolio intelligence for estimators, procurement teams, and cost leaders.
Material Intelligence is exposed under Catalog → Materials as the Intelligence and Review Queue tabs, with per-material drill-down through the Material Detail drawer.
Read-Only Surface
Section titled “Read-Only Surface”Material Intelligence is a read-only analytical surface. It does not write to modules, materials, price lists, estimations, or approvals. The only permitted actions are navigation links into existing workflows such as the material catalog editor, price list editor, Usage tab, or Price History tab.
Key Capabilities
Section titled “Key Capabilities”Material Exposure Overview
Section titled “Material Exposure Overview”Dashboard-level KPIs include:
| KPI | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Total material exposure | Sum of quantity multiplied by the estimate-used material unit price |
| Materials used | Distinct materials count |
| Materials needing attention | Count of materials with risk signals |
| Stale prices | Materials past the stale price threshold (90 days) |
| Missing prices | Materials with missing or zero estimate price |
| High price movement | Materials whose lineage-based movement exceeds 10% |
| Average price movement | Mean lineage-based percentage-point movement |
Top Materials Ranking
Section titled “Top Materials Ranking”Materials can be ranked by estimated value, quantity, project count, estimate count, module count, price movement, or risk score — a composite score from exposure, movement, staleness, and missing price.
Usage Details
Section titled “Usage Details”For a selected material, the drawer shows usage summary (total quantity, estimated value, project/estimate/module counts), project usage (project, estimation, quantity, unit price, price list), and module usage (module, quantity per module, times used).
Price History
Section titled “Price History”A chronological price history for each material — recorded date, unit price, currency, source type, and origin note.
Review Queue
Section titled “Review Queue”The Review Queue surfaces signals for materials needing attention. Signal types include:
| Signal | Risk Level | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Missing Price | High | Estimate line has missing or zero price, or material has no known price record |
| Stale Price | Medium/High | Days since the most recent recorded price exceeds 90 |
| High Price Movement | Medium/High | Lineage-based movement exceeds 10 percentage points |
| High Exposure | Medium/High | Material is among the highest-exposure materials in scope |
Each signal provides a read-only fix path. Missing or stale prices open the relevant price-list workflow; missing sources or unit mismatches open the material record. You make the correction there, not in the Intelligence dashboard.
Risk tags indicate how trustworthy the pricing data is right now. They do not describe the physical quality of a material. When portfolio figures span multiple currencies, treat the mixed-currency warning as a prompt to review the scope rather than comparing a combined total at face value.
Risk Score
Section titled “Risk Score”Each material receives a composite risk score from 0 to 100 based on missing price status (automatic 100), cost exposure (weight up to 60), price movement (weight up to 25), and staleness (weight up to 15).
Workflow Role
Section titled “Workflow Role”- During estimation, materials are assigned quantities and prices
- Material Intelligence analyzes active baseline and scenario material exposure
- Risk Signals surface stale, missing, volatile, and high-exposure materials
- Users follow fix paths into existing workflows
- Usage insights inform module standardization, catalog cleanup, and procurement focus