Digital slabs are becoming increasingly popular and the future for them looks promising. Digital slabs shouldn’t be thought of as a simple photo of a slab. It’s an accurate copy of real life. According to Bill Elliott of Northwood Designs, Inc. in Antwerp, NY, developer of Slabsmith, digital slabs allow the entire properties of a slab to be shown to a fabricator. “With the digital version of the slab, I know the exact dimensions; the color is accurate, and the parts that will fit in the slab or remnant are known making it more than just a photo of the slab,” said Elliott. “Then everything flows downhill from that. We can then manage inventories, manage remnants in a new way, do layouts in new ways. We know not only how many square feet are in a slab, but what the largest area we can use in it and what the largest rectangle we can make in that slab is. That also means we know exactly what is in stock if we need to meet certain needs. The possibilities are endless when you have an accurate digital version of a slab.”

Digital slabs don’t just help the fabrication process, but also the sales process. “Now that we have a digital version of the slab, we don’t have to move every slab in the rack to show the customer the color and/or movement of a slab,” said Elliott. “We also have a touch-enabled tablet-based solution we call the “Scan” module, where you can scan a rack, view the slabs on the rack, place slabs of interest in a ‘favorites’ list for the customer where you can see all the dimensions and specifications of the slab. The upshot being that you can narrow down the slab choices for a customer without needing to move slabs. All of this while walking through your slab yard or warehouse.  After the customer selects their specific slabs, the slab can be placed in a job and assigned to the customer, all from the tablet.”