Artificial intelligence might seem like magic, but even magic needs rules. One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it always gets things right. In reality, AI is only as useful as the data it works with. And when you’re managing complex asset catalogs across thousands of projects, bad data can snowball into real-world delays, rework, and costly mistakes.
At Ephany, we’re focused on managing the kind of data most project teams overlook: fixtures, furniture, and equipment (FF&E). These assets may seem small, but when you’re working across hundreds or thousands of locations, tracking the right assets (with the right options and finishes) is a massive job. This is where our agentic AI steps in… Not just to automate data extraction, but to double-check its own work.
Garbage In, Headaches Out: The Real Cost of Bad Asset Data
Imagine you’re rolling out a new store design, and the same refrigerator model is listed three different ways in your system. One record is missing dimensions, another was typed in twice, and a third doesn’t list which finish is required. That might not seem like a big deal, but do you really want to wait until the wrong asset gets ordered, it shows up late, or your drawings don’t match what’s on site?
In a traditional workflow, someone on the project team would have to comb through spreadsheets or drawings to find these issues. It’s tedious, it’s slow, and it’s prone to human error.
Every day a new store or facility opening is delayed means lost income. Retail industry analyses estimate that major retailers lose about $1.1 million in sales per day for a delayed store opening. Even a small-format restaurant can lose roughly $7,000 in revenue per day it cannot open. These losses add up quickly, and they come on top of rising capital costs – construction costs themselves climb an estimated 5% for each month a project is postponed. (source)
Meet the AI That Calls Out the Mess Before It Spreads
Ephany uses agentic AI with autonomous agents that do more than just extract data. They actively validate it.
When a new asset is added to the catalog, or when data is pulled from PDFs, Revit models, or scanned documents, Ephany’s AI agents perform automated checks in real time.
They flag:
Inconsistencies (e.g., mismatched descriptions, dimensions, or part numbers)
Duplicates (multiple entries of the same asset under different IDs)
Missing fields (required metadata like finishes, power requirements, or vendor details)
Instead of waiting for someone to catch these errors manually, the AI catches them before the asset is provided to the design team, purchased by the procurement team, or installed by the construction team.
Why It Matters
Validation checks might not sound exciting, but they’re the backbone of reliable asset management. They keep your data clean, your procurement teams confident, and your construction timelines intact. They also make your AI smarter over time. Every validation step helps train the system to get better at spotting what doesn’t belong.
Ephany is Leading the Way
While many platforms use AI as a buzzword, Ephany is building real-world solutions using agentic AI to improve asset data where it matters most. We believe automation should come with accountability—and that’s why our validation checks are built in from the start.
Your asset data should work as hard as you do. With Ephany, it finally can.
Building out physical retail stores is a high-stakes game—one where a single misstep can cost thousands (or even millions). Have you ever had a store opening delayed because the wrong fixtures arrived? Or watched in horror as a brand-new display case was installed upside down? You’re not alone. Mistakes in procurement, installation, and project management can quickly turn a well-planned rollout into a financial nightmare. The good news? These costly issues are avoidable.
In this article, we’ll break down the biggest money pits in retail construction—inefficient procurement, supply chain mishaps, installation blunders, and budget overruns—and, more importantly, how to prevent them. Read on to find out how better planning, smart project management, and a little foresight can keep your FF&E costs under control and your store openings on schedule.
1. Inefficient Procurement Processes
Disorganized or ad-hoc procurement of FF&E can lead to higher prices, inconsistent quality, and delays. Lack of centralized purchasing and poor vendor management mean retailers miss out on bulk discounts and reliable delivery schedules.
Centralized procurement can improve efficiency by up to 30% in multi-location operations, and long-term vendor partnerships can cut costs by ~20% through negotiated pricing (source).
Retailers without these strategies often face overbudget spending and late deliveries. For example, not standardizing FF&E specs or consolidating orders across stores can result in variability in pricing and quality, as well as rush orders that incur premium shipping fees.
Reduce Procurement Inefficiencies in Three Ways
StandardizeFF&E for designs across projects (ensures consistency and bulk leverage).
Centralize procurement and negotiate volume deals with vetted vendors (captures economies of scale and better terms).
Leverage technology for procurement – e.g. ERP or procurement platforms – to track orders and budgets. Digital procurement tools have been shown to reduce costs by ~10% while improving transparency (source).
Ephany streamlines the way your team manages FF&E procurement by giving you complete visibility into assets, their components, and sourcing details—all in one place. Instead of scrambling to track fixture parts, distributor options, pricing variations, and shifting lead times across spreadsheets, Ephany centralizes this data, ensuring your team always has accurate and up-to-date information. With the ability to generate a detailed bill of materials (BOM) in just a few clicks, you get a clear, real-time picture of costs and availability, helping you make informed decisions, prevent budget overruns, and keep projects on schedule.
Creating a bill of materials (BOM) based on assets from in a Revit model in Ephany.
2. Installation Errors
Poor workmanship or rushed installation of fixtures and equipment can trigger costly rework and repairs. Mistakes like misaligned shelving, improper electrical hookup of equipment, or installing items in the wrong sequence can damage assets and require do-overs.
Studies show that construction rework (i.e., redoing work due to errors or changes) typically eats up about 5–9% of a project’s cost (source). In the U.S. alone, rework accounted for an estimated $65 billion (5% of total construction spending) in 2020 (source).
Best Practices to Avoid Installation Errors and Rework
Clear, accessible documentation is essential for ensuring FF&E installations are done right the first time. Without the right specifications and guidelines, contractors risk costly mistakes, delays, and rework. Investing in document control not only streamlines installation but also helps maintain consistency across multiple locations.
Ephany makes this effortless by providing a centralized hub for all FF&E documentation. Teams can store and organize PDFs, CAD files (DWG), and BIM models—including Revit families—directly within the asset catalog. This ensures that contractors and project teams always have the latest, most accurate information at their fingertips, reducing errors and keeping installations on track. No more hunting through emails or outdated files—just seamless access to the data you need, exactly when you need it.
Managing supporting documentation for FF&E (assets) in Ephany.
3. Supply Chain Disruptions
Global supply chain issues can wreak havoc on retail construction projects. Volatile material costs and long lead times for FF&E have been a major driver of cost overruns and delays in recent years. For example, construction input costs surged ~17% in 2022 (far above general inflation), with core materials like steel up 124% and lumber up 61% since 2020 (source).
One national retailer saw its average per-store buildout cost jump from $400–500k to $700k due to these rising prices. Such increases at 40–75% per store forced that company to pause expansion to redesign for cheaper materials – an illustration of how supply-chain-driven cost spikes directly hit the bottom line.
Beyond cost, delayed shipments of critical FF&E can postpone store openings (leading to lost sales opportunities).
In a 2022 industry survey, up to 25% of material deliveries to construction sites were late or incomplete, underscoring the unpredictability of supply chains (source).
For retailers, a delay into the next quarter or missing the holiday season can be devastating, since the holiday period can account for a majority of annual sales for some brands (source). In short, supply chain disruptions often translate to schedule overruns (projects delivered late) and necessitate expensive workarounds or last-minute substitutions.
Mitigation Strategies for Supply Chain Disruptions
Relying on a single supplier can be a major risk—delays, price fluctuations, or inventory shortages can throw an entire project off schedule. Diversifying vendors and having backup options for critical fixtures helps retailers stay agile when supply chain disruptions arise. Real-time tracking of lead times and proactive coordination with suppliers can prevent last-minute surprises and costly delays.
Ephany makes supplier management seamless by allowing teams to compare multiple distributors for the same asset, ensuring lead times and pricing align with project requirements. For even greater accuracy, suppliers can be invited to collaborate within Ephany, updating lead times and availability directly. This keeps procurement teams working with the most up-to-date information, reducing delays and keeping projects on track—without the back-and-forth of endless emails and phone calls.
Conclusion: Keeping Track of FF&E Properly Helps Ensure a Successful Store Launch
Inefficient procurement, installation errors, and supply chain disruptions can quickly turn a well-planned retail build-out into a costly, time-consuming challenge. But with the right strategies—centralized procurement, quality-focused installation, and proactive supply chain management—retailers can stay ahead of these risks and keep projects on track.
Ephany makes this even easier by giving your team the tools to manage every aspect of FF&E with clarity and control. From tracking assets and suppliers to streamlining approvals and ensuring real-time access to critical documents, Ephany helps retailers simplify the complexities of multi-site projects—so stores open on time, on budget, and exactly as planned.
However, these aren’t the only pitfalls that can derail a retail construction project. In the next section, we’ll dive into even more budget-draining problems—cost overruns, poor project management, and damages & rework—and explore how to prevent them before they take a toll on your bottom line. Stay tuned!
It’s a thought-provoking question which reminded me of the concept of McDonaldization, a term coined by sociologist George Ritzer. This is something that I learned about in high school and it has stuck with me ever since. It describes how industries optimize for efficiency, predictability, uniformity, and control, just like McDonald’s perfected its assembly line for fast food. But this principle doesn’t just apply to burgers, it’s the secret behind how companies like Target, Walmart, and Wegmans scale their physical spaces to thousands of locations across the country.
In the world of construction and procurement, the best way to achieve this level of standardization and efficiency is through Owner-Furnished, Contractor-Installed (OFCI) items. By giving owners full control over critical assets, businesses can reduce costs, streamline procurement, and ensure consistency across every project. But what happens when projects don’t follow this approach? Chaos. Imagine if every McDonald’s location let designers pick their own furniture and kitchen equipment—it would be a logistical nightmare.
Let’s break it down.
1. Standardization & Compliance: The Secret Sauce
Just like a Big Mac tastes the same in Manila as it does in Los Angeles, physical spaces need to maintain design consistency across locations. OFCI ensures that furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) align with brand standards, regulatory requirements, and operational needs. When design teams specify their own products per project, it creates inconsistencies that make future maintenance and renovations a mess.
Imagine if McDonald’s let every franchise and/or their respective architects choose its own kitchen layout… One store might have deep fryers in the front, another in the back, and none of them would operate the same way. The same principle applies to retail spaces: consistency reduces friction and ensures every location meets the same quality standards.
In addition, each restaurant would spend countless hours selecting the kitchen equipment. This may seem like a simple trip to the appliance store, but if you’ve ever designed a commercial kitchen, you know how much work actually goes into it.
By centralizing asset decisions, owners create a repeatable, scalable playbook that maintains brand integrity and speeds up approvals.
2. Cost Savings: Cutting Out the Middleman (and the Extra Costs)
McDonald’s can sell a burger for a few bucks because it buys ingredients in bulk, cutting out inefficiencies. The same logic applies to OFCI procurement. When owners take control of purchasing, they reduce contractor markups, minimize unnecessary customization, and leverage bulk pricing across multiple locations.
A study on public works projects found that direct procurement reduces costs by up to 10% by cutting out middlemen and supplier markups (source). Now, scale that savings across hundreds or thousands of locations, and the numbers become impossible to ignore.
If every McDonald’s location sourced its own potatoes from different vendors instead of McDonald’s corporate handling it, costs would skyrocket, quality would suffer, and supply chain delays would become unavoidable. The same thing happens in retail construction when every project team sources assets independently. OFCI eliminates this waste and creates massive savings.
3. Scalability: The Assembly Line of Construction
McDonaldization isn’t just about saving money, it’s about scaling efficiently. McDonald’s doesn’t reinvent its kitchen setup for every new location; it follows a precise, repeatable formula that makes expansion fast and cost-effective. That’s exactly what OFCI does for commercial spaces.
When procurement is centralized, scaling new locations becomes a copy-paste operation instead of an unpredictable mess. Construction teams get exactly what they need, procurement timelines shrink, and store openings happen on schedule.
Compare that to a world where every project selects different assets and suppliers… It’s slow, expensive, and full of unnecessary delays. According to industry research, 80% to 90% of construction projects experience budget overruns or delays, often due to procurement inefficiencies (source). With OFCI, businesses cut through the complexity and keep projects moving.
Final Takeaway: The McDonald’s Model Works for Repeatable Design Too
The same principles that allow McDonald’s to serve billions of customers apply to construction and asset management. Standardization, cost control, and scalability create repeatable, efficient processes that drive success.
When businesses embrace OFCI, they take control of procurement, eliminate inefficiencies, and create a playbook for expansion; just like McDonald’s did for fast food. Whether you’re rolling out a hundred new stores or upgrading existing locations, this model ensures every site meets the same standards, at the lowest cost, and on time.
It’s time to stop treating asset procurement like a custom-built menu and start thinking like McDonald’s. OFCI is the key to scaling smarter.
Ephany provides a central platform to successfully manage OFCI FF&E processes. Ask me how!
Imagine your home is overflowing with clutter. You hire a professional organizer who tidies everything up—but without proper shelves and storage, the clean items just end up in a neat pile on the floor. That’s what happens when you rely solely on AI to clean up your asset data, especially when managing furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) for owner-furnished items in repeatable commercial spaces.
Here are the top three reasons why AI isn’t a magic fix—and why you need a solid platform to organize your cleaned AI data:
1. Cleaned Data Needs a Home
AI can scrub your asset data from PDFs such as drawings, product data sheets, installation manuals, and more, much like a professional organizer tidies up your kid’s playroom. But without a robust platform to house that clean data, you’re left with information floating in digital limbo.
For large-scale enterprises, relying on spreadsheets just doesn’t cut it. They simply can’t handle the complexity or scale needed to manage FF&E across thousands of locations. At a minimum you’ll want to implement a database and file repository, but then you’ll need to find someone to manage it all.
2. Context Is Everything
Imagine your kitchen when hosting a dinner party. Every tool, ingredient, and appliance has its designated spot, and everything needs to flow together perfectly. In asset management, a robust data platform works the same way—it ensures that product specifications, procurement details, maintenance histories, and other essential components all have their proper place and are connected seamlessly.
Without these relationships, or at the very least an asset identification system, your asset data is like a disorganized kitchen where the fridge, pantry, and utensils are scattered in different rooms, making it impossible to cook up efficiency.
3. Sustainable Processes Require a Strong Foundation
Imagine trying to keep your home tidy without any proper storage—no closets, shelves, or labeled bins. No matter how often you clean, the clutter just keeps coming back.
For large organizations, a consistent set of data standards is like having a custom storage system in every room. It not only keeps everything in its proper place but also enables you to automate repetitive tasks and analyze big data for strategic insights. Without that solid foundation, even the smartest AI cleanup is just a temporary fix on a constantly disorganized mess.
Introducing Ephany, an asset management platform which sparks joy.
At Ephany, we’re tackling these challenges head-on. We don’t just clean your data—we give it a home. Our solution leverages smart AI to import and polish data from PDFs (like product data sheets, installation manuals, and project details) while securely organizing it on a robust platform designed for large-scale enterprises managing FF&E for owner-furnished items. We even connect your teams to the Revit Families which include the standardized asset data that they need for projects.
By creating meaningful relationships between components, parts, and procurement details, Ephany transforms isolated data into powerful insights that drive efficiency and reduce costs.
Ready to turn your digital clutter into a well-organized powerhouse? Reach out for a free demo and discover how Ephany can streamline your asset management process.
Let me tell you a little secret about working in BIM: the more data you cram into your model, the more of a nightmare it becomes to manage. Early in my career as a BIM Manager, I thought it was smart to add as much data as possible to Revit Families for owner-furnished items (OFI). Data such as vendor information, costs, operational information, warranty information, and more. After all, isn’t BIM supposed to be the ultimate single source of truth?
Spoiler alert: It’s not.
Every time the program changed or someone wanted a new parameter added, it turned into a full-blown maintenance circus. I’m talking about fees piling up, project teams grumbling, and everyone questioning my life choices. Even the tiniest tweaks—like adding a shared parameter—would snowball into extra work. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it’s not pretty.
That’s when I started embracing what I like to call the “Minimum Viable Data” approach. Here’s the gist: keep the BIM model lean and mean. Only put in the essentials—stuff that directly impacts construction documents—and dump everything else into an external database. Think of it like Marie Kondo-ing your BIM. If it doesn’t spark joy (or directly affect your design/construction processes and drawing set), it doesn’t belong there.
Now, some people try to manage all that extra data in spreadsheets. And while spreadsheets are great for a lot of things (like pretending you know Excel shortcuts), they’re not exactly built for asset data. Version control is a mess, data integrity is basically a pipe dream, and don’t even get me started on how fun it is to scale. Spoiler: it’s not fun.
That’s where a tool like Ephany comes in. It’s basically a spreadsheet’s cooler, more reliable cousin who doesn’t flake on you at the worst possible moment. Ephany lets you manage all your asset data in one place, keeps everything organized, and plays nice with your BIM tools. No more “who updated this spreadsheet last?” arguments. No more outdated info. Just smooth, efficient data management that actually works.
So yeah, ditch the data hoarding. Your BIM deserves better. And frankly, so do you.
