A Customer Story: Safe-T-Fab

Safe-T-Fab Scales Custom Manufacturing with DriveWorks

In Western Pennsylvania, Safe-T-Fab is building the infrastructure that keeps industrial workers safe. Specialized in custom ladders, crossover stairs, and platforms, they’ve carved out a niche by solving safety challenges that “off-the-shelf” equipment can’t touch.

But being the leader in hyper-custom solutions created a challenge. As business grew, the engineering team found themselves spending more time on manual CAD work and less time on the complex design problems they were hired to solve.

Automating the “One-Off”

When Chris Anderson, Data Analysis and Implementation Engineer, joined Safe-T-Fab in 2023, the goal was to apply automation to a business model where “standard” doesn’t exist.

Unlike many manufacturers who use automation for a fixed catalog of parts, Safe-T-Fab designs entirely different topologies for every customer. Most would see this level of customization as a barrier to automation, but the Safe-T-Fab team – many of whom had seen the power of DriveWorks in previous roles – knew it was the key to their growth.

“We weren’t looking for a rigid, modular system,” Chris says. “We needed a tool that could handle our specific design logic and still give us that automated result. We knew DriveWorks was the engine that could do it.”

Before implementation, even a standard custom request, like a cantilever ladder, required an engineer to spend an hour or more manually drawing geometry, updating Bills of Materials (BOMs), and tweaking weldment cut lists. At scale, that hour-per-quote was a bottleneck they were ready to eliminate.

The Fear of the “Modular” Box

Instead of being limited by a “modular box,” the team used DriveWorks to codify their expertise. By integrating foundational math and OSHA safety codes directly into the software, they ensured every step and guardrail met the legal requirements automatically. They didn’t lose their ability to customize; they made it faster.

“It wasn’t about limiting what we could build; it was about how fast we could get the right design into the customer’s hands,” Chris explains.

From One Hour to Ten Minutes

The transformation was immediate. What used to be an hour of manual CAD manipulation was reduced to a 10-minute background process that runs while the team focuses on other priorities. Today, Safe-T-Fab currently has 19 active DriveWorks projects that interface directly with SOLIDWORKS to generate models, drawings, and consolidated weldment cut lists.

This technical foresight changed the company’s trajectory. In 2025, Safe-T-Fab saw a 56% increase in revenue over the previous year.

By automating the “sundry items” (the standard ladders and platforms that make up a large portion of their inquiries), the engineering team was finally freed to focus on high-value, complex projects.

Impact By Numbers

• 56% year-over-year revenue increase.
• 15% increase in total quotes processed.
• 50% increase in average order value.
• 60% of all quoted projects now run through design automation, and that number is on the rise.

“Our engineers are working on higher value, more complex projects,” says Chris. “They’re spending more time with customers and really focusing on the things where they shine”.

From Backend Efficiency to Frontend Sales

While Safe-T-Fab's first DriveWorks projects were focused on “under the hood” engineering, automating CAD models, BOMs, and cut lists, their Bus Maintenance Platform project marks a strategic pivot. It is their first major initiative to move the power of automation away from the engineering desk and directly into the hands of the customer.

Before

Previously, every inquiry for a bus maintenance system required an engineer to manually configure the platform length, ladder placements, and safety clearances. Even for standard requests, a customer had to wait for an engineer to find the time to generate a submittal drawing and a formal quote.

After

Today, the process is the closest Safe-T-Fab has to 100% "touchless" engineering. Customers can visit the website, enter their specific requirements, like the number of ladders and the total length of the maintenance area, and receive a dimensioned drawing and a quotation instantly.

“A customer could complete the info, get the quote, and—because the product is something our shops have built before—it can be fairly hands-off for us,” Chris explains.

This success has become the blueprint for Safe-T-Fab's digital future. The team is already working to implement 3D Preview for their more complex projects, like branching crossover platforms. “If a customer is interacting with a form and they can see what they’re getting in real time, it’s a huge competitive advantage,” says Chris.

A Partnership Built on Expert Collaboration

While Chris owned the implementation and built the logic from the ground up, he leveraged GoEngineer as a strategic resource for high-level troubleshooting and complex “edge cases.”

“I had never built a DriveWorks project from scratch before I started here, but in less than 3 years I have been able to get 25 projects up and running,” Chris says. “It’s been great to have a partner that is knowledgeable about the product and isn’t just selling to us and moving on. Having a technical resource to reach out to when I’m running into something I’ve never dealt with before is a great safety net.”

Whether it’s troubleshooting a specific rule or exploring a new way to interface with SOLIDWORKS, having a dedicated support team ensures that Safe-T-Fab can keep pushing the boundaries of what their automation can do without getting stalled by the unknown.

For other manufacturers looking to scale, Chris’s experience proves that even hyper-custom shops can benefit from a digital-first mindset. “If you’re willing to make the investment, it pays off.”

DriveWorks is available in both U.S. and Canada