Congratulations, that winning bid just landed your company a huge contract. Unfortunately, because of unanticipated material costs, extended cut time and related labor charges, that new job is going to cost you nearly double to run. Faced with tight margins, high steel costs and tight labor market, the success of today’s manufacturer is tied closely to quoting.

The shift in the market for on-demand lean manufacturing, shortened delivery times, and quantity of quotes requested make business challenging. In the past, manufacturers held large amounts of inventory on hand and had longer lead times to generate quotes. Additionally, customers didn’t have the ability to instantly solicit numerous bids with a click of a “send e-mail button.” With email and interactive websites, customers can quickly send get quotes from many competitors.

All challenges present a hidden opportunity. Those manufacturers that are able to be accelerate turnaround for quoting and production see a much higher demand from customers, whether it’s the promptness of quotes or accurate sustainable prices.

Job Shop Quoting

When it comes to quoting profile parts, or non-weldments, the fastest quote inevitably wins the job. In years past there has always seemed to be an inherent knowledge needed to create a quote with the process generally going something like this:

• A sales representative would grab a part and take some quick measurements.
• He would look at material rates
• Next, he would guess the time to cut and clean-up the parts
• Finally, he instinctively knew what the market would bare and what he could reasonably charge to fabricate the parts.

This process is riddled with flaws. First, it is extremely time-consuming. Second, one never knew for certain if they were going to achieve a profitable return on a part. Lastly, it was never really known if the quote accurately reflected the market value.

Enter Technology

Fortunately, today known variables are replacing guesstimates. Software that accurately factors cutting time and material to produce the correct pricing can be generated in just seconds. However not all quoting is the same. Once the true run times, the number of operators needed, and processing time are known the fabricator can plug in material cost to complete the process. To do this accurately requires applying real nesting geometry against materials.

The solution lies in importing and pre-nesting the job upfront, and letting technology tables to determine accurate costs to produce these parts. This is saves hundreds of hours in manual quoting and ensures accurate material costs. It also creates a record that can be easily updated with the click of a button.

Importance of Accuracy

Accuracy in the quoting stage is vital. We must leverage the technology around us to setup accurate run times, up to the minute material costs, and actual shop costs. If we follow the workflow, to gain geometry up front, and then use non–accurate tech tables, our quotes will suffer. This inaccuracy will create numerous problems including wrong prices, inaccurate run times, and incorrect delivery dates.

Leveraging technology is essential to growing a business’s bottom line and ensuring the best ROI is achieved on each project. Combining the use of tech tables with accurate geometry and reliable quoting software is key. Accurate quoting is one aspect of SigmaTEK’s end-to-end solutions that leverage technology for a more efficient and profitable facility.

For more information, Website: www.sigmanest.com