Staying Competitive Through Fast And Accurate Quoting

Job shops face an ever-growing need to stay competitive. One crucial element in maintaining that edge is the ability to provide fast and accurate quotes. In this post, we'll explore how job shops can leverage the power of fast and accurate quoting to survive and thrive in the highly competitive market.

High customer expectations and inefficient processes

Customers expect low prices and quick turnaround times for quotes, and delays can mean losing business to competitors. Because customers' needs and requirements can vary significantly from one project to another, job shops must adapt to these variations quickly while ensuring that quotes remain accurate and reflective of the customer's needs.

Many job shops still rely on manual processes for generating quotes. Manually entering data, calculating costs, and preparing quotes consumes valuable time and leaves room for mistakes. Internal bottlenecks within the organization, such as delays in obtaining cost estimates from suppliers or inefficient communication between departments, can hinder the speed at which quotes are generated. Additionally, these internal bottlenecks and inefficiencies often result in missed opportunities and dissatisfied customers.

A shop that lost to competition

To illustrate these challenges, let's take a closer look at an imaginary scenario. "Smith Manufacturing" is a fabrication shop that specializes in welding. Smith Manufacturing prides itself on delivering high-quality products the Mississippi area. However, as demand grows, the quoting process, once manageable, becomes increasingly cumbersome, with manual data entry causing delays and inaccurate times. Additionally, in order to get quotes through the door, prices became too low and job became unprofitable. Despite their best efforts, Smith Manufacturing had to settle with very low margins.

Low margins led to sacrificing quality material and investment in new machines. These actions then spiraled into low quality products. Before you know it, Smith Manufacturing was no longer known for its high-quality products. It settled on surviving another day.

How to win by quoting fast and accurately

Amidst these challenges, job shops can find solace in the transformative power of technology. Besides investing in quality material, consider investing in new machines to produce quality and customized products to set your shop apart from competition. Also, consider investing in an ERP which can help you streamline the quoting processes, automate repetitive tasks, and gain real-time visibility into project statuses. For example, an ERP can help you to quickly see your past quote for a similar part. The ERP should also show you order history and give you visibility into your inventory, so you can see the cost of the part material.

An ERP is also only as good as the data you put into it. You would want to be diligent in checking the price at which you bought your materials. An ERP can help you grow in profitability, but you need to utilize its reports. It’s best practice to do cost analysis everyday and check key metrics such as selling price, profit margins, estimated versus actuals, and labor details to continue to optimize.

Consistent delivery of quality parts, the ability to customize, and regularly cost analysis of jobs is the winning combination to allow job shops to stay competitive, and fast and accurate quoting helps get them there.

An ERP built for job shops

JobBOSS² has the right quote-to-cash features for your shop. Enter the routing, labor, and material data details in once and the rest flows through the system.

Accurately track material costs in Inventory Items. This area of JobBOSS² allows shops to see when the material was last purchased. You know exactly how much of each material is left, when it was purchased, and how much it was purchased for. If the material was purchased within the last few months, you only need to go to your ERP to accurately quote. If the material was purchased more than six months ago, you may need to check more recent pricing.

With the right information in inventory, your shop can accurately and quickly quote. Combine it with the Order Entry Summary, which shows you what orders are on the shop floor by due date, to predict accurate lead times.

JobBOSS² also has a series of out-of-the-box cost analysis reports. This enables shop owners to check every job to see how close estimated hours are to actual hours. They can take a closer look at labor and material details to create an actionable list of improvements.

In this blog, we’ve shared some tips for fast and accurate quoting, a key to success for job shops to stay competitive. By addressing the challenges with technology-driven solutions like state-of-the-art machines and ERPs, job shops can continue to gain a competitive edge.