The Challenge
A Central Kentucky manufacturer needed to revamp their quotation process. It was taking them more than two weeks to get a response to the customers, and they were losing business because of it. The “requests for quotes” were all processed in Kentucky, but the engineers were at three different plants in Kentucky and two other states, making three different product lines.
The manufacturer could have selected an off-the-shelf software solution, but with three different product lines and different manufacturing processes, none of these solutions fit their business.
The manufacturer could have selected an off-the-shelf software solution, but with three different product lines and different manufacturing processes, none of these solutions fit their business.
Our Solution
Lakeshore Software meticulously modeled the manufacturing (and quotation) processes for the three different division.
Processes:
1. Customer service reps in Central Kentucky entered all the requests from the customer.
2. Engineers at the indivual plants examined the special manufacturing steps to produce the product.
3. "Quotation specialists" assigned a cost for each of the manufacturing parameters.
4. CSR’s packaged all the designs and costs into a quotation.
Lakeshore Software reduced the quotation lead time from two weeks to three days, and no new employees were hired for the new application.
Every step along the way was handled in an automated database, accessible at all three location. Even the final quotation was output through the database application.
Processes:
1. Customer service reps in Central Kentucky entered all the requests from the customer.
2. Engineers at the indivual plants examined the special manufacturing steps to produce the product.
3. "Quotation specialists" assigned a cost for each of the manufacturing parameters.
4. CSR’s packaged all the designs and costs into a quotation.
Lakeshore Software reduced the quotation lead time from two weeks to three days, and no new employees were hired for the new application.
Every step along the way was handled in an automated database, accessible at all three location. Even the final quotation was output through the database application.