“How much do you think it will cost?” This is often a common question a manufacturer will ask themselves when developing new products and something that we as a manufacturing solutions provider we can help answer.
When I go and see companies that aren’t using IFS solutions, one of the issues that they raise is the fact that they want to get rid of the estimating MS Excel spreadsheet that has more lookups, hidden cells and formulas in it than they dare to imagine.
A COMMON SCENARIO
When I dig into how they have gotten into this situation, the conversation normally ends up with me being told how they haven’t got any other way to handle it, how they have issues with what costs to use and a lengthy discussion on ‘dummy’ parts. Then, I normally end up meeting the estimating ‘guru’ who is the bottleneck in the company, since they are the only person that knows how the spreadsheet works and how all the links work.
Once they see that an enterprise application can handle this and improve the management of the whole process, they cannot wait to get started on it. The estimating guru then starts breathing normally as they can see how it will make their life easier and enable them to take holidays without having to answer queries on their phone from someone back in the office who wants to change an estimate.
The flexibility that the solution gives, through the use of either existing parts or new parts, and having the ability to add variable costs, additional costs and markups make it possible to establish the best bid price of a product to answer a sales quote.
Then when they see that all this information can be automatically handled through to the sales order with all data setup as required, they immediately see the benefits of having the processed controlled in a single integrated application.
GAIN THE ADVANTAGE WITH GREATER EFFICIENCY IN MANUFACTURING
So, if you want to make your life easier and not worry about keeping spreadsheets in sync with your enterprise application, and also let your estimating guru enjoy their holidays, then have a look at this eBook, Gain the advantage with greater efficiency in manufacturing, for more information.
