Effective quoting is important to all suppliers and critical for job shops who have high volumes of RFQs (request for quotes), especially when comprised of new parts with varying processes.
Worldwide, there are many different types of job shops. Some do heavy or precision machining while others work in metal fabrication. Some just work in plastic, while others grind or bend metal, drill holes and more.
Their job is simply to form something useful – a part or product.
While it may be true, in many ways, that manufacturing suppliers are similar. The way they operate, buy things, and respond to customers can be different – as they relate to estimating and quoting.
As quoting requests skyrocket, requirements and demands that are unpredictable place a lot of pressure on the estimating staff and production resources. If you’re in charge of managing the estimating side of your job shop business with spreadsheets, paper and pencil, historical pricing schemes or “guesstimates”, you might be doing yourself and your company a disservice.
How should a company gauge when it’s time to make a “strategic” change to their cost estimating method? Recognizing signs isn’t always easy, so here are 5 questions to ask yourself: