Using artificial intelligence to improve your quoting process

Internet of Things (IoT)

Many manufacturers agree: it is extremely difficult to produce an accurate quote in a timely manner. Regardless of your industry experience, or how extensive the Excel sheet is that you use, you need to account for many variables to generate the most accurate quote.

Unfortunately, this may look like some quoting managers when trying to quote large
projects in a timely fashion without having all the proper resources at their fingertips.

What makes quoting difficult?

It is a challenge to project the time and material cost of a specific job. Today, many manufacturers rely on departmental meetings in order to quote jobs – especially large contracts. However, software can help alleviate the time and resources consumed during these meetings. Having a system that stores all necessary manufacturing costs (labor, machine time, material cost, etc.) and post processing information helps to generate quotes swiftly and accurately.

Many of these variables tend to stay static, but some can be dynamic such as rush order processing. In the event a rush order is placed that is a sizeable order it makes it especially difficult to quickly verify if you can take the job. Working in a disconnected system makes knowing what is in production, what is scheduled for production, and each of their delivery requirements next to impossible. This limited visibility could mean losing a highly profitable job or contract.

How quoting software works

You may be wondering how software can help? Quoting software integrates with your CAD/CAM software, allowing for fast and accurate quoting by instantly accessing necessary information for the job. With everything connected we can collect important information, such as part geometry, hourly wages, post time, material type, etc. in a snap.

Our industry is getting closer and closer to automation on the shop floor. Why not move this process beyond the shop floor and into the administrative office? Quoting may take hours of management’s time to get as accurate as possible.

Queue Artificial Intelligence

Using artificial intelligence in your quoting system will free up hours of your production manager’s time by communicating with your current systems and then populating the necessary fields. The use of this technology allows for quick analysis of vast amounts of data to offer the best fabrication schedule and price according to the order requirements and current production capacity. Utilizing artificial intelligence to quote will allow management to focus on the big picture of the business and become even more profitable.

Join me at FABTECH to learn how your company can leverage artificial intelligence to quote quickly and accurately; winning you more jobs. Click here to register for Artificial Intelligence for Machine Learning & Streamlining Quoting Process educationalsession today!