Five typical use cases for automated quoting

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Manual calculation and quote creation still take too much time in machining companies, profit, and business. Five scenarios illustrate when automated quoting for turned parts and milled parts using Spanflug MAKE delivers real advantages.

Challenges in contract manufacturing today

Many contract manufacturers and CNC machine shops know this situation: The volume of inquiries is growing, time for careful cost estimation is becoming scarcer, and experienced estimators are hard to find. At the same time, the pressure is rising to respond quickly and competitively without losing sight of profit margins.

 

Spanflug MAKE automatically calculates manufacturing times and costs for custom machined parts directly from CAD models and technical drawings. Five scenarios illustrate where the software delivers the greatest benefits.

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Does this sound a familiar challenge you are facing with your workshop?

Small-batch production: High variety, low volume

Companies that specialize in small-batch machining face a unique challenge: every customer inquiry is different, every job requires a new cost estimate, and the order value often does not justify spending hours on the calculation.

Automated quoting keeps pace with any range of parts, no matter how many variations there are or how many different parts are requested each week. A quote ready for shipment is generated in just a few clicks, regardless of how many different parts are requested.

Your best people should be running the business, not the spreadsheet.

In many contract manufacturing companies, the task of calculating quotes falls to the most experienced employees. Often, these are the owners or production managers themselves, who are also responsible for machine investments, managing customer relationships, leading staff, and driving the company’s strategic development.

With the right software, other professionals—such as those in sales—can also create reliable and precise quotes without needing in-depth knowledge of manufacturing and costing. Smart quoting software automatically identifies manufacturing-related characteristics in complex parts—which are easily overlooked or underestimated when done manually—and highlights what needs to be considered. Automated quoting thus frees up valuable time for your company, allowing you to scale up this strategically important process without compromising on quality or the precision of your results.

Decades of valuable expertise are at risk of walking out the door

In many companies, the costing relies heavily on the knowledge of individual long-time employees. Which cutting parameters for which material to use and which setup times for which machine—this knowledge is often held by only a few people. When these experts retire, the risk that decades of manufacturing and quoting experience will be lost is real.

With Spanflug MAKE, you can centrally create and store calculation templates and machine settings for specific materials and manufacturing processes. This makes the expertise of the most experienced specialists in the company available to all employees via shared settings for all users in your organization. In this way, our intelligent software supports you to standardize knowledge transfer and make the generational transition easier to plan.

Execute production orders at the planned margin.

Winning contracts and then realizing during billing that you’ve completed the job for less than it’s worth is not a model for growth. Inconsistent costing methods or estimates based on past orders can result in significantly less of the expected profit remaining—especially in times of sharp price fluctuations for stocks and consumables.

An automated costing process based on real-time data, on the other hand, ensures consistency in methodology and makes it possible to forecast profits for every single quote.

Venture into new market segments: limited experience, quote due today

Contract manufacturers expanding into new industries or trying to win customers from new market segments often receive RFQs for parts that fall outside their area of expertise. Without experience from similar projects, it can be time-consuming or difficult to provide an accurate quote. There is a high risk of quoting a price that is either too high or too low.

Automated quoting with Spanflug MAKE provides precise manufacturing times and costs for these parts as well, and it also provides you with the appropriate machining strategy.

Read our case study to learn how Schwab CNC is tapping into new customer segments with Spanflug MAKE.

Read our case study

Automated, data-driven quoting as a strategic tool

The five scenarios show that automated quoting is not a luxury for large companies, but a practical tool for everyday contract manufacturing. The challenges may differ, but the goal is the same: faster, more consistent, and more reliable quote calculation. Spanflug MAKE helps contract manufacturers and CNC machine shops create quotes directly from CAD models, embed costing expertise within their operations, and submit competitive quotes even outside their areas of specialization.

Start for free. Benefit immediately.

You, too, can benefit from automated quoting. Spanflug MAKE is ready to use right away and delivers precise results even without a large database or a lengthy learning curve. And best of all: You can quote up to 5 parts per month for free.

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