Job Shop Estimating

E2 Manufacturing Software Creates Quickie Quotes for Fabrication Shops

(OPENPRESS) August 3, 2011 -- E2 manufacturing process software links the material to a specific routing step so fabricators will not order the material or make the component part until needed. Fabricators can do a "quickie quote" with manufacturing process software without all of the estimating detail. The "quickie quote" allows firms to put in all of the detailed routing information and material AFTER get the job is secured. Fabrication shops have unique needs when it comes to a manufacturing software solution. Some fabrication shops may build one of something over a two-week period, while other shops get into the high production runs. As with all job shops, customers are constantly changing due dates, quantities, and everything in between. Some fabrication shops have simple bills of material while others get into multi-level complicated assemblies. The E2 job shop software order entry handles all of your release schedules, split deliveries, complex assemblies, split jobs, changing due dates and much more. The powerful, yet flexible scheduling whiteboard allows fabricators to schedule the shop floor realistically. Fabricators set lasers up as finite, press brakes as infinite, and welders based upon how many guys show up that day. Pocketview, the traveling command center, allows access to all critical business information, virtually anywhere in the world using a PDA. Pocket PC or mobile hand-held device allows shop floor operations and lean manufacturing team members to walk the floor collecting real-time data, send messages, and view the entire business enterprise and all mission-critical information.

Estimating Manufactured Parts with Consistency… using Cost ...

Problems occur when estimators feel differently about themselves and their shop…

What the estimator may quote on Monday might be more aggressive than what they include for the estimates prepared on Friday. This can be attributed to a variety of things that occur in the shop and in regard to the estimator’s work-related activities. A declining bid-to-award ratio or less-profit identified on recently awarded job orders may “subjectively” influence an estimator’s decision and choices of what they include in their next estimate.

Much time is spent detailing the estimate operation-by-operation and yet the mark of consistency is often missed. This “lack of consistency”, instills doubt, which leads to changes in future decisions being made by the estimator, the review team, and by the customer (if they experience inconsistent quoting results, as well).

Another problem that occurs is that a foreman doesn’t always run the job the way it was estimated…

There are several reasons why this occurs. The foreman was not privy to special information the estimator had about the job. Maybe it required a certain process to be performed in a certain method. The foreman may think he has a better idea and they may. On the other hand, the originally selected equipment may not have been available, or the job shops best operator(s) were absent. The resulting discrepancy between estimated and actual run-time has a tendency to create doubt and affect decisions on future estimates.

Some estimators have minimal “hands-on” job shop experience and rely on the foreman and shops machinists…

This is inherently time-consuming. The shop personnel answers are typically clouded by the same two previously discussed problems. In addition, since the estimators quotes may already be piling up, these delays often lead to the estimator just plugging in a “fudge factor” or “extra time” — just to get more quotes out.

This “fudge factor” quite often busts the competitiveness on the sale…

This additional unjustified “fudge factor” time is intended to protect the estimate, which may occur, but also frequently loses the sale – especially when it was estimated accurately in the first place. The last thing any estimator wants is an awarded job that actually costs the company money.