Opening a request to quote without retyping the title block
The request arrives as a zip of PDFs with names like scan0042 and a STEP file, and somebody opens every drawing to read the title block before the quote even starts. Unpacking the archive and reading part number, revision, material callout and the quantity breaks into a quote record is mechanical. Revision is the field worth validating hardest, because quoting rev B while the customer has moved to rev C loses the job quietly at best and machines the wrong part at worst. What stays with the estimator is judgment about cycle time and price, which no intake step touches.
The quote was built against one revision and the drawing in the operator hand is another, which is the defect this sector is built around.
A request to quote arrives as an archive of geometry files and drawings, or as a line in a customer portal, or as a scan. An estimator opens each one, decomposes the part into operations mentally, estimates setup and run times, and emails suppliers for material pricing before typing a number into a spreadsheet.
- Paperless Parts
- JobBOSS2
- Epicor Kinetic
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if your customers send legible structured requests already. The pain here is proportional to how bad the incoming documents are.
The constraint that shapes it
Quality certification is the constraint that shapes everything here. More on how this sector works.
A file arrives. The fields come back typed and checkable. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Reading dates out of a ratified contract
- Abstracting a commercial lease into dated fields
- Filling an MLS input sheet from the listing agreement
- Turning a docket entry into a calendar
- Turning a delivered transcript into a usable set of cites
- Coding a filing fee to the matter that will repay it
- How do I read part number and revision off a drawing title block?
- Can a quote be started from a STEP file emailed by a customer?
- Why do RFQ attachments arrive zipped with no part numbers in the names?
- How do I catch a revision change between two rounds of quoting?
- What material and quantity breaks belong on a machining quote?
Back to manufacturing, or see how this is priced and scoped.