Most engineer-to-order (ETO) product manufacturers fail to generate quotes quickly. Research shows that manufacturers miss on an average 30% of their orders due to their inability to come up with accurate quote at the right time. The problem doesn’t end here. Since the manufacturing department is on a consistent pressure to generate quotes, drawings and associated documents to support the sales team, a significant time is consumed doing repetitive tasks for every new custom order. In most cases, there is no proper job tracking to determine accurate costing. With DriveWorks however, manufacturers simply need to establish methods and processes in the computer to capture the rules and know-how. The next time any variant is specified, the computer will handle the repetitive tasks.

Let’s find out in detail, how DriveWorks helps in overcoming the common challenges faced by ETO product manufacturers.

Meeting quotation deadlines

In order to give customers an accurate quote or submit tenders, manufacturers need to prepare all the design documentation, identify the manufacturing feasibility and determine the cost of manufacturing. In many cases, the orders are too small compared to the cost of designing and manufacturers may have to determine cost based on engineering judgment and past experience. All these problems either cause the manufacturer to miss the deadlines or put efforts in unnecessary and uneconomical work.

DriveWorks can overcome these issues and can allow manufacturers to develop quotes quickly, as once the product knowledge and rules are captured, design, manufacturing and costing information can be generated quickly. Thus companies can spend less time in creating documents and are more likely to meet deadlines. The time saved can be further utilized to optimize the design or add special features to make an impressive quote or tender submittals.

Inefficient manufacturing due to tight deadlines

Even if the company manages to win the contract based on general arrangement, there is very little time to perform a detailed design due to tight delivery deadlines. This results into a production scrap and inefficient use of machines as the product design often comes into pieces to the shop floor or it is under optimized. The raw material stock also remains on hold due to improper clarity. Through DriveWorks, the detailed design can be generated directly during the general arrangement, leaving more time for the engineering team to refine and optimize the machining processes and reduce material wastage.

Errors in design communication

In a conventional setup, the design and manufacturing of custom orders is often fragmented, causing a possibility of errors in communication as the design moves across different development stages. This leads to additional production scrap and reworks. With every new order, the chances of errors increases further, which in turn increases the overall development cost and affects the product quality.

With DriveWorks, once the data is captured, there are only few possibilities of entering new data. It further helps in managing the design data with the right people and at the right time. Any change in the rule is reflected immediately and the change can be implemented across all the stages of the design process to ensure that everyone is working on the correct data.

Meeting customer expectations

There is often a possibility where a customer is not satisfied with the design once it is finished. He may request a change as per his expectation setting, resulting into a rework that cannot be even charged for. Through DriveWorks, changes can be eliminated completely, as the customer can see the product design straight away through configurator before it is actually manufactured. An interactive configurator further engages the customer to the product he is purchasing.

Struggling to compete in the market

ETO product manufacturers often have a limited space to differentiate due to heavy competitive market environment. There is often only the cost that remains a key factor to maintain a competitive position. The DriveWorks user interface on the contrary is extended outside the organization and helps in engaging customers better through interactive configurator. The speed and agility with DriveWorks can help the manufacturer to respond to customers quickly and improve the delivery experience. These factors provide an opportunity for the manufacturers to differentiate them from their competitors.