Speeding up industrial quotes

Industrial manufacturer

Quotes took 14 days to prepare. Management wanted to win more orders and was considering adding a sales position.

Approach

1. 01

   Frame

   The question was how to bring the lead time down to seven days, with a maximum investment of $44,000 CAD. The general manager was to decide after a six-week test.

2. 02

   Investigate

   The review of 120 quotes and eight interviews revealed repeated gaps in expectations between sales and production. Quantities and constraints were often clarified only after the first estimate.

3. 03

   Explain

   Two explanations were examined: a lack of staff and incomplete requests. The time records pointed mainly to the second: much of the delay came from back-and-forth exchanges between departments.

4. 04

   Build

   We compared hiring, a price reduction and a shared process for qualifying requests. Each option was measured against current operations, with its costs and expected effects.

5. 05

   Test

   The test split 40 comparable requests between the two processes. The thresholds set before the test were a median lead time of seven days and at most one major omission. The new process reached six days, compared with thirteen, with one omission corrected before sending.

6. 06

   Decide

   Management adopted the shared process and postponed hiring. Rollout was conditional on human review of costs and commitments in every quote.

7. 07

   Steer

   At 90 days, the median lead time was still seven days. Seven additional orders had been signed; this volume, measured over a short period, is not yet enough to validate the annual forecast.