Engineering-to-order (“ETO”) companies face unique challenges. Every customer has their own specification, so every assembly you make or part you design has to go through engineering before the sales team can issue a quotation. Even if your processes are good, they aren’t always followed because your tools are too cumbersome. Using conventional methods like email and telephone doesn’t track critical changes to specifications or designs. And forget about reporting to executives from your file system of spreadsheets.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine having your processes documented in a quick flexible tool that everyone can understand. Notifications go out when steps in the process are due. Changes to the schedule are easy to make. Documents are all stored centrally with version control so that anyone on the team can find the latest drawing or specification. And suppliers are granted selected access so that their quotations form part of your quotations.
This is ENGINEERING.com’s Collaboration Suite. Our new ETO module is designed specifically for Engineering to order companies like yours. From our experience working with our ETO customers, we have learned that they need to:
Connect with sales people in remote offices
Gather specifications into engineering
Securely share versioned drawings from multiple CAD systems
Gather sub-assembly and part quotations from suppliers
Report to executives on the status of all orders in process
Most ETO companies are using a combination of spreadsheets, Microsoft Project files and email to coordinate this complex series of tasks and documents. As a result, deadlines are missed and reporting is awkward, if not impossible. Time is lost looking for documents, and mistakes are made building from the wrong versions, affecting margins and profitability.
ENGINEERING.com’s integrated web-based platform is specifically developed for engineering-to-order processes. It allows you to meet your product quotation and design needs and greatly improves your ability to deliver to your customers on-time and on-budget.
Sign up for a webinar or free trial and let us show you how you can innovate and still stay in control.
