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“I wouldn't be able to go back to Excel and my old caveman way of quoting”
Nick Heys, Owner, Valence Precision
Valence Precision, a high mix, low volume machine shop, faced a critical challenge: a time-consuming process for quoting that led to missed opportunities and uncertain profit margins. Uptool was integrated to streamline this process, resulting in a dramatic reduction in quoting time and a significant increase in accuracy, revenue, and profitability.
The Challenge: Judgment Fatigue & Uncaptured Costs
As owner Nick Heys explained, Valence Precision handles a wide range of capabilities: including five-axis CNC milling, CNC turning, water jet, and CNC press brake. Valence Precision serves high-value tech customers and national labs. For a small shop with a high volume of unique jobs, accurate quoting is a key driver in Valence Precision’s success .
Like many small, custom manufacturers, Valence's previous quoting method utilized "homebrew excel sheets”, emails, and a heavy reliance on tribal knowledge . A familiar system to many machine shop owners, one that frequently fails to account for essential considerations, resulting in:
Lost Time and Opportunities: The manual process was lengthy and uncertain, causing quotes to take longer and often leading to missed job opportunities.
Uncaptured Costs: Small but critical items, like packaging and shipping time, were often overlooked, leading to thousands of unbilled minutes per year.
Judgment Fatigue: Quoting complex assemblies with many repetitive tasks, like installing inserts, was painful and error prone.
The Solution: Uptool Integration
Uptool provided a robust, customizable software solution that addressed the core pain points of the manual quoting process.
The Results: Faster, More Accurate, and Profitable Quoting
Since implementing Uptool, Valence Precision has seen immediate and transformative results in their operations:
Time Reduction: "My quotes take roughly half the time they used to."
Increased Accuracy and Profitability: Quotes are "more accurate," leading to an increased likelihood of hitting expected profit margins.
Competitive Edge: Faster quotes mean Valence Precision can respond to customer RFQs sooner, securing jobs that were previously lost to competitors due to lag time.
Growth: Valence has seen strong, steady revenue growth since implementing Uptool, and just opened up a satellite manufacturing facility in Oregon.
Key Features Driving Success:
Feature | Pre-Uptool | Post-Upcool |
|---|---|---|
Streamlined workflows | One generic Excel sheet for all processes. | Individual templates for workflows (milling, turning, sheet metal), ensuring inclusion of all steps. This includes easily forgotten processes like packaging, for a more accurate and profitable quote. |
Importing from Previous Estimates | Manual search through emails or QuickBooks to find old job data. | Quick retrieval of data from past parts, allowing new quotes to be based on previous estimates or revisions, saving significant time on data entry and estimation, and increasing consistency in pricing.. |
Estimating Stock Dimensions with CAD | Manually measuring work envelopes and calculating stock dimensions. | Software reads CAD drawings to suggest stock dimensions, a "simple feature that saves so much time." |
Assembly Dashboard | Mentally laying out complex assemblies and sub-parts. | A clear overview page to visualize complex assemblies, (including purchased or machined child parts). |
Customizable Operations | Inaccurate runtime estimates on subsequent quotes. | Ability to quickly edit default runtimes of specific operations within software, which influences efficiency of quoting and accuracy of future quotes. |