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SolidWorks teams with MfgQuote to provide free online quoting service

Aviation Design & Development Group, Inc. used MfgQuote’s automated quoting service to solicit bids for manufacturing the inner bezel of a new electronic window shade for Boeing airliners.

Managing vendor quotes used to be a tedious, time-consuming process for both engineers and purchasing agents. SolidWorks Corporation recently joined forces with MfgQuote, Inc. to introduce the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service, the first free online quoting service for the SolidWorks® software user community.

Powered by MfgQuote, the leading online request for quotation (RFQ) service for manufacturers, the new service connects buyers of manufacturing services – such as mechanical design, machining, mold making, rapid prototyping, and finite element analysis –with SolidWorks-enabled suppliers in a streamlined, automated fashion that removes the tedium from the process, while improving the accuracy and quality of quotes.

Tailored exclusively for SolidWorks users, the new quoting service enables engineers and purchasing agents to automatically send RFQs to suppliers selected from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network, a free business-to-business online directory of design and manufacturing services.

Automated quoting for the SolidWorks community
The new quoting service eliminates much of the manual busywork associated with RFQs, such as identifying viable suppliers who provide high-quality made-to-order parts and engineering services, distributing RFQs to solicit quotes, and managing and comparing a potentially wide range of responses. Instead of searching for prospective vendors and communicating to each one with a separate RFQ, engineers and purchasing agents can simply visit the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network website, click on the check box next to each supplier that meets their qualifications, and disseminate RFQs to SolidWorks-enabled vendors more efficiently, accurately, and conveniently.

Using this service, engineers and purchasing agents can create standardized RFQs, attach SolidWorks files and part specifications, and send the standardized RFQ package to as many prospective suppliers as they want, all in about the amount of time it takes to write a single email. Why bother with separate lines of communication for each supplier when you can handle all of them at the same time?

With the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service, it’s easier to evaluate quotes against a similar set of criteria, such as per-piece costs, material options, delivery dates, price breaks by quantity, etc., giving engineers and purchasing agents the information that they need to make informed decisions.

A network of over 1,300 suppliers
This new service is free not only to SolidWorks users, but also to the more than 1,300 suppliers who are members of the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network. SolidWorks Corporation chose to partner with MfgQuote to provide this service because MfgQuote is the biggest and most successful online quoting service available to manufacturers, providing an industry-leading set of tools to fully automate the process. Suppliers use an easy-to-follow quote wizard to respond to RFQs that they receive via the network, and they also have access to other MfgQuote tools for performing real-time due diligence on potential clients and for gathering reliable leads.

“The SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service is another example of our commitment to adding value for our customers,” explains Robert McGill, SolidWorks director of business alliances. “By partnering with MfgQuote, we have implemented an automated approach to quoting jobs that can help our customers bring products to market faster. They can save time both by using the automated quoting service and by utilizing SolidWorks-enabled vendors. We chose to partner with MfgQuote because they provide the best technology and the highest level of service for our customers.”

Mitch Free, CEO and president of MfgQuote, Inc., says that the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service enhances the power of the SolidWorks community. “No one in the mechanical design software industry has done more than SolidWorks to bring together users and build a community whose value grows exponentially as the community grows,” Free notes. “If an engineer needs injection-molded parts, for example, he or she can narrow down the field to suppliers within a 300-mile radius who use SolidWorks and produce quantities above 10,000 pieces in real-time by using this service.”

A powerful online sourcing tool
SolidWorks users who have used MfgQuote’s services in the past say that they cannot imagine soliciting quotes manually anymore and are pleased to have automated quoting capabilities added to the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network.

Robert Golden, president of Aviation Design & Development Group, Inc., a Florida-based aviation design firm, says that the new network quoting service will save him valuable time. “Adding the MfgQuote quoting capabilities to the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network is just terrific. The more people who use SolidWorks software, the better. I have found MfgQuote to be my most powerful online sourcing tool, and to have this quoting capability for suppliers who use SolidWorks makes it even better.”

IAM Systems, Inc. bid every machined piece of this assembly – which is used to test aircraft carrier steam catapults – through MfgQuote, on average receiving a dozen bids for each piece.

Marinus “Ben” Bosma, an engineer with IAM Systems, Inc., an Ohio-based advanced engineering and manufacturing company, says that in the past he had to tailor RFQs to specific suppliers before using the MfgQuote automated system. “Getting quotes used to be a big hassle. We had to fax out drawings and deal with each prospective supplier separately. MfgQuote is a really good way to broadcast your requirements and serve up a complete technical package at one time, whether it involves including a SolidWorks model, an eDrawing™, or a PDF of a drawing. This improves the quality of the quotes and removes any doubt surrounding the job to be performed.”

“Typically, there are a few low quotes and a few high quotes, with the vast majority forming a plateau in the middle, which represents companies that know what they are doing,” Bosma adds. “This quoting capability is an excellent vehicle for pushing projects in the direction of proven, trusted suppliers, who can also use the service to pull RFQs from the buyer’s side.”