KT Tech Saves Time & Generates More Revenue with Paperless Parts

Background

KT Tech, Inc. opened up shop in 2013 when founder Tai Kim purchased an old CNC machine on eBay and decided to build a business of his own. The shop has grown significantly in the last decade.

Today, KT Tech offers a range of services, including 5-axis machining, Swiss turning, laser marking, and more. Their primary focus is building fixtures and helping designers with prototype work, and they’ve recently begun taking on more aerospace projects.

KT Tech has a team of eight people, and up until recently, Tai was managing most of the quoting for the entire shop.

Challenge

As the go-to person for quoting at KT Tech, Tai held a vast amount of tribal knowledge regarding the estimates that informed all quoting. He was using an “archaic” and inefficient ERP system that wasn’t equipped to quote the complex assemblies—containing up to 50 machined parts—that KT Tech often built. In those cases, Tai had to create dozens of separate quotes to produce one complete estimate.

“Quoting required a senior-level person’s time, but it may or may not have turned into profit. It was a really tricky thing for us,” Tai said.

To make matters worse, KT Tech lost track of RFQs regularly, resulting in missed opportunities. Lack of time caused the shop to respond slowly, and they often failed to follow up on estimates. When they did send out quotes, they were often inaccurate—there were a few instances of customers reporting vastly different prices for repeat projects. Not only that, but the quotes looked messy and unprofessional.

Tai knew that for KT Tech to continue competing with big companies like Xometry and Protolabs, they needed a quoting system that reflected the caliber of their work.

Solution

When Tai found Paperless Parts, he knew it was the solution he was looking for: “After doing a simple calculation of how much time Paperless Parts saves us, especially senior-level time, it was a no-brainer.”

Paperless Parts’ software consolidates all essential quoting information in one digital location and is customizable enough that KT Tech can quote complex assemblies quickly and easily.

“Paperless Parts sells this complete package, but when I started the onboarding process, I realized it’s more like I hired a group of custom coders and solution providers to tailor the software to our needs, so that was amazing,” Tai said.

Now, KT Tech can effectively manage all the RFQs that come in, respond to customers quickly, and present accurate and professional-looking quotes to prospective customers.

Results

With Paperless Parts, KT Tech:

1. Significantly decreases quoting time. Due to Paperless Parts’ streamlined solution, KT Tech went from spending 1+ full days working on complex quotes to only 2 hours.
2. Generates more revenue. With more quoting options—such as expedite pricing—KT Tech is able to increase revenue.
3. Manages RFQs more effectively. KT Tech can track, manage, and respond to quotes much more easily—including accurately defining their win rate.

Paperless Parts streamlines quoting for KT Tech so significantly that they can complete complex quotes in 2 hours—down from 1+ days with their old ERP system. Options like expedite pricing contribute to increased revenue, and the platform is flexible enough that KT Tech can customize it to their specific needs as they continue to scale.