Midway Swiss Turn Scales Successfully with Paperless Parts

Background

Midway Swiss Turn, Inc. was founded in Smithville, Ohio, in 1977 under the name General Tool Company. The family-owned business began with a single milling machine in founder James Rahz’s garage and now houses 12 machines in a 10,000-square-foot facility. The shop specializes in precision Swiss-type CNC screw machining and turned parts.

Challenge

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Midway Swiss Turn assumed that the manufacturing industry would experience an economic boom once the dust settled. They had hired a new salesperson shortly before the pandemic began and expected this development to further compound business growth.

Midway Swiss Turn knew they wouldn’t be able to handle an influx of new business if they continued quoting with their ERP system because it was too inefficient and inflexible for them to scale effectively.

In addition to the ERP system, they relied on papers and email chains to manage quoting. CEO Jayme Rahz would hand a stack of printed emails to her husband-part of the estimating team and ask him to bring her back quotes. She had no visibility into his process, and RFQs were often overlooked.

Complicating matters further was the fact that employees started working from home during the height of the pandemic. Midway Swiss Turn lacked a centralized digital solution for sharing information while their employees were physically apart. Quotes were consistently inaccurate due to missing information, and customers who didn’t hear back after submitting RFQs were understandably frustrated. “We missed a lot of quotes. It was kind of a disaster,” said Jayme.

On top of everything, Midway Swiss Turn wanted to achieve CMMC certification, further driving the need for a secure, cloud-based quoting solution that could keep customers’ sensitive data safe.

Solution

Jayme saw a webinar about CMMC certification that mentioned Paperless Parts and realized it was exactly the kind of solution Midway Swiss Turn had been looking for. “It could help us quote more efficiently, it streamlined the quoting process and it could also help us meet cybersecurity requirements,” Jayme said.

The cloud-based platform allows employees to access information no matter where they are, and Midway Swiss Turn can be confident that the data they’re handling is always secure.

The drag-and-drop feature enables the team to place models directly into the quoting platform, and the dashboard provides clear visibility into next steps, contributing to greater accountability. Now that creating quotes is so much easier, Midway Swiss Turn feels confident taking on complex projects that they would have turned down before.

With Paperless Parts, data is exceptionally easy to access, and each member of the team can view updates and new information in real time, without having to search through files and email chains.

Quoting time has been reduced by more than 50% for complex quotes and from two days to a matter of hours for simple quotes. Team members involved in quoting save 3-5 hours on average per week-time they can now spend working toward helping the shop become CMMC certified.

Jayme was right that an influx of business was heading their way. Midway Swiss Turn has had an average of 11 new customers per year-a significant increase from the 5-8 new customers per year they had experienced. While many factors have contributed to this growth, Jayme knows that Paperless Parts is key to ensuring that the shop can meet demand.

Results

With Paperless Parts, Midway Swiss Turn:

1. Reduces quoting time. With Paperless Parts’ automated platform, Midway Swiss Turn has decreased quoting time by more than 50% for complex quotes and in some cases from two days to a matter of hours for simple quotes.
2. Builds confidence in quoting complex jobs. Paperless Parts makes quoting so much easier that Midway Swiss Turn is confident quoting complex jobs that they would have turned down before.
3. Accommodates business growth. In implementing Paperless Parts, Midway Swiss Turn has streamlined quoting significantly and can accommodate an influx in new business.

Midway Swiss Turn knew that their inefficient quoting system would prevent their business from growing successfully, which led to them implementing Paperless Parts. The fast and easy quoting technology has reduced quoting time, built their confidence in quoting complex jobs, and helped accommodate business growth. With more time on their hands, the team can focus on achieving their next goal: CMMC certification.