SPM Builds a Data-Driven Quoting Engine, Supports Long-Term Growth with Paperless Parts

Background

With over 60 years of experience in precision sheet metal fabrication, Special Products & Mfg., Inc. (SPM) is a trusted, family-owned contract manufacturer specializing in mechanical products, assemblies, and parts. The company’s in-house capabilities span sheet metal fabrication, CNC machining, laser cutting, welding, painting, and design engineering, positioning SPM as a one-stop shop for high-quality, scalable manufacturing solutions.

Their commitment to excellence has earned SPM national recognition, including The Fabricator’s 2025 Industry Award and a place on the coveted Fab 40 list for eleven consecutive years.

Driven by a strong culture of innovation and continuous improvement, SPM has prioritized growth and employee development over the past decade. Their investment in state-of-the-art equipment and lights-out manufacturing operations enables them to deliver exceptional quality and meet tight deadlines with efficiency.

Challenge

Before implementing Paperless Parts, SPM’s quoting process was fragmented, slow, and heavily reliant on tribal knowledge.

“Speed and accuracy were our biggest challenges,” recalls Nora Harding, Executive Vice President at SPM. “Our quoting process lacked consistency, and even when we turned quotes quickly, the decisions weren’t always backed by reliable data.”

Before Paperless Parts, Nora put it simply: “Our quoting process made it difficult to scale confidently.” She added, “While we secured new business, it was challenging to consistently understand the drivers behind our wins or margin performance.”

“We had people using spreadsheets, others using legacy quoting tools and software—each with different pricing, parts, and suppliers. Nothing was maintained,” added Mike Helleson, SPM’s IT Systems Manager. “You had to have years of experience here just to quote, which made scaling impossible.”

Beyond the inconsistency and inefficiency, the quoting process was disconnected from the rest of the organization; sales and estimating lacked visibility into incoming opportunities, and pricing was often reactive.

SPM needed a solution that would streamline their quoting workflow, integrate with their Plex ERP system, and eliminate the dependence on institutional knowledge.

Solution

In 2020, SPM was in the process of laying a scalable foundation to support their growth goals for the next five years: a company-wide push they called Vision 2025. The initiative included systemizing operations, eliminating reliance on tribal knowledge, and empowering employees with clear processes and visibility.

Investment in quoting technology played a big role in that. “As part of our Vision 2025 initiative, we identified speed and accuracy in quoting as key drivers of our long-term success,” Nora explained. “Choosing Paperless Parts was a strategic move to modernize and streamline our internal quoting process. It’s helped us significantly reduce lead times and better align with our growth objectives.”

SPM’s leadership has long prioritized developing people over simply hiring for technical experience, but their previous approach to quoting relied heavily on tribal knowledge and years of hands-on experience in fabrication.

“Paperless Parts has simplified our process. Quoting still requires a strong understanding of our processes, but with Paperless Parts, we’ve removed the need for decades of hands-on experience,” Nora shared. “We can now train capable team members more efficiently and get them confidently quoting in a matter of weeks.”

Paperless Parts’ AI-powered tools like the BOM Builder and automated quote setup workflow have made the quoting process even more efficient for SPM, especially for large assemblies.

“Paperless Parts significantly improved our quoting speed, but the introduction of the BOM Builder took it to the next level, making the process seamless, especially for complex assemblies,” shared Blake McKenzie, SPM’s Business Accounts Manager.

Paperless Parts also helped SPM systematize its tribal knowledge to make it more accessible across the organization. “Paperless Parts gave us a clear, consistent process across sales and estimating and the data to understand why we win or lose opportunities,” says Blake. “That visibility empowers our entire team—from estimating to planning to plant management—to validate margins, adjust workflows, and plan smarter based on real shop floor feedback.”

For SPM, Paperless Parts has become a true long-term partner. “Every time I meet someone from the Paperless Parts team at an event, they know us and our challenges,” Nora shared. “At one event, I mentioned a powder coating issue we’d struggled with for years. A member from Paperless Parts immediately said, ‘Cassidy (our Customer Success Manager) will have a solution for you.’ Within three days, Cassidy was on the phone, and the problem was solved within a week. That’s true partnership.”

Tools like Paperless Parts align with SPM’s company-wide culture, summarized in their core values acronym BUILT (Best people, Urgency, Integrity, Learning, Teamwork) by giving teams visibility, autonomy, and the tools to drive improvements from the ground up.

Results

Since partnering with Paperless Parts in 2022, SPM has made Vision 2025 a reality:

1. Reduced quoting time by up to 50% across the board. The team emphasized that even high-volume quoting is now manageable, enabling them to move from quote to production in record time. In one case, the team quoted 150 parts in a week and a half, launched production in three weeks, and had a PO in hand for 69 parts—an outcome they called “unthinkable” before Paperless.
2. Achieved seamless integration with Plex ERP for a fully connected workflow. By integrating Paperless Parts with their ERP, Plex, SPM created a streamlined front-to-back-end quoting process. Estimates flow smoothly from sales to planning to production, enabling better scheduling, accurate job costing, and real-time visibility. The integration ensures that quote data becomes actionable across the entire organization.
3. Increased win rate and quoting confidence through better data. SPM now bases all quotes on facts and measurable data, not guesswork. The team now understands why they’re winning work, and when they’re not. This data-driven approach has helped them zero in on their core business strengths, deliver more accurate quotes, and improve profitability across the board.