Paperless Parts Cuts Quote Setup Time by 90% with New AI-Supported Workflow
Paperless Parts' latest release simplifies, automates, and secures the quote setup process, allowing manufacturers to quote faster, reduce mistakes, and win more business.
February 20, 2024
Boston, MA – Paperless Parts, the leading quoting and collaboration platform for job shops and contract manufacturers, today announced the launch of its new AI-supported quote setup workflow. This launch significantly streamlines the repetitive, error-prone tasks associated with RFQ (Request for Quote) intake and prep work, and allows estimators to focus on high-value activities.
“With McKinsey predicting half a trillion dollars of manufacturing to return to the US over the next six years, shops need to invest in the right tools now to handle the increase of RFQs and win their share of that business,” said Jason Ray, Co-Founder & CEO of Paperless Parts. “Today, some of the most experienced people inside a shop are wasting hundreds of hours per year performing repetitive administrative tasks just to get to the point where they can determine which quotes to prioritize. That is a process that, with the right tools, can largely be automated.” Ray continued, “Paperless Parts customers can do more with fewer resources and get quotes out faster.”
For most shops, the process of receiving an RFQ and preparing to quote requires several time-consuming steps: receiving the RFQ via email or from a supplier portal, logging the RFQ in a project tracking spreadsheet, downloading files to the estimator’s hard drive, organizing them into line items on a shared drive, printing out files for markup and review, and then building out the BOM (bill of materials) in clunky spreadsheets or ERPs. This also requires multiple software tools—email, shared drives, Excel, CAD viewing software, PDF viewing software—all before the shop even knows if they have the capabilities to make the part. With the average line item taking 2-5 minutes to set up and review, this can lead to hundreds of hours of administrative tasks that may or may not lead to won revenue.
Beta user of the quote setup workflow Justin Quinn, President at Colordado-based shop Focused on Machining, shares, “Getting through 30-40 quote packages with 5-15 files per line item would have taken me hours before, and now I can get it done in 30 minutes. The new workflow has also improved communication within our team by allowing us to get started on quotes faster.”
Another beta user of the new workflow, Jim Fitch, VP of Engineering at Nu-Way Industries, expresses, “The new quote setup workflow makes getting quotes—especially large, complex ones—much easier to set up in a much more visible and intuitive way.”
“Far too much time and money has been wasted on the manual, error-prone administrative steps that don’t add value to a business,” says Paperless Parts CTO Jason Luce. “Our goal with launching the new quote setup workflow is to get estimators working on high-value activities as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The new quote setup workflow tools, available at no additional cost for all Paperless Parts customers, include:
- Email forwarding: Users can now simply forward an RFQ from their email inbox to Paperless Parts to instantly start a quote with all quote files attached.
- AI-powered line item extraction and file assignment: Paperless Parts uses its own proprietary, domain-specific AI to review RFQ emails and associated files for part information, build line items, and auto-assign files to line items.
- RFQ file management: Quotes within Paperless Parts now have a designated area for storing and organizing all files related to a quote—emails, part files, vendor quotes, and more—for easy organization and assignment to line items.
- Bulk and drag-and-drop line item creation: With this new release, creating and manipulating line items has never been faster. Users can copy and paste directly from an email or CSV, or manually manipulate line items, assemblies, and supporting files with desktop-like drag-and-drop functionality to organize quotes in a way that best suits their shop.
- PDF Viewer with Part Setup tool: The platform’s PDF viewer makes it easier to pull data off of prints and into a quote by offering data entry fields side by side with prints, putting everything important on one screen. It also leverages AI to detect and suggest data fields for critical part information.
- Malware and virus scanning: Paperless Parts automatically scans files for malware and viruses upon both receipt and download.
“We’ve invested millions of dollars into building a platform that streamlines the entire quote-to-cash process for our customers, and today’s release pushes that value even further by tackling the many hours shops are wasting just getting ready to quote,” Luce continued. “We saw an opportunity to help our customers focus on what’s important: winning business and building great products.”
To see the new quote setup workflow in action, contact Paperless Parts today: www.paperlessparts.com/demo.
For information on the use of AI within Paperless Parts, please visit www.paperlessparts.com/artificial-intelligence-in-paperless-parts/.
About Paperless Parts
Paperless Parts is the industry-leading technology platform for manufacturing quoting and communication. Explicitly designed for job shop manufacturers specializing in sheet metal fabrication, CNC machining, and other precision manufacturing processes, Paperless Parts streamlines the RFQ-to-cash cycle by identifying manufacturability issues, creating accurate quotes, and processing orders. By revolutionizing how shops communicate with buyers and providing real-time analytics for informed decision-making, Paperless Parts helps manufacturers generate more accurate quotes efficiently with ITAR-compliant RFQ forms and platform features focused on keeping information secure. For more information about Paperless Parts, please visit www.paperlessparts.com.
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