CPQ and resilient manufacturing

Manufacturing sales are constantly changing, new products, and new customers make it important to stay on top of your sales pitch. These changes can create both challenges and opportunities for businesses, especially during uncertain economic times.  

With uncertainty comes less customers and lower sales, making it critical to capitalize on every sales opportunity. Finding ways to create disruption-proof operations is the dream of every manufacturer, that’s why finding ways to build resilient operations is essential to that success.  

Let’s look at the steps manufacturers can take to stay resilient and prepared to overcome any challenges that may arise now, or in the future. 

What do we mean by resilient operations? 

Resilient operations in manufacturing is the ability of manufacturers to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, recover from disruptions, and continue operations in the face of challenges. In recent years, the concept of resilience has become increasingly important in manufacturing as companies seek to improve their ability to deal with uncertainties and risks.  

The COVID-19 pandemic was a wakeup call for many manufacturers. Shockwaves were felt across every aspect of the sales cycle from start to finish. That’s why so many manufacturers digital transformation efforts increased over the past few years. Now with many fearing a recession, manufacturers are still investing in their transformation goals. 

How has recent uncertain economic times impacted your digital transformation efforts?

How can manufacturers create resilient sales operations? 

Manufacturers can create a resilient sales operation by implementing strategies that improve their ability to respond to changing market conditions, maintain customer satisfaction, and achieve long-term growth. These are a few strategies manufacturers can take to deal with these challenges: 

Customer-centric approach: 

A customer-centric approach involves focusing on the needs and preferences of customers and developing products and services that meet their needs. This approach requires manufacturers to gather and analyze customer feedback, develop customer profiles, and tailor their sales and marketing efforts to meet the needs of different customers. 

Forward thinking manufacturers will also find ways to make it easier for customers to view their complete product portfolio online. Offering ways to view and possibly buy products online will help manufacturers create multiple touchpoints with customers instead of just one-to-one sales interactions.  

Diversify sales channels:  

Creating and optimizing different sales channels will be a key area for manufacturers to look into. This can involve developing a direct-to-consumer sales strategy, expanding into new markets, and establishing partnerships with other companies. 

When manufacturers rely on a single source of revenue, they are more vulnerable to fluctuations in demand, supply chain disruptions, and other market forces. By diversifying their sales channels, manufacturers can reduce their reliance on a single source of revenue and spread their risk across multiple revenue streams.  

Leading manufacturers are also beginning the process of selling subscriptions to their products. This development may still be in the early stages of reality but is becoming more likely as the years go on.  

Gartner notes that by 2023, 20% of industrial equipment manufactures will support Equipment as a Service with remote industrial IoT capabilities.  

Real-time sales analytics:  

Real-time sales analytics provide manufacturers with up-to-date information on their sales performance, including sales volume, revenue, and profit margins. This visibility helps manufacturers to identify trends, monitor performance against targets, and adjust their sales strategies as needed to achieve their goals. 

Bring sales reps up to speed faster: 

A resilient sales operation requires a strong sales team that is knowledgeable, motivated, and customer focused. Manufacturers should invest in training and development programs for their sales teams to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in today’s competitive market. 

Manufacturers must also make sure they can do more with less. With an average time of 3.2 months for new sales reps to get up to speed it’s important to deploy tools that can lessen the time to value for your sales team.  

When you free up your reps, they become more effective because they have more time to spend building impactful relationships with current customers, seeking new clients, and pursuing professional development. 

Build strong partnerships:  

Strong partnerships with distributors and other sales partners can help manufacturers to expand their market reach. By working with partners who have established relationships with customers in different regions or industries, manufacturers can access new markets and increase sales revenue. 

The ability of different stakeholders within the manufacturing ecosystem, such as suppliers, customers, and partners, to work together towards a common goal. Collaboration can be achieved using open communication channels, shared data, and collaborative decision-making processes. 

Risk Management: 

Manufacturing companies should identify and assess potential risks, develop contingency plans, and regularly review and update their risk management strategies. Manufacturers must consider multiple areas when assessing their risks: 

• Ensuring product quality 
• Supply chain 
• Compliance with regulations 
• Financial interests 

Supply Chain Management:  

Manufacturers should develop robust supply chain strategies, diversify their supplier base, and implement real-time monitoring to detect and respond to supply chain disruptions. Ensuring timely delivery, and efficient resource usage will help manufacturers stay profitable, and flexible even with constant supply chain challenges.  

Embrace digital technologies:  

Digital technologies such as Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software can help manufacturers create a more efficient and effective sales operation. By leveraging digital technologies, manufacturers can streamline their sales processes, reduce costs, and improve their ability to reach and engage with customers. 

How is CPQ helping create resilient sales for manufacturers?  

CPQ is a software solution that can help manufacturers create resilient sales operations by streamlining the sales process and improving accuracy and speed in creating quotes and proposals. Here are some key take aways on how CPQ is helping leading manufacturers optimize the sales process: 

Quicker turnaround times:  

Sales teams need to have speed and accuracy to work with fresh leads. CPQ helps sales teams create 100% accurate quotes the first time, making the customer experience a smooth process.  

Customized product offerings:  

Providing a personalized and custom fit product to customers’ requirements has always been a challenge for high-variance products. CPQ makes it easier than ever to configure products to meet the needs of each customer.  

Improved accuracy and consistency:  

Manufactures lose money, work hours and customer loyalty with inconsistencies in their quoting process. CPQ reduces these costly miscommunications by providing accurate quotes every time.  

Streamlined sales processes:  

The sales process can move quickly with CPQ by automating the manual tasks that have bogged down sales and engineering in the past. Generating quotes and proposals complete with changes is a smooth process.  

Better collaboration:  

The slow back and forth between sales, product and engineering teams can be eliminated because CPQ only offers configurable products for customers. Sales reps won’t have to worry about selling products that aren’t feasible while engineering can focus on bigger projects and customers.  

Improved forecasting: 

CPQ provides real-time visibility into the sales pipeline, enabling manufacturers to better forecast demand and manage inventory levels. 

Create resilient manufacturing operations with Tacton CPQ  

Resilient manufacturing is a critical component of a successful manufacturing operation. By being flexible, agile, and collaborative, manufacturing companies can better respond to any challenge they face.  

By implementing these strategies, manufacturing companies can achieve resilient operations that are better equipped to deal with the uncertainties of the modern business environment. 

Tacton CPQ is helping leading manufacturers become resilient by providing speed and accuracy in their quoting process. This creates a fast and exciting way for your reps to sell products and leaves customers happier than ever because they don’t have to wait days for quotes anymore.  

Chat with our experts to learn more about CPQ and resilient manufacturing!

Product Configurator Tools: ​​A Manufacturer’s Guide to Product Customization to Maximize Sales

Personalization is often discussed in ecommerce and retail, but every industry must provide customized experiences. It is more essential than traditional manufacturing. After all, the latest business statistics reveal that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that can provide this experience.

Your customers expect to craft complex products easily, so creating a self-serve purchasing experience makes sense. Incorporating Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software into your pipeline is an ideal starting point, but adding an online product configurator enables your suite to reach its full potential.

So, what is product configuration, and how can a product configurator tool benefit your manufacturing business?

What is a Product Configurator?

CPQ is a tool designed for the manufacturing industry to streamline ordering by providing accurate, error-free quoting for complex products.

This guided selling tool presents accurate quotes as customers select different options and benefits businesses by offering streamlined quoting and flexibility. On the other hand, product configurator software takes CPQ technology one step further by visually rendering customized products.

Configurator software can offer 2D, 3D, and even Augmented Reality (AR) visualization to give customers a complete 360-degree experience of their orders. Manufacturers seeking to provide high levels of customization and complex products offer customers the answers to questions like:

• What will my product look like after it’s been manufactured?
• Is this the product that’s right for my business?
• Will my order be viable for the manufacturer?
• Does this order fit into my budget?
• How do different options affect both the final product and its pricing?

The core advantage of including a configurator within CPQ solutions is that no human intervention is required on behalf of the manufacturer. Customers can answer their questions and receive accurate pricing without waiting for your sales team to contact your production and engineering teams to get back to them.

Types of Configurators

Most products are customizable, but as a manufacturer, you must consider product type, technical feasibility, and functionality when choosing a suitable configurator.

Today’s solutions are split into three categories:

• Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) – KBE configurators are used to design and build complex equipment under Configure-to-Order (CTO), Assembly-to-Order (ATO), and Engineer-to-Order (ETO) rules.
• ERP Modules – These configurator modules provide manufacturers with the data to benefit downstream processes.
• Visualization Solutions – Visualization is now a baseline requirement for the modern customer. At Tacton, you can incorporate your visualization solution into an existing site to let customers personalize and place their orders.

What Does a Product Configurator Do?

Product configurator software offers various features that fit in with your existing CPQ suite to enhance the purchasing experience. Over time, these tools have become more advanced, making purchasing, preparing technical documents, and avoiding quoting mistakes even simpler.

So what can you expect from a product configurator tool?

Transparent Pricing

All configurators aim to provide transparency to customers throughout the ordering process. Customers who choose from various options while building their products receive real-time quotes.

Customers control the project by updating the product’s price throughout the configuration process. Simultaneously, a flexible product engine ensures that whatever a customer creates is always viable for your manufacturing brand.

Provide a 360-Degree View

As manufacturers move to incorporate ever more complex products into their catalogs, customers themselves may need help to visualize what they are ordering. The risk of mistakes made by a loss of detail as salespeople coordinate with other teams can lead to dissatisfied customers and million-dollar mistakes.

With 23% of all downtime in manufacturing resulting from human error, simple mistakes during the sales process can cause severe disruption if your production lines need to shut down mid-run.

Configurators remove this risk by mimicking the experience of a retail store. Customers are sure of the product they are ordering. They know what it looks like. And the manufacturer has all the details required to make their vision a reality.

Educate Customers Throughout the Purchasing Process

Manufacturers shouldn’t assume that their buyers are informed about the manufacturing process and what goes into creating a product.

Adding product manufacturing software to your existing CPQ setup lets you provide the necessary information about each option to help them make their purchase. They can also pause their orders to liaise with their teams before returning to where they left off.

Furthermore, it helps to reduce the strain on your sales team because they no longer need to field repetitive questions about various product and manufacturing details.

Transform Orders into Solutions

Customers, agents, and partners may be unequipped with the technical knowledge required to convert an order into a technical solution. Within manufacturing, orders must come with 100% correct Bill-of-Material to create error-free products.

Our website product configurator automatically generates the technical documentation required for the engineering team to review and send an order into production. For example, if your group requires CAD documentation, the configurator will generate it after a customer confirms their order.

Validate the Finished Product

Finally, configurators can validate, simulate, and calculate products within an external system before presenting them for approval. Ensuring a product matches the performance expectations set by the customer is critical to maintaining long-term relationships with your buyers.

Validation also allows customers to recalibrate their products and offer updated pricing before giving the green light for production.

The Benefits of Using a Product Configurator Tool

Manufacturers are increasingly moving away from standardized product lines. Unfortunately, incorporating variation-rich products into your catalog places tremendous strain on every department and increases the risk of costly mistakes.

Configurators are designed to streamline the process of building a product while making your employees more effective at what they do. With a tool that can handle consumer and capital goods, manufacturers stand to gain from adding a configurator to their CPQ solutions.

So, what are the advantages of a web-based product configurator?

Handle Complex Products with Ease

Manufactured goods can have infinite variations ranging from colors to sizes and features. While minor customizations pose few problems, customers often expect to make substantial changes between the different models and editions they sell.

Thankfully, configurators can house thousands of variables without strain. Through the guided selling process, customers find it simple to build products from scratch that meet their needs.

Remember, your sales team may need to gain more familiarity with the technical side of your products, so they may need help to field in-depth queries on the product creation process. This isn’t a problem because the configurator provides customers with everything they need to build complicated products independently.

The Customer Gets What They Want

Ultimately, the goal of your manufacturing company is to give your buyers precisely what they want. A product configurator is the first step towards achieving full customer centricity

Exchanging information over the phone, email, or even in-person offers countless opportunities for miscommunication and misunderstanding. Unlike retail, resolving manufacturing mistakes cannot consist of returning the product and asking for another one from the storage room.

With a product configurator, you avoid costly mistakes because the customer designed the product. With 3D and AR visualizations, there is no room for misunderstandings.

It’s why a Harris poll revealed that businesses offering 3D/AR visualization saw 60% of consumers saying they were likelier to complete their orders. On the manufacturing side, configurators also account for technical viability and the materials you have available because they’re receiving real-time information from the rest of your business.

Reduce Lead Time

Lead time measures the time it takes to create customer quotes, receive a response, take payment, and launch the production process.

Time is critical in a sales environment, with fast responders winning 50% of all sales. However, if your sales team is being crushed or you are doing business in multiple time zones, acting quickly is easier said than done.

Product configurators are a tool that forms part of the automation revolution. Automating the quote-to-production process lowers your lead time because the configurator already has the data required to process an order.

Make Your Sales Team More Effective

Manufacturing sales teams often have to pass customer queries to other employees. When dealing with complex products, engineering teams may need to be called directly to provide answers, which takes time. It’s a reality that lends itself to an 85% prospect on-the-phone dissatisfaction rate among businesses.

Unfortunately, short of hiring engineers and production managers to act as your sales team, there’s no way around this with legacy solutions. Instead, our configurator solutions support your sales team because it already has the information to inform and educate your customers.

Moreover, if your agents need to call in an expert, data from the configurator can be submitted directly to relevant personnel, allowing them to provide an informed response.

Free Up Your Agents

Answering questions, requesting technical documents, and providing updated quotes are tasks your sales team handles instead of building customer relationships.

The problem is that your sales team should spend more time selling. These routine tasks take away from that time and make your sales department less effective at targeting prospects and turning them into paying customers.

By using a product configurator tool, sales teams automate much of the purchasing process and enhance the customer experience while freeing themselves to focus on other essential tasks.

Automate the Purchasing Process

Did you know that 60% of customers prefer automated self-service for simple tasks?

While a segment of your customers may want to speak to one of your sales reps, many avoid picking up the phone to place an order. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that many customers find these interactions tedious, time-consuming, and ineffective.

This is why one of the most significant benefits of a product configurator tool is that your customers can design their products without your help. They can get creatively invested in their products as part of an enjoyable experience that allows them to create, design, and change their orders 24/7.

Easy Third-Party Integration

At Tacton, we offer a configurator that pairs with our premier CPQ solution. However, you may be worried about integrations if you’re already using other tools to improve the customer experience and support the purchasing process.

Most configurators can integrate easily with third-party software and even entire purchasing platforms. If you’ve already created a digital manufacturing platform, you can attach your configurator to manage inventory and stock lines simultaneously.

With manufacturing solutions like Tacton, including built-in product configurators, integration worries are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Optimize Your Business with CPQ Solutions from Tacton Systems

Product configurators are designed to form part of an industry-leading CPQ solution that improves every aspect of the sales, purchasing, and production processes.

By removing errors, providing transparent quotes, and reducing lead times, you empower your customers to place their orders independently. If you’re ready to enhance your digital transformation, now is the time.

Reducing Manufacturing Errors: The Ultimate Guide

Manufacturing errors are potentially million-dollar mistakes. According to a study of the top 72 multinational industrial manufacturers, the average cost of downtime was $532,000 an hour. And over the course of the year, these manufacturers lost $1 trillion in manufacturing failures.

Errors can happen for many reasons, and the high cost makes it in your best interest to do everything you can to avoid them. CPQ software is just one way to prevent production errors.

In this guide, you will learn about the most common types of errors in manufacturing and how to reduce them.

Common Errors in Manufacturing

Reducing manufacturing errors begins by understanding the most common mistakes. Unfortunately, the complexity of modern manufacturing processes makes it challenging to identify where things need to be fixed. But manufacturing errors should not and do not need to be built into your financial projections for the year.

First, here’s a brief rundown of the most common problems your business can come up against.

• Misquoting – Your margins can take a hit by quoting the wrong price to a customer. While this can be updated, it risks upsetting the customer, meaning most companies will choose to honor the original quote.
• Wrong Documents – Supplying incorrect documentation to the engineering and production departments can lead to products with the wrong specifications.
• Human Error – Human errors at every stage of the manufacturing cycle can ruin production and lead to costly mistakes. An estimated 26% of all errors have been attributed to human error.
• Order Processing – Figuring out how can we reduce order processing errors will prevent delays or incorrect orders from being produced.
• Damaged Machinery – Machinery breakdowns can be catastrophic, leading to the complete breakdown of production. The causes of this manufacturing problem could relate to human error, a lack of maintenance, outdated machinery, using the wrong materials, or inputting incorrect information.

These are just a taste of what can cause problems for industrial manufacturers. Even the most straightforward issue could lead to devastation. So, it’s in every manufacturer’s interest to invest in solutions that lend themselves to mitigating the risk inherent within every order.

How to Reduce Manufacturing Errors

Reducing manufacturing errors begins by examining your current processes and keeping track of every event. Pinpointing the cause of every problem can provide you with more information on areas where you need to improve.

However, innovative companies take a proactive approach to reducing errors. Here’s a guide to addressing the most common manufacturing problems before they happen.

Invest in Human Error Solutions

Every business has its weaknesses. The problem is that many companies need to be aware of where these weaknesses lie, even when ruthlessly exposed during the hustle and bustle of day-to-day business.

Equipping your senior management team with business intelligence will enable you to point your organization in the right direction. That makes hiring a company specializing in uncovering and addressing these errors an investment worth making.

A consultant can explore every aspect of your operation, review previous events, and make targeted recommendations for where you need to catch up. Instead of taking the time to self-audit, a fresh pair of eyes can yield insights that help you to plan for the future.

Enhance Your Communication

Communication across every department will enable you to perform to a higher standard. For example, if your sales and engineering teams exist within siloes, this is a problem. Not reading from the same playbook means that your production team might be guessing what the customer wants if your sales team isn’t sharing pertinent information.

Production errors in manufacturing could result from a simple problem of your sales team not sharing information directly from the customer or the department not having a firm grasp of what’s viable. CPQ solutions can help to streamline your communication channels by providing one-click distribution of automatically generated documents like CAD papers.

Reduce Inaccuracies During the Customer Lifecycle

Inaccuracies can arise at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Processes must be accurate, available, and enforceable, which all goes back to data.

For example, your salesperson may have provided an incorrect quote to a customer. Alternatively, they may have failed to communicate any special requirements to the production team.

Whatever the problem, the result will be lost dollars, dissatisfied customers, and a reduced lifetime customer value. And 91% of customers say they would not willingly do business with a company that dissatisfied them.

CPQ software can play a vital role in preventing these problems through its advanced constraints-based engine. Your sales agents can produce instant, accurate quotes based on set parameters and then communicate this information to every part of your company.

It essentially sidelines the human aspect, leaving no room for mistakes, regardless of an employee’s proficiency or competence.

Address Product Misunderstandings

Mass-produced standardized products are fast becoming a thing of the past. Today’s manufacturing clients demand products customized to their needs. From the manufacturer’s point of view, these new demands enhance the complexity of the process, leading to even more opportunities for misunderstandings and mistakes.

For example, a customer may communicate their desires, but they need to be adequately incorporated into the production documents. Likewise, the customer may ask for a product that doesn’t meet their needs.

Manufacturers can counter these problems by allowing customers access to a self-service platform to help in reducing order errors.

Tacton’s CPQ software offers 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) visualizations to empower customers during the order process. With these features, customers can build their products, get precise technical specifications, and review their orders from every angle before finalizing them.

This approach ensures buyers and sellers know what they ordered before a concept goes into production.

Invest in Training

Training at every level is required to make your team more competent and address production errors in manufacturing.

With one in four errors resulting from a human mistake at some stage, investing in both ongoing professional development and refresher courses for personnel can target a range of problem areas, including:

• Sales
• Engineering
• Production
• Post-production
• Delivery

But what makes an effective training scheme for the manufacturing sector?

Impactful training begins with the “what” and the “how,” but it should address the “why” as part of both classroom and on-the-job training and certification. Within manufacturing, the human aspect cannot be entirely replaced by technology, making relevant and lasting training regimes a core part of your operations.

Launch Your Digital Transformation

Manufacturing operations have never been more technologically advanced. Today’s precision engineering requirements demand the incorporation of next-generation technologies, including automation and AI, to fulfill customers’ needs.

But what does it mean to digitally transform your manufacturing facilities?

Digital transformation must occur throughout every part of your organization. It cannot be confined to investing in more advanced production machinery. Instead, it has to include document control, data management, communication, management processes, and supervision.

Most manufacturing facilities now use CPQ software because of how far it can extend throughout an organization. Although the essential tools focus exclusively on the instant quoting feature, Tacton offers a variety of add-ons that can address other manufacturer-specific areas, such as:

• Omnichannel sales
• Integration
• Analytics
• Visualization
• CAD automation

In other words, innovative solutions can take advantage of state-of-the-art systems to provide more oversight and reduce the human element.

Evaluate Individual Performance

Your top performers will remain superstars even as technology significantly reduces manufacturing errors and produces better customer outcomes. Technology is there to make your employees more effective rather than replace them.

Evaluating individual performance requires in-depth data to provide your management team with the information needed to identify areas for improvement.

Knowing what each employee is doing, how they are doing it, and whether they are maintaining your compliance is crucial to avoid errors that could lead to thousands of dollars in losses. And various tools exist to provide greater transparency, including CPQ software.

Reduce Manufacturing Errors with Tacton

The most significant mistake manufacturers make is assuming all errors begin in the factory and production lines. Errors can happen as early as the conversation between your sales rep and the customer.

Overall change begins with solutions that take an end-to-end approach. At Tacton Systems, we have supported the world’s leading multinational manufacturers in transforming how they do business. 

With our innovative CPQ software, we can provide your company with a suite of tools that mitigate human error, streamline communication, and better the customer experience. Discover the power of industrial manufacturing CPQ solutions by 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) visualizations now.