Manufacturers selling configurable products face numerous challenges, from the consumer demand for complex customization to the complexities of accurate pricing and discount calculations. Manual preparation of custom design, quotes, and technical documentation is slow and open to errors, and managing approvals and order progress can be time-consuming. CPQ for manufacturing solutions help companies design, sell, and manufacture complex configurable products accurately and efficiently.
What is CPQ for manufacturing?
Configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions enable users to accurately configure custom products, calculate pricing and discounts, and automatically create sales documents. Standard CPQ is often used for consumer products, but the demands of configuring complex configurable products with custom manufacturing data usually require more functionality than standard CPQ can deliver.
For manufacturers to fully benefit from CPQ, they need an even smarter solution.
CPQ for manufacturing is a digital solution that enables manufacturers to manage complex product configurations, pricing strategies, and quoting processes. CPQ for manufacturing includes all the features of standard CPQ solutions, plus it also automatically creates the documents and data required for manufacturing.
DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing solution
DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing solution enables manufacturers to build a configure, price, and quote solution to configure, design, sell, and produce custom products faster and with greater accuracy.
Product configuration & guided selling
- Guided selling ensures valid product configurations
- Helps customers understand different options and features
- Guarantees valid configurations that can be manufactured
3D visualization
- Communicates complex design details effectively
- Enhances customer experience and reduces the likelihood of design revisions
Pricing & discounts
- Real-time pricing updates as options are configured
- Simplifies the complex process of calculating pricing and discounts
Sales documents
- Automatically generates quotes and sales documents based on configuration choices
- Reduces manual work and minimizes errors in the quoting process
Manufacturing documents & data
- Integrates with SOLIDWORKS to automatically create technical documents and manufacturing data
- Frees up design engineering resources for other higher value tasks
Integration
- Integrates with other business systems to ensure a single source of truth for all product and customer data
- Integrates with your ecommerce platform to maximize sales
Why choose DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing solution?
DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing solution is used by manufacturers from a range of industries. Because DriveWorks technology is modular, scalable, and incredibly versatile, customers use the technology in many different ways, building CPQ solutions to suit the needs of their businesses.
Manufacturers using DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing have achieved 50% faster sales onboarding, 95% faster quoting and a 75% increase in productivity.
Streamlined product configuration
DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing enables manufacturers to easily configure complex, custom products by guiding sales teams and customers through predefined rules and options. This ensures the correct specifications are chosen, balancing customer needs and manufacturing constraints. This streamlined product configuration makes it easier to generate online and offline sales. Self-serve customers can configure products themselves online, and sales teams and distributors can manage complex configurations accurately.
Faster quotes
With DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing, manufacturers automatically generate accurate quotes quickly, removing the potential errors and time-consuming manual effort involved in producing quotes for custom products. Shorter quote cycles enable businesses to stay ahead of the competition and improve sales conversion rates.
Improved accuracy
By automating the design workflow, configuration and pricing, DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing minimizes errors and ensures that quotes and pricing are consistent and compliant with business rules.
Better customer experience
The guided selling functionality of DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing enables sales teams and distributors to provide personalized solutions quickly and accurately. Customers get the product specification they want, with clear and accurate pricing, in less time. 3D visualization helps to communicate complex design details easily, enabling customers to understand product options as they configure. Not only does this improve the user experience, but it also reduces the likelihood of design revisions.
Automatic BOM generation
DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing automatically generates an accurate BOM for each custom product configuration. This ensures all required parts and materials are included, helping to streamline the manufacturing process, reduce errors, and optimize inventory management.
Scalability
As your business grows, DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing solution can easily scale to accommodate an increasing number of products and configurations, without disrupting your design or sales processes.
Sales process is cut down from days and weeks to minutes and hours
Dolphin Solutions, based in the UK, designs and supplies a range of products and accessories for commercial washrooms. Before implementing DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing technology, Dolphin Solution’s order process was lengthy and time-consuming with each individual bespoke mirror unit and associated production files, designed manually from scratch using SOLIDWORKS®. This involved a lot of dialogue between the sales team and design team.
The sales team can now take the configurator tool directly to customers on laptops and tablets that display configurable product options. Using DriveWorks rules-based technology, only manufacturable options are shown to customers, eliminating costly errors in the manufacturing process. Orders can be submitted straight to the design team. When a customer has submitted a specification, their details are captured and given a unique specification ID. This enables Dolphin to track orders and assign the ID to the customer’s project. Dolphin have created an online configurator that is easy to use, has all the relevant information, and is aesthetically pleasing. They used DriveWorks to create forms that guide the customer through the configuration process, with relevant tips and information throughout.
Every time a new specification is generated, DriveWorks and SOLIDWORKS work together to automatically create a brand new drawing for each specification, ready to be sent to the manufacturing floor. An email alert is also triggered when a specification is complete, automatically sending an email to the sales and marketing teams, with information including the customer name, email, phone number, and company. The customer also receives an email confirming their order.
“The days and weeks are cut down to minutes and hours, because our customers are finding their final design much quicker. They can see all their options and the drawings are generated automatically.”
Robert Allen, Product Design Engineer at Dolphin Solutions
Book a CPQ demo with a DriveWorks expert today
Manufacturing custom products doesn’t have to be complicated. DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing enables you to make selling easier, reduce errors, and improve efficiency.
Take advantage of the wealth of experience in the DriveWorks team and book a CPQ for manufacturing demo with a DriveWorks expert. They’ll help you get under the hood of different DriveWorks technology features, enabling you to identify and focus on the software capabilities that align with your business requirements. They can guide you through practical applications and explain advanced features in a way that enables you to see how the technology could enable you to implement your own DriveWorks CPQ for manufacturing solution.