Swope Design Solutions Cuts Quoting Times by 95% with AMFG                        

“One big appeal of having AMFG [...] is that it standardizes the process so that it is not partial to who's doing the quoting, which gives us the same starting point for every job. We can still tweak it based on our personal input or experience, but it helps us create consistently priced quotes more quickly." Jason Pfund, Swope Design Solutions.

Swope Design Solutions is a mechanical engineering product design firm based in San Francisco that guides clients from concept development through production. The company serves a variety of industries including medical devices, automation, robotics, and consumer products. Swope’s facilities include an in-house prototyping lab and machine shop which boasts 3 different CNC machines including a 5-axis mill as well as industrial SLA 3D printing and in-house silicone transfer molding.

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Swope Design Solutions is able to deliver state-of-the-art products on tight deadlines that exceed clients’ expectations using their refined process of rapid hands-on prototyping with in-house production equipment. To maintain this high level of service, Swope knew that it needed a software solution to speed up its processes. Here’s how AMFG took Swope from quoting in days to minutes.

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The Problem: Meeting Customer Demand for Quick Quotation

Prior to implementing AMFG, Swope Design Solutions used a manual quoting system which involved a lengthy back and forth via email or over the phone. As Jason Pfund, Senior Mechanical Engineer at Swope explained, “We’re working with AMFG to make it easy for people to get quotes and do so in an automated way. People can be averse to having to call or email someone and wait for a response and they'd rather just see the price and be able to proceed without having an intermediary in there to slow things down.

“We’re trying to make it easier and more inviting for people to reach out to us with their jobs and get a quick turnaround. With CNC machined parts, it can be more complex and there's potentially even more back and forth than just a one-day turnaround. We’re really trying to help our clients increase the speed of their projects.”

When AMFG reached out, it was the perfect opportunity for Swope to automate their quoting processes.

The Solution: AMFG’s Rapid Quotation Tool

As Jason explained, quoting for machined parts can be complex and time-consuming but since AMFG takes into account their current quoting logic, the time savings are significant. Another major benefit of AMFG is achieving consistency when quoting for jobs. As Jason put it, “We draw on personal experience when building quotes. If you ask me, you're going to get a different answer than if you ask the person who sits next to me. She's also very familiar with the processes, but she has a different idea of how long something might take. If you get me to quote it, you'll get a different number than if you get her to quote it. So one big appeal of having AMFG do it is that it standardizes the process so that it is not partial to who's doing the quoting, which gives us the same starting point for every job. We can still tweak it based on our personal input or experience, but it helps us create consistently priced quotes more quickly.”

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The Result: An Opportunity to Focus More Time on Design Work

With a smaller team like Swope, it’s crucial to ensure that each person’s time is used as effectively as possible. Freeing up time spent on quoting allows Jason and his colleagues to continue to grow the company. According to Jason, “We're a small team; we only have about 18 full-time people and 15 of those are mechanical engineers. As someone who also runs technical projects, I have lots of things that require my attention. I do the quoting because it's something that our business needs and I have experience with running those machines, however, if I can save time on the quoting process then I can focus my attention on other high-value tasks for our clients. We don't have a dedicated sales team or quoting department and so we have to fulfil many different roles. If a tool like AMFG saves me an hour or two or 20 in a week, depending on how many quotes come in, that's a big deal and would let me focus on other ways that I can help our clients with their project work.”

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For more information, please visit www.amfg.ai or contact: press@amfg.ai