The Client
Chief Fabrication is one of the largest operations of its kind between Chicago and Denver, offering such steel fabrication services as stamping, welding, CNC punching, and CNC forming to manufacturers throughout the Midwest. It also offers one of the most state-of-the-art powder coating facilities in the United States. Chief Fabrication offers multiple shift operations and industry-leading fabrication technologies including programmable CNC equipment.
The Problem
Over the years, Chief Fabrication using a litany of different estimating methods, including their ERP quote module, numerous formulas, Excel spreadsheets, along with on the job tribal knowledge. None of them met the challenge of being able get accurate quotes out in the least amount of time. According to Engineering Services Manager Kim Fandry, the company's goal is "to be a one day turn around on RFQ's."
How Costimator Helped
Chief Fabrication implemented Costimator in 2007. "For the most part, we can meet our goal and complete one day quote turnarounds with Costimator," says Fandry, who also attributes their purchase of the product to the fact that the Costimator system fit Chief's needs like a glove. "It fit our industry of being a custom fabrication supplier more so than a lot of other estimating software that we were looking for at the time. We did not change what we were doing as a company, we just streamlined our estimating and maximized our process to what benefits that Costimator provides."
Looking to the future, Fandry indicated that the company plans to "integrate Costimator with our ERP system so that we can streamline our quoting process even more."
Estimating Software
