Engagement Result
Company: Aerospace Component Manufacturer II
Industry: Aerospace & Defense
Project: Improve RFQ Response Time & Sales Effectiveness
Size: 500 employees
Expertise: Process Assessment & Operational Improvement
Actions: The assessment of the Company's RFQ process identified lengthy delays caused by isolated departmental “fiefdoms”. Each department focused on its own day-to-day problems with insufficient consideration given to an efficient, highly coordinated process for responding to quotes.
MainStream GS engaged various departments in a manner that allowed them to understand the need for reducing the quote process time to increase sales. A cross-departmental Business Process Improvement (BPI) team was formed to map the current state of the quote process. Once completed, MainStream GS created a walk-through process to determine the factors interfering with a quick response to RFQs. Working with the team, MainStream GS identified obstacles and made recommendations on operational improvement processes to reduce time and keep the processes moving toward completion in a timely manner.
Assignment: The Company was responding to a large number of requests for quotes (RFQs), but was not successful in turning the RFQs into orders. The Company was slow turning around quotes and as a result many times the customers were making purchase decisions before the Company was able to respond with their quote. The Company was losing to competitors who had higher prices and longer delivery times because of the Company’s own inefficiency in responding to client RFQs. MainStream GS was engaged to conduct an assessment on the Company’s current RFQ process and to implement performance improvement initiatives to streamline and enhance the Company’s RFQ process.
Results: After testing several variations of possible processes, the BPI team implemented a process that met each department’s individual concerns but also met the Company objective for improved response time. Overall, the response time for RFQs was reduced by 75%. Errors associated with the quotes - another problem identified during the mapping process - decreased by 95%. The sales effectiveness of the organization increased by 50%.