If you are like most metal plating, powder coating, and surface finishing shops, you are taking a stab at the approximate cost per job. These “educated guesses” are often inaccurate representations of the actual cost of the job. When you piece together the cost for misquoting, rework, lot sizes, line changeovers and more, the risk of unstable profit margins continues to climb.
It’s good practice to think of job cost insights as a television with a strong signal. Without a routine job costing strategy in place, you are operating a brick of a TV without an antenna and an indistinguishable image of your costs per work order. In between each flicker of static, you can lose tens of thousands, month over month, without even realizing it.
One job shop we have been working with was shocked when we uncovered significant areas of wasted spending. They were undercharging their customers, but with the help of Steelhead…
- They used actual plant data to adjust time estimates on masking and packaging, improving the accuracy of future quotes.
- They reviewed jobs with negative margins and re-quoted subsequent runs to achieve target margins that made sense.
- They examined job cost data on small jobs and adjusted the minimum job pricing accordingly to make it affordable for their customers.
- They discovered optimal quantities for parts, worked with customers to identify target quantities to maintain customer piece cost, and simultaneously hit target margins.
They then saw their net profit margin quickly climb from 5% to 35% because they are now able to track work orders accordingly in a digital interface and regularly review these costs. With automated job costing features you can:
- Boost profits with actionable insights which means no more money wasted on jobs that are costing more than your price.
- With full production transparency and automation, you can shift your focus to sales and marketing to see your job shop grow.
- Improve customer satisfaction when your customers better understand pricing. They want the best price for them too, pushing affordability and quality.
Not only will a crystal-clear picture of your plant drive profit, but it will also cut costs and save time. Your team can eliminate paper, phone calls, and walk around the plant to determine basic information. When customers call to review past processing information, you can provide it in mere seconds. Time spent building reports is now completely gone, with custom reports in real-time that you can even offer customers for full visibility.
With a clear picture of your operations, you can identify problems before they start, proactively. Hours spent reworking orders and chasing parts will be replaced with onboarding new clients and increasing revenue.
Steelhead is a customizable platform built to match your job shop’s operations, not the other way around. Reach out today for a no-obligation plant management consultation.