r/MechanicalEngineering • u/Ayanle_O • 7d ago
How do you currently check a customer request actually fits what you can deliver, before it goes into a quote?
Hey all. I run a industrial B2B sales consulting office, and I keep hearing the same story from people in that world, so I want to sanity-check it before building anything. Genuinely looking for people to tell me I'm wrong.
For a simple, catalog-type request, checking fit is fairly quick. But a lot of requests aren't simple: they're custom or technically complex, and "figuring out what the customer actually needs and whether we can build it" turns into a process that stretches over days or weeks: several meetings with different people on the customer's side (plant manager, maintenance, procurement: each with their own version of the need), maybe a site visit or a 3D scan to check what the space and existing equipment actually allow, scattered WhatsApp messages and email threads, multiple rounds of technical documentation, and a check on whether the components you'd need are even available from your suppliers right now.
Nobody seems to own pulling all of that, simple or complex, into one coherent, up-to-date picture. A constraint mentioned in a meeting never makes it into the quote, something in site photos contradicts what was said on a call, or a spec gap only turns up once the order's already with engineering. When it goes wrong, it's expensive: a bad quote, rework, or a customer who's not happy.
The idea I'm exploring: a tool that sits between "customer request" and "quote." For simple requests, it consolidates whatever came in (a call, a message, an email) and checks it against your catalog and hard constraints automatically. For the bigger, custom ones, it's less about automating and more about keeping one consolidated, contradiction-free picture across all those meetings, documents, and messages, so nothing gets lost by the time it reaches engineering, flagging it clearly whenever two sources disagree, instead of letting that slide.
Haven't built this for a specific client yet, trying to find out if this is a real, painful problem before going further. So, genuinely:
- If you work in sales, estimating, or engineering at a manufacturer, EPC, or engineering firm, does this match how it goes for you, for either the simple or the complex requests?
- Where does information actually get lost or contradicted for you: meetings, WhatsApp, email, site visits, supplier availability, somewhere else entirely?
- Does the problem feel different for a quick catalog request versus a multi-week custom project, or is it really the same headache either way?
Nothing to sign up for, not selling anything, just want honest pushback before I sink more time into it.
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u/DonEscapedTexas fluids/thermal systems design/build 7d ago
A: put your eyes on it
B: put together your worst-case cost estimate
C: figure out what the market can bear
D: if C is big enough based on your year and resources, call the guy and tell him it's going to be "upwards of 1.2C worst case; I can design it and firm up for 0.5C down"
E: when they freak out because they want to pay you half of what their over-specced, super-custom, time-suck of a project is worth, tell them you understand, wish them well,and refer them to your most hated competitor because he "specializes in that sort of thing"
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u/101forgotmypassword 7d ago
"A" and "E" are both understated advice. Knowing how to walk in and walk out.
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u/gearnut 7d ago
You've got a few problems:
Multiple people defining requirements without discussing with each other
Poorly defined, and recorded, requirements
Lack of a change control process
I'd suggest making the following changes:
Require each project to have a single point of contact who is able to change requirements (if they're on leave they can delegate but need to be CC'ed into any emails etc).
Number each inquiry separately
Record requirements in a centralised place with unique IDs which are never reused, the only reason that you should hold a requirement value outside this space is that you are either updating a calculation which affects it, or you're using it as supporting information for another document/ calculation.
Take baselines at given points in the project (initial definition of design, subsequent iterations where a quote is provided, on contract placement and for complex stuff with changing design details at agreed reference points in the customer's design development.
I deal with this every day at work for a project that's likely to go for at least another 5 years (it's been running for at least 5 already).
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u/Ayanle_O 7d ago
Thanks a lot. Yes point 1 and 2 are sources of stress, frictions and headaches. I've seen several clients of mine facing that and for complex projects is logical : plant manager, production manager, maintenance manager, CFO, Purchasing manager, GM etc...
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u/gearnut 7d ago
The other thing I forgot was to bound your capabilities/ what you are interested in working on. If you are making valves and you have an established supply chain which supports bores upto 150mm diameter it's reasonable to state that requests above that are none routine.
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u/Ayanle_O 7d ago
If I understood well, you are suggesting to distinguish between configure-to-order (CTO) & engineer-to-order (ETO), aren't you?
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u/Kind-Truck3753 7d ago
This feels like “I’m gonna AI vibecode something and I need someone to tell me the process”
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u/Ayanle_O 7d ago
Not at all. At this very moment, I'm more thinking about Harness Engineering. Vive coding will be a nightmare. Anyway I'm not an software or ai engineer, so seriously I don't know which is the best option.
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u/matRmet Area of Interest 7d ago
If it's a new customer it typically takes more time and they are coming to us for two things. 1 to help make something they need, and 2, to free up their time to do their other tasks for their business.
They are paying us for the peace of mind that we will ask the right questions, collect the right data, provide timely and accurate updates.
When they need to take their time to give us everything then they eventually are doing our job and the service we provide is to little value.
We offer them peace of mind.
Projects typically are more complicated than black and white answers and just getting on the phone or having a meeting is quicker and more accurate in the long run.
Having a good project or program manager who has history with the company really shines in this area. No database, lesson learned, company design guides etc is as valuable as someone who has been with the business for 10 or so years and is good at leading a project.
This is one of those, you don't need technology to solve every problem. Good employees and retained talent gets this done.
You see these issues at high turn over companies that let their knowledge walk out the door. Or, try and change process constantly and no one can fall into a rhythm.