CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
17 November 2004
Product News
SolidWorks Introduces First-of-its-Kind Price-Quoting Service for SolidWorks Users
SolidWorks Corporation today announced a unique price-quoting service to help its customers more efficiently do business with fellow users of SolidWorks® 3D mechanical design software.
The SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service is powered by MfgQuote , the leading online RFQ service for the manufacturing industry. The new service connects buyers of manufacturing services - including mechanical design, machining, mold making, rapid prototyping, and finite element analysis - with suppliers of these services while facilitating the collaboration, quoting, due diligence, and analysis processes. The SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service is tailored exclusively for the SolidWorks community and enables purchasing agents to automatically send requests for quotations (RFQs) to suppliers they discover on the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network, a free business to-business online directory for design and manufacturing services.
Purchasing agents and engineers who want a price quote for these services from multiple vendors can now do so from within the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network. The prospective buyer simply clicks a check box next to a Network Partner's name. By selecting all suppliers that meet the buyer's qualifications, the buyer can quickly disseminate the RFQs in a far more efficient, accurate, convenient approach than has ever been possible. This new process is powered by MfgQuote tools customized specifically for SolidWorks Corporation.
Elesys Inc., a leading vendor of equipment that uniquely combines the CD and DVD burning and printing processes, has used MfgQuote.com more than 50 times to find parts suppliers for its patented "radial printing" devices. Elesys' first product incorporated 20 parts, sourced through MfgQuote, and came together in only two months - or half the time it would have taken without MfgQuote and at half the cost as well, according to Thomas Lugaresi, senior product development engineer for the Sunnyvale, Calif., company.
"My company has been able to more quickly and affordably move higher-quality products to market by using the MfgQuote service to find partners who were the perfect match for the work we needed," Lugaresi said. "Having MfgQuote capabilities integrated into the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network means we now have the option of combining the efficiencies of an automated RFQ process with the efficiencies of working with a fellow SolidWorks user. This can only strengthen the SolidWorks community and every engineer or OEM hoping to get more accomplished in less time."
The combination of the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network and the MfgQuote custom manufacturing marketplace has created the largest "digital factory" in the world. The system provides secure online tools to:
• quickly create standardized RFQs;
• attach computer-aided design (CAD) files and specifications;
• collaborate with suppliers;
• receive quotes;
• evaluate quotes; and
• make informed decisions.
Suppliers are provided with a quote wizard to respond to the RFQs they receive via the Network. They use other MfgQuote tools to perform real-time due diligence on potential clients, giving them access to reliable new leads.
Working with suppliers who use SolidWorks software eliminates the need to translate a CAD design from one format to another. This saves SolidWorks customers the time, cost, errors, and uncertainty of translation, or requiring the supplier to recreate the entire design from scratch.
"No one in the mechanical design software industry has done more than SolidWorks to bring users together and build a community whose value grows exponentially as the community grows," said Mitch Free, president and CEO of MfgQuote Inc. "Bringing our service to the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network adds hundreds of experienced suppliers to our supplier community, compounding the 'network effect' to the benefit of all involved."
Participation in the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Quoting Service is free for all SolidWorks Manufacturing Network Partners, including suppliers. Nearly 300 suppliers have already signed up for the free service. Other Network Partners can enroll by e-mailing MFGNetwork@solidworks.com. If suppliers wish to go beyond the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network to gain visibility to all buyers in the MfgQuote system, they can join MfgQuote and pay the standard subscription fee.
"The SolidWorks Manufacturing Network has been bringing together buyers and suppliers within the SolidWorks community for the past 18 months. We are pleased to join forces with MfgQuote to offer this new quoting service at no charge to our customers," said Robert McGill, SolidWorks director of business alliances. "Its automated approach helps our customers bring better products to market faster. By leveraging the leading online RFQ service in the industry, we have assembled the largest custom design and manufacturing 'online service bureau.' This is yet another example of the value of belonging to the SolidWorks community."
Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.
Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.
CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.