Project-based Manufacturers Often Lose Track of Project Profitability

According to Stephen Carson, Executive Vice-President of Visibility Corporation, “The ETO business process begins with the Request-for-Proposal. The preliminary work leading to the proposal generation is considerable and requires the interaction of many departments such as, internal engineering, estimating, sales, design, and production. Together they need to effectively collaborate to generate a substantial, yet cost effective proposal and quote. The project timeframe can be 6-8 months for proposal generation and production may extend beyond a year.” 

Engineer-to-Order Manufacturers face several key challenges that distinguish them from repetitive manufacturers including: 

• Complex engineering design changes  
• Lengthy pre-proposal design work  
• Considerable engineering collaboration  
• Inadequate cost capture  
• Poor tool sets for analyzing project profitability 

Many ETO manufacturers current MRP system consists of traditional standard cost, period-based accounting and did not provide for the administration of costly, complex, multi-year projects. Without improvement on the front end process and accurate collection of project costs, there is little hope for profitable growth. 

Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility's Enterprise Application solutions help midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively.  

VISIBILITY.net is an integrated ERP solution and more. Offering unparalleled functionality and integrated workflow, this browser-based solution cost effectively delivers the power of .NET-based Web services for use with either a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any time, any where is a reality, deployable with unprecedented flexibility. 

Visibility

www.visibility.com

Jaclyn Aldrich

978-694-8000