Timberlane shutters their quoting tool to handle 95 of their custom requests
“Learn and use this platform. It will turn your company around.”
Timberlane produces custom exterior shutters and is renowned for exceptional quality and customization capabilities available in a variety of high-quality, high-performance materials, including both wood and synthetics. There are no stock sizes or configurations; all Timberlane shutters are custom-made and built to 1/8” exacting specifications at Timberlane’s manufacturing facility in the USA.
The challenges
Square peg, round hole technology
Since the mid-90s, Timberlane had been using an in-house quoting tool that was modified from a cabinet-making shop’s software solution. They were able to customize the software in order to design their shutters, but it couldn’t pull off certain things specific to their products. Errors were introduced since they couldn’t update or maintain their product options.
A non-integrated approach
Timberlane also had a home-grown, online configurator, available to their sales team via an internal web page. It could serve up basic options for their shutters, but it didn’t carry through to their engineering and manufacturing side of the business. They knew that they needed a complete, end-to-end process.
They ultimately wanted to integrate their engineering knowledge with a user-friendly and web-facing tool that could start with a customer order entry and continue all the way through manufacturing.
The Solution
Timberlane deployed a visual CPQ selling tool that feeds manufacturing
Strong champions
Timberlane empowered a small team of internal stakeholders, consisting of a manufacturing leader and an engineering draftsman. They provided top-down knowledge to the Epicor CPQ project team about their entire process; From orders and accounting, to manufacturing and shipping. This team knew exactly how materials came in, how their products were sold, all the options available, and ultimately how they were manufactured.
Timberlane’s internal team relayed their robust requirements to the Epicor CPQ implementation team who used the information to design and launch a visual product configurator that they could maintain through a user-friendly admin and rules engine.
Quick adoption
Their internal sales reps immediately started using the configurator. They can only select valid product options when setting up an order. As the shutter is finalized, 2D renderings are automatically generated to support their manufacturing operations, supported with data like Bill of Materials, work instructions, the machines necessary for manufacturing, and even defining the workstations that will be used for that particular order.
Their team is continuously building and trying new things with the platform. The cloud-based platform allows them to enjoy simple maintenance and enhancements, rather than the pain of upgrades and migrations felt by a custom solution.
The Benefits
Epicor CPQ has transformed how Timberlane sells and manufactures
Streamlined operations
Timberlane was able to completely automate their customer order entry process and work order creation process in just six months. The team has dramatically reduced the drafting time required to finalize quotes.
No more errors
Every order is now generated 100% accurately – replacing Timberlane’s old, home-grown, customized software that allowed for incompatible product options.
Simplified internal control
With Epicor CPQ Snap, the team is able to easily maintain and extend their product configurator themselves. They added an entirely new product line of aluminum shutters and introduced inventory integration with their ERP.
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