We’ve been talking about words the last few weeks. First, we started with “my word” – as in giving my word, or oh dear! Then, we moved over to your word – how do you keep your word to your customers and your team?
Today, we land right in the middle: our word.
At CIMx, when we give our word, we mean it. We want to be the group that tells you we’re going to do something, and we do it. No gimmicks. No hidden phrases. Just follow-through.
production operations: the cost of errors on the shop floor
In the manufacturing business, we see you “eat the cost” when you have overruns. When you cut a tube too short or drill a hole too big or something goes awry, it’s your team – your budget – that pays. Time, materials, and personnel hours are all impacted. Even one error affects your timeline and adds pressure to every other job in progress, every promise to a customer.
In the world of software, the landscape should be different, but often, it’s worse. Up-scoping is seen as a regular cost of business. Teams underbid the work and take advantage of project change forms to cover the gap. Some even promise the moon in sales pitches – saying their tool “does everything you need and it’s so easy” – just to close the deal.
That’s not how we operate.
There is nothing out there that can give you the assurance that you are walking into a software project completely sure of its success. Change takes effort, and your team needs time to learn and adapt.
Let us share a story. An example I’ve used before, but I’ll say it again, as it bears repeating.
We were asked to help a Midwest manufacturer in the carbon composite part business. For those of you that deal in carbon fiber, you know that sometimes it’s more art than science. If you’re not dust-free, things stick to carbon in-process. Dust, particles, even the small bits of paper on the desktop if you’re not careful.
Their process moved the length of the building (not what we usually see). We often see components move around to various machines and workstations throughout the plant to get work done. But in their case, they moved things from north to south along long work center lines. The quality engineer came in each morning and started at the left of the plant, walking up and down the lines looking for issues.
When we engaged them, they wanted Quantum to replicate this flow exactly – setting up jobs so that they would be queued from left to right like on the line, so that the engineer could use the screen like the way he did work currently but without getting his daily overage of steps in. But Quantum prioritizes jobs based on need and value, not proximity. And that’s by design. The beauty of a digital system is it gives you the information you need to make decisions differently.
We didn’t force a sale. We stuck to our word. We knew that, eventually, they’d benefit more from priority-based decisions than replicating physical layouts digitally. One of Quantum’s most powerful tools in the toolset, which all our customers end up using. So, we walked away from the deal, because building something that doesn’t serve the future is not what we want to do.
We go beyond the change form – We make sure that you don’t spend more than you must when implementing our system. We are looking for ways for you to use Quantum to do your current work without worrying about the burying costs of lots of customization. We’ll tell you when something you ask for is a good idea for your team and will work and we’ll advise you when we think it won’t.
And, when you sign a contract with us, we provide you with a list of all the work that we think it will take. We will review it carefully with you and will explain why. We make sure you have everything you need reflected there, but no more, and we’ll deliver on that promise once we close the deal. No up-scope. No unexpected second phases. We’ll map out what you’ve told us you need and no more. So be sure you’re open with us so we can do the job the right way.
We believe a strong partnership starts with integrity – and we’re here to prove it.
We would love to talk to you about the specific challenges you face in your shop. Whether it’s scheduling, overruns, or just finding someone who keeps their word, we’re ready to help. Reach out to us and schedule a time to talk. We’re here for you.