With tight profit margins, job shops look for tools to distinguish themselves from the competition. One such company is Seeley Machine Inc. (Queensbury, NY), where owner Craig Seeley invested in a waterjet sheetmetal cutter. "Most of our work is machining, not fabricating, but the waterjet has made an impact. A lot of work goes through that machine, and I use computer-aided estimating for quoting waterjet work everyday," Seeley says.

He credits the software with saving him time and money, while increasing the operating efficiency of his shop. And he has the data to back it up. After installing Machine Shop Estimating (MSE) from Micro Estimating Systems (New Berlin, WI), he used feedback from his shop control software to test actual production numbers against his estimates. "MSE gives me a good idea what actual run time will be. Actual and estimated times are very close," he states.

Seeley went through a more involved setup than a typical MSE user. When he learned that Micro Estimating Systems was developing FabPlan software for fabrication shop estimating, he volunteered to be one of the first to use it. His shop was the first to purchase the new waterjet module. Since fabrication is not Seeley Machine's primary market, Seeley added FabPlan modules to MSE. If his were strictly a fab shop, he would have bought the FabPlan estimating system.

Standardizing the shop's estimating process gives Seeley consistent estimates. It also made him realize that some repeat business had been costing his company money. "Computer-aided estimating allowed me to weed out some under-quoted jobs," he reports. "With FabPlan you can't take any shortcuts. You have to fill in all the blanks and address production issues at the time of the quote. There's no shooting from the hip," he states.

Standardization provided by the software has improved customer service by speeding up estimate turn-around time. It gives Seeley the ability to respond quickly to customers' job-estimate inquires, often during a single phone call. "I can open an estimate while they're on the phone, check any information they want, recalculate in seconds, and know it's going to be accurate," Seeley asserts.

He also credits the program with making production runs more efficient through improved scheduling capability. This helps overall operating efficiency and allows Seeley to meet his delivery deadlines more easily. The software tracks his estimate, too. Estimate Status Monitor gives him a quick, on-screen status report of each estimate, and includes estimate due date and general progress of an incomplete estimate.

"From a scheduling standpoint, FabPlan gives you spot-on numbers for how many hours a machine will be tied up on a given job. Because we now have accurate scheduling times, we're able to control the shop floor better. It saves time and reduces opportunities for error," Seeley says.

When using FabPlan modules to establish bids for waterjet jobs, Seeley can address a variety of cutting scenarios to accurately reflect what takes place on the shop floor. The software accounts for the machine's ability to perform multiple operations, taking into account speed ramp-ups and decelerations caused by directional changes in the tool path. It also prompts the estimator to indicate when to slow down for curved part features by asking for the number of decelerations in a given tool path, as well as their duration.

Software integration is another timesaving factor. Seeley uses the program interface between FabPlan and his shop management software to eliminate redundant data entry by transferring all of the shop routers created in FabPlan into his shop control system.