Team 1 Plastics’ RFQ Process Featured in Plastics Business

Plastics Business magazine featured Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the automotive industry, in its Summer 2016 edition. The article, entitled “The View from 30 Feet: A Multi-Tiered RFQ Process,” discussed Team 1’s recent change to its Request for Quotation (RFQ) process.

The article identified that the previous RFQ process had challenges. Each RFQ was treated the same, requiring considerable time and effort by many departments and causing turnaround time of the RFQ to be slow. “Comprised of several departments within Team 1 Plastics, the RFQ team gathered information from across the company to build the quotation … The RFQ team then forwarded its feedback to management, who developed a quote using the company’s activity-based costing (ABC) model.” Because of these challenges, Team 1’s management determined that a review of its RFQ process needed to happen.

The article then described Team 1’s solution. Working with Harbour Results, “A set of guidelines was created to classify each new RFQ into one of two categories: estimates or official quotations. If an estimated quote is in order, the company provides a rough estimate for the customer so it can be used in the pricing on the customer’s projects.” When the customer wins the project, “… the RFQ is reclassified as an official quote and Team 1 Plastics follows a process similar to its previous method.”

Finally, the article shared the results of the implemented change to Team 1’s RFQ process. “Employee feedback has been very positive; the change has helped the company accomplish its main objective of saving time while improving quote turnaround. This was done without sacrificing quote accuracy.” And “customers also have been encouraged by the new process.”