The customer is yours. The technical answer usually is not.
A customer sends a drawing, a 3D model, a quantity and a set of requirements. You own the response. But before there is an answer worth sending, someone has to work out whether the part can be made, how it is likely to be made, which assumptions matter, how long it takes and what it costs. That work sits with estimating and work preparation, and those are scarce people doing work that needs judgment. The commercial problem is not their speed. It is that every request starts from nothing.
Blake is built to make that technical basis structured and reusable, not to route around the people who own it.
The manufacturing cost is technical. The customer decision is commercial.
Estimating owns
- The manufacturing cost
- The assumptions the calculation rests on
- Cycle time and the operations behind it
Work preparation owns
- Whether the assumed way of making the part holds for this factory
- Machine and setup choices
- Corrections to the technical basis
Sales owns
- The customer conversation
- Margin and commercial terms
- Negotiation and the final offer
- Whether the opportunity is pursued
From request to answer
- 01
A request comes in
The customer sends the part definition and the commercial question behind it.
- 02
The part is structured
Blake reads the drawing and 3D model and sets out the part, its requirements and the manufacturing assumptions for review.
- 03
The basis is confirmed
The responsible estimator or work-preparation engineer confirms the assumptions and the cost basis, or corrects them.
- 04
Sales receives the reviewed result
The manufacturing cost and the assumptions it rests on stay attached to the request, instead of collapsing into a number nobody can explain.
- 05
Sales owns the answer
Margin, terms, negotiation and the customer conversation stay where they already are.
What you need in order to answer
- 01
The reviewed manufacturing cost
The cost the responsible technical person has actually looked at.
- 02
The assumptions behind it
The choices that materially change the result, in plain language.
- 03
What still needs attention
Missing, conflicting or unconfirmed information stays visible instead of being averaged away.
- 04
What changed
When quantity, requirements or assumptions move, you can see that the basis of your answer moved with them.
One part, three decisions
Same part. Same manufacturing basis. A different decision each time.
Estimator
What does this part cost to manufacture, and which assumptions does that rest on?
Work preparation
Does the assumed way of making it hold for this factory?
Sales
What can we responsibly put in front of the customer?