Contract Review Process help and Software Recommendations

U

username1313

hi, we are a plastic injection molding compnay and..

im looking for some assistanace related to our contract review process and if there is software of anytype that could be beneficial.

Our process starts with the customer service rep (csr) receving an order from customer.
CSR creates email to warehouse/secondary operations for inventory/lead times and takes their response and forwards to purchasing.
Purchasing checks availability of materials in house/ vendor lead times and sends back to csr.
Csr then forwards to MFG who then will respond to csr with lead times.
csr takes same email and forwards to quality control for revision checks. Once QC returns email response csr confirms requirements and creates a PDF for a "record" , confirms to customer and proceeds to order entry. sometimes customers can order 15parts at a time which requires all the above information. tracking for csr can become difficult with many pending orders and if cst is required to follow up with depts. that dont respond.


thank you for any info
 
Last edited by a moderator:
S

Sturmkind

Re: contract review process

Hi, username1313! Welcome to the Cove!

Though I can't recommend any tracking software, a cautionary 'lessons-learned' would be to have Q.C. fully review the customer specified specifications for performance and material testing requirements as this can be a cost that is not detected until it arises in production.

Example: Chromed ABS or PC+ABS requires Glacial Acetic testing for stress. Such product can also require extraordinary additional testing such as thermal cycling by lot at temperature extremes, peel testing, and so forth.

If has been my experience that the area most likely to pick up on these types of contract review opportunities is the Quality function.

Best of luck with the software search, though.
 
Q

quynyth

Contract Review is very important especially to the workers like us. We should always follow what are the contract given to us.
 
S

silentrunning

We don't have a program, but we have condensed our Contract Review to three basic steps. 1. Our CSR receives the order and matches it to the quote. 2. Q.A receives the order and double checks it to the quote. At this time the inspection requirements are input into the computer. 3. The department manager receives the order and verifies / orders material. He also schedules it for an approximate delivery date. The order then goes back to the CSR and is turned into a shop traveler. This isn't nearly as cumbersome as it sounds and has worked well for us.

Doug
 

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Moderator
hi, we are a plastic injection molding compnay and..

im looking for some assistanace related to our contract review process and if there is software of anytype that could be beneficial.

Our process starts with the customer service rep (csr) receving an order from customer.
CSR creates email to warehouse/secondary operations for inventory/lead times and takes their response and forwards to purchasing.
Purchasing checks availability of materials in house/ vendor lead times and sends back to csr.
Csr then forwards to MFG who then will respond to csr with lead times.
csr takes same email and forwards to quality control for revision checks. Once QC returns email response csr confirms requirements and creates a PDF for a "record" , confirms to customer and proceeds to order entry. sometimes customers can order 15parts at a time which requires all the above information. tracking for csr can become difficult with many pending orders and if cst is required to follow up with depts. that dont respond.


thank you for any info

Hello and welcome to the cove :bigwave:

I can't recommend a specific software, but as a general note it seems your needs divide into 2 parts. The first is the logistic one, including inventory, availability of materials / purchasing, production scheduling and the like. This part can typically be covered by the organisation's ERP software (e.g. SAP), assuming there is one in place. These are quite straightforward functions in any ERP system, but if required dedicated modules and/or customizations can be implemented to streamline your specific defined process (bear in mind that custom implementations are seldom quick and care-free). The other part of your needs has to do with document / status tracking, to enable follow-up and good control when a lot is going on in parallel. There are affordable stand-alone software packages to do that, including an interface with your email system, digital signatures (approvals) and other handy features; Some ERP systems would offer similar functions, though from my limited experience they are seldom as user-friendly as the stand alone ones (in that specific sense).

Before going out for shopping, I would recommend a thorough review of your current process, to see if it can be simplified.

Good luck,
Ronen.
 
Last edited:

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Moderator
Re: contract review process

Hi, username1313! Welcome to the Cove!

Though I can't recommend any tracking software, a cautionary 'lessons-learned' would be to have Q.C. fully review the customer specified specifications for performance and material testing requirements as this can be a cost that is not detected until it arises in production.

Example: Chromed ABS or PC+ABS requires Glacial Acetic testing for stress. Such product can also require extraordinary additional testing such as thermal cycling by lot at temperature extremes, peel testing, and so forth.

If has been my experience that the area most likely to pick up on these types of contract review opportunities is the Quality function.

Best of luck with the software search, though.

Hi,

In my opinion any standard testing, known to be required for a certain family of products, is better captured and formally established as part of the production process documentation of these products, thus its costs can also be captured in the standard costing system, with little surprises.

If, on the other hand, you referred to a situation where the testing is not common, but specified by the customer on a case-by-case basis, then I agree it should be carefully addressed during contract review; not only on the cost aspect, but also from an ability to perform standpoint: Are materials, equipment and knowledge for the testing available in house? If not, what is required to gain them, how long will it take and who should pay for all that? etc.

I read the thread opening question as relating to a "line item" contract review. A customized / one-off product / production run contract review would involve a whole lot more than routine processes such as the ones described in the opening post. In my opinion those described processes would typically not suffice for such special orders.

Cheers,
Ronen.
 

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Moderator
We don't have a program, but we have condensed our Contract Review to three basic steps. 1. Our CSR receives the order and matches it to the quote. 2. Q.A receives the order and double checks it to the quote. At this time the inspection requirements are input into the computer. 3. The department manager receives the order and verifies / orders material. He also schedules it for an approximate delivery date. The order then goes back to the CSR and is turned into a shop traveler. This isn't nearly as cumbersome as it sounds and has worked well for us.

Doug

Hi,

In my opinion a contract review would be much more effective if conducted BEFORE the submission of a quote. Basically, a quote is like telling your potential customer: "Yes, we can do it at such and such cost, and at such and such lead-time."; The main objective of a contract review is to ascertain that (a) your company can do what the potential customer is asking; (b) your company is actually interested in doing what the potential customer is asking; and (c) what would be the price and lead time under which (a) & (b) hold. (c) is then what you would put in the quote. If you don't do that, you may find out all the discrepancies later, at which point either your company would have to absorb the consequences, or you'd have to let down the (potential) customer. Both are not good.

Cheers,
Ronen.
 
S

silentrunning

Hi,

In my opinion a contract review would be much more effective if conducted BEFORE the submission of a quote. Basically, a quote is like telling your potential customer: "Yes, we can do it at such and such cost, and at such and such lead-time."; The main objective of a contract review is to ascertain that (a) your company can do what the potential customer is asking; (b) your company is actually interested in doing what the potential customer is asking; and (c) what would be the price and lead time under which (a) & (b) hold. (c) is then what you would put in the quote. If you don't do that, you may find out all the discrepancies later, at which point either your company would have to absorb the consequences, or you'd have to let down the (potential) customer. Both are not good.

Cheers,
Ronen.


Ronen, All those bases are covered during the quoting process. Feasability study, material availability, shop time available etc. are all addressed during the quoting process. I don't consider this part of contract review simply because there is no contract yet. Only an RFQ. All the groundwork has been laid and the contract review is to ensure that the customer hasn't changed any items or the market hasn't changed. Some of our quotes are for a year in advance so we have to review to be sure that nothing has changed.

Doug
 
U

username1313

our customers are just reordering parts that we have been making for them for years. these parts had already gone through all studies and initial inspections. we are basicly just confirming in contract review that we can produce the parts they require by the date that is requested. Any new parts, designs or mold builds go through a design and quote process etc before we even start production runs of a customers part.
 
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