Quoting meets artificial intelligence

According to the annual "Financial Ratios & Operational Benchmarking Survey" from the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International, the average usually hovers around 30 percent, though the range varies widely depending on a fabricator's customer mix and specialty. For some the ratio is actually much lower. Of all the time and effort estimators spend answering requests for quote, only about 30 percent of their work turns into something of value--a work order. Put in manufacturing terms, the quoting process has a 70 percent "scrap" rate. Sure, a high reject rate is the nature of the quoting beast (some prospects are probably just window shopping), but it's still an extraordinarily inefficient beast.