Looking for some eyes on a process I am looking to develop/recommend around sample approval.
The setup:
We are a graphic design firm that also manufactures most of the products our graphic designers design for our customers. We deal with brand standards and company logos. Many customers require sample approval on their colors and logos/patterns printed on products to be placed in their environments. Primarily two teams are involved; our paint teams matching colors and our print team also matching colors but potentially also images/patterns. We like to have approved samples before final production starts. Not all products or projects will require samples, our sales team will know when and what type of samples are needed.
My Proposal:
Sales person adds sample(s) line item to the customers quote (Make to order)
Quote line item is converted into a Sales Order (Sales person fills out shipping information relevant for person to approve sample)
Sales Order line item has UD Column: Sample Status (varchar(15)) set to âPendingâ
MRP creates Job(s) overnight or Job(s) created manually (dependent on how quickly need made)
Manufacturing creates sample(s)
Shipping ships samples to customer for approval
----Sales Quote Dashboard has a calculated field that determines if any Sales Order lines have âPendingâ sales order line items via UD columnâ
Customer contacts sales to inform them of approval/rejection
Sales Order line item UD Column is updated accordingly and note added to Sales Order Line Item âSales Order Commentâ with notes regarding why it is rejected or approval notes.
Paint or Print team is somehow magically notified (Need help here maybe BPM)
In the case of Rejection someone creates new line on the Sales Order for the rework of the Sample and process starts over.
in the case of Approval then Paint or Print will log their acceptance in a UD Column and the Quote will be marked as âSample Approvedâ on the Sales Quote Dashboard.
Concerns:
Who creates the new Sales Order line item, neither party wants to do it can it be automated?
Reopening closed Sales Orders since these Sales Orders will be 0 dollars and when shipped complete the Sales Order will close itself, will this be an issue for users?
How do I send notifications to teams upon acceptance/rejection?
With the Sample lines on the originating Quote we need to make sure they donât get accidentally converted into the actual Sales order
Probably donât want the Sample line items to show when send quote to customer (unsure)
Does this seem reasonable? Before I go adding more UD columns and dashboards just looking for a sanity check please and thank you.
Honestly, I think you need a workflow tool. Might you have ECM(Docstar) or Automation Studio? These would open up many possible solutions and keep you away from the tangled web of BPMs, or Tasks/Cases.
If you want to stay with BPMs, it might be wise to separate the approval/status monitoring by using a combination of Read-Only dashboard (to monitor statuses) and Updateable dashboard.(to initiate the rejection/creation/approval BPMs).
We similarly monitor âProjectsâ (not the Epicor Projects) using this method. Everyone outside of sales gets the read-only dashboard, and the sales reps get to update the status of projects (% confidence and a couple UD fields) which in turn triggers emails and the like.
If you do have ECM or EAS, then you get interactive email capability with multi-branch capability.
When I say âDashboardâ it will be custom Dashboard, likely updateable. I have considered workflow, but for now will likely run this manually and have users responsible for individual steps until we identify areas that can be automated better.
Each side of this process will have their own customized grid and detail pages to view. The sales team will of course have full edit capability, while the Paint and Print team will only be able to update notes or dates.
Seems reasonable and doable with a dashboard. We use Case to wrap this kind of data into a reviewable bundle. Quotes to Orders should be clean. Order to jobs there are examples here that I used to make a dashboard that does that. Alerts are not hard and I have a bunch of samples you are welcome to.
One of the lessons I learned after adding a few pairs of held and released checkboxes for 1st Article and source inspection was to make the hold type a user code, so they can have as many as they need without me adding any more fields and I just have a hold and released on the order line that stops the user if the hold is set, but released is not.
Can you make a âCaseâ for using Cases? I have played with Case entry a little, but it feels very big. I was worried it might be too much for our users, but you are not the first to mention using Cases for this purpose.
I know for one I would need to set up a task set with appropriate tasks, but honestly thats not really a bad thing.
Iâm not sure why Sales doesnât do these steps. That would simplify things considerably.
Is there some action that Paint/Print needs to take (e.g., to âlock inâ a process or color combination) upon approval? Otherwise I would think Paint/Print would just repeat what they did (how is this documented/retained?) on the sample when a new order or order line comes in and the sample shows âapprovedâ.
We struggle with almost the same exact process for samples of printed fabric. Basically the Sales person manages the communication and acceptance/rejection over email. Yes, things get messy and things get missed but we get by. One difference is we create a new Order for the final print, we donât reopen the sample Sales Order and make a new line (we tried that and it became a mess). We just donât have a consistent or linear enough process to formalize it as well as weâd like (with statuses or UD fields and whatnot)⌠Sometimes there is no sample, sometimes there are multiple, sometimes we charge sometimes we donât, etc., etc..
Another component to the process is sending a PDF proof of the artwork to the customer which they need to approve before there are any samples printed. That is actually more of a struggle for us because it happens at the Quote stage and there is no Job in the system for the print/art department to track things, so we fall back on email again. We use SmartSheets for workflow/project management in other departments in the company and may try to get Print using that to keep up with the artwork proof task tracking, but weâre also looking at building something out on our website for the customer so they can view the latest PDF proof and accept/reject from there.
I am actually trying to take as much off the Sales team as possible, but only where it makes sense. Our processes force our Sales team to fill out endless forms and track all manner of data through more platforms than any sane person should. Often most fall back to relying solely on their inboxes where we have little control and things can often get missed.
I do label âSOMEONEâ to create the new Sales Order line, I know neither side wants to do this however both are more than capable. The Print/Paint teams are more vested in the process so maybe giving them ownership of this step will be a better win.
The second stage approval by Print/Paint was actually requested by those teams, I think it is to make sure the approved sample data is stored properly before production kicks off. Paint will document their Paint Software Mix ID with the customer and get appropriate documents updated with the Mix ID, the Print team will update digital artwork with the appropriate information from the approved sample. That final step is their chance to do those updates.
Thank you for your considerations, I am wondering if in the end the creation of the new Sales Order line can be automated based on selection of âRejectedâ in the UD column. Thats for phase 2.
Sounds like you have very relevant feedback and similar processes. I was hoping to keep everything on the original Sales Order to make it easier to track, but since the UD columns will be on the Sales Order detail lines it may not matter if new Sales Orders are needed. I know the Print/Paint teams are removed from any customer contacts or addresses so this would make it a sales responsibility which I am attempting to avoid. They are not really vested in this process and find it annoying, so if I can put responsibility on the other teams that are more vested I think we will have better success.
Thanks for your feedback, perhaps as I progress I will try to keep you updated and maybe get mroe feedback.
In our former ERP we had a contract review workflow and wanted something similar in Epicor and we studied Case which is really HDCase as in Help Desk Case and Project and settled on Case. It has it own internal search that could be used to find previous orders by a lot of criteria.
I built out sections for Compliance, QA, Engineering, Purchasing and Production Control, so this is the one source for information related to the customerâs order.
We have task sets for new and repeat orders, internal and external ECOs, expediate and cancel orders, customer issues, and RMAs.
