Author: Paul Van Metre
Machine shops are a hotbed of research and development (R&D). Yes, you heard me right. R&D isn’t just scientists and equipment working in a lab. Job shops especially, and machine shops of all kinds participate in substantial R&D efforts every year. Did you know that R&D costs are eligible for a tax credit? According to Fabricating & Metalworking Magazine, it’s been estimated that just 1 in 20 shops apply for the R&D tax credit. Most are leaving hard-earned dollars on the table when it could be in your bank account! Just consider these common scenarios you likely engage in daily:
These activities are considered R&D from a tax point of view and may qualify for the R&D Tax credit. Heck, even researching a trade show is considered R&D!! Few shops take advantage of this credit and end up paying way more in taxes than they need to.
Let’s go into a bit more detail about a few of the most common activities that a CNC machine shop or job shop may be able to apply to the R&D Tax credit. I’ll also preface this by saying, I’m not a tax professional, and you should always consult with your accountant or tax advisor on any of these topics. There are also companies who specialize in helping shops apply for the R&D tax credit.
The tax code says eligibility for the R&D Tax Credit hinges upon improving a product, process, technique, formula, invention, or software. Sounds like things you do every day?
Does the Activity Qualify?
When trying to figure out if an activity meets the requirement of the R&D Tax Credit, there are 4 tests it must pass to potentially qualify:
Sounds a lot like things your shop does every day, huh?
Improvement in general is R&D
Improving a process or a product is something that most shops do all the time and falls directly in line with all 4 of the above test criteria. Just think about all the activities that meet the criteria that you do every day. When a client asks you to quote on a prototype job, or you provide DFM feedback, you’re working on an R&D activity. When you build and help iterate to improve that product or process, that’s absolutely R&D. When you decide to build a new fixture to improve the work holding of a part you’re manufacturing, that’s R&D - both the labor and the materials you have to buy. When you decide to reprogram a part to take some cycle time out of it, that’s R&D. When you buy a fancy new insert mill or other cutter and need to dial in the cutting parameters, that’s R&D. When you think of it through that lens, you’ll quickly realize that you do R&D every day!
Research is R&D
As shops grow in the sophistication of their equipment and machines, taking on new manufacturing processes and learning how to use them, that activity should qualify as R&D. So the cost and the time to learn about new 5-Axis machines or a new EDM technology at IMTS or other trade shows is considered R&D. If the cost is incurred on these types of activities, it will likely qualify.
Lean Improvements are R&D
I can’t think of a better win/win than spending time on dedicated improvement activities to reduce waste in your value stream while receiving tax credits for the time and cost incurred! If you move machinery around to promote better flow of product, build new lean workstations, or just study a process with a Kaizen team in order to analyze your before state, and then work to improve the process, that’s all likely eligible for the R&D Tax credit.
We’ve identified that many common shop activities may very well qualify for tax credits, so what’s next?
Documentation of Activity and Cost
Uncle Sam isn’t going to take your word for it. You must have hard evidence of your activities and cost. This documentation should include things like:
It’s not on the top of everyone’s list to document these things, but when a bit of thought is put in upfront, and a system for this record-keeping is developed, you can easily see that the small amount of effort to document the costs will be well worth the time.
Carryforward and Other Things
If you’re one of the 19 out of 20 shops that hasn’t applied for an R&D Tax Credit, you can retroactively apply for up to 3 years. So think back on what projects or activities you could apply for and what records you have, talk to your tax professional and get some of your hard-earned money back. Around 36 of the US states also have their own tax credit system, so the benefits could multiply if you operate in one of those states. There are upper limits to how much tax credit you can apply for, but if you’re a typical job shop doing lots of the activities outlined above, you should have ample activities to apply for.
How Can ProShop Help?
ProShop can primarily help with the documentation side of things. There are a few ways we can help with this. Every Work Order can have a “WO Class”. R&D Tax Credit is one of the default options, along with our “WO Types” of Prototype or 1st Run/New Rev. All three of those are likely to have highly qualified costs. You can also add any other options to WO Class or Type you’d like if you want to further segment your work. A quick query by the WO class will pull up all the work orders in a given time period instantly. From there, it’s a simple function to pull out all the labor hours and out-of-pocket expenses which can dramatically reduce the time spent on researching costs for the credit.
If you’d like to pull out just isolated time tracking activities, it’s possible to add notes to any time tracking event. So if you train your staff on what activities qualify as R&D, then it’s possible to pull up a list of time tracking for the year and filter just the ones with the R&D tag on it, pulling out thousands of dollars of credit in just a few minutes of work.
Recently we had a customer email us in the early afternoon telling us his accountant needed this data. He wasn’t quite sure how to pull it out the easiest way. By 4 pm we were on a Zoom call with him and shortly after had compiled all the information he needed to apply for thousands in tax credits for the prior year. When it’s that fast and easy, you’re much more likely to do it, and get those credits that Uncle Sam genuinely owes you!
For more detailed information, this guide from Moss Adams is a great one to start with.
By: Lacey Hill
Purchase orders (POs) are legally binding contracts between your company, and the company placing the order. If you aren’t treating each PO as a formal contract and reviewing the details of it as such, it’s time to!
When you send the Buyer your order confirmation, you are agreeing to that contract and all the terms therein.
For the past decade, I’ve sat on the customer side of the table (as a Buyer, Purchasing/Planning, and Supply Chain Manager), and I’ve issued and reviewed hundreds of POs and order confirmations. When I say I know a lot of the scenarios you’ll run into during order entry/contract review, know that I’ve experienced them first hand myself. I’ve been on both the advantageous side of a supplier not completing a thorough contract review, and I’ve been burned by missing contract terms myself….and there’s nothing worse than the moment you realize what you missed!
There are numerous aspects of a Customer PO to be reviewed before sending your order confirmation back to a Buyer. I’m going to review 4 scenarios that I’ve commonly run across in contract review and suggestions for how to address them, but know that there are hundreds more. The more attention & effort you put into contract review the more you reduce your risk of agreeing to terms of an order you shouldn’t.
1. Orders placed within the quoted lead time
You open the email from the buyer, you see they’ve awarded you the job. ‘YES!!!’
You open the attachment, look at the total value of the order, you’re excited ‘this is just the size order we needed this month!’
Then you look at the delivery date… ‘2 WEEKS?!!! But I quoted them a 4 week lead time!’
If you aren’t thoroughly reviewing all aspects of Customer POs that are coming into your shop, you may miss that a buyer has just cut your lead time in half, requiring you to pay for all the expedite costs out of your own pocket.
Make sure you’re being allocated the time needed to complete the job. After all, you took the time in estimating to accurately calculate the lead time and outlined that lead time on the quote to the Buyer. If you rush a job you run the risk of high scrap rates, defects, poor quality, negatively impacting other jobs, eating into your profits...just to name a few.
If the delivery date on the Customer PO is under the quoted lead time, this is a great opportunity to contact the Buyer and discuss expedite charges or other options.
Would they like to pay to have the parts delivered in the expedited window? This can cover overtime labor charges, charges to program/run the job on an alternate machine, or expedited outside processing charges.
Would they consider taking partials of a delivery? You might be able to run 1-2 parts through a prototype cell and the rest of the order at the standard lead time as intended. If the prototype cell is more expensive, outline that cost to the Buyer and consider breaking out the early delivery quantities to a separate PO line and charging them the increased cost.
Are you scheduled to run another job for them at the same time and could that job be scheduled out to make room for this one? Depending on the ERP system your Buyers are using, most can run an open order report that shows all open jobs they have with you and advise potential shifts in schedules that could be made.
2. Orders placed with outdated pricing
You sent the Buyer a Quote three weeks ago, but on the PO you just received from them, the pricing they listed is last year’s quoted price. What gives?!
There are several reasons a Buyer might have entered the incorrect pricing.
Here are a few to consider:
If the pricing isn’t current on the PO, when you conduct a thorough contract review, you are more likely to catch these mistakes. Seeing these mistakes gives you the opportunity to contact the Buyer and have them revise their PO before you send them an order confirmation.
In ProShop, to ensure you are accepting the PO at the latest quoted price, we developed a best practice workflow of creating a Customer PO (aka Sales Order) directly from the Quote! The pricing, quantities, rev levels of each part, etc are all copied from the Quote onto the Customer PO. So it’s obvious as you look at the PO the Buyer sent you compared to the fields in ProShop if there is a disconnect.
3. Customer directs you to use preferred or single-source supplier
A Buyer calls you up, “I’m sending over an order today, and I want the finish to be done solely at this designated finish house. Then go ahead and have the finish house dropship the completed parts to us once complete. Here’s their contact info, they’re expecting your call in the next week to schedule the job with them.”
‘Great’, you think! ‘They did the leg work for me and I can skip final inspection AND shipping!’
This CAN be a great job for you, HOWEVER, it’s worth some effort upfront to ensure that the customer’s preferred supplier arrangement is going to work for you. Factors to consider are:
Without review and answering many of these questions you are putting yourself at risk for being liable for aspects of this job that should be handled by either your customer or the supplier. Also, the moment when parts are scrapped, or shipments are delayed (time is of the essence), that is not the time you want to be developing or negotiating a workflow process to handle this scenario with the supplier. Taking the time upfront to discuss these scenarios ensures that the customers preferred supplier arrangement is going to work for your shop in a smooth manner.
4. Extensive, in-depth, or easy-to-miss Terms and Conditions (T’s & C’s)
T’s & C’s are the fine print of the contract you are reviewing. It is in your best interest to read the fine print thoroughly, ensure you understand each aspect, and ask the Buyer to provide clarification if needed.
T’s & C’s may be printed on the bottom of the order for you to easily review, HOWEVER, they may also be listed on a website, and/or on the order portal. Be sure to look for statements on the base of an order that read something like “Purchase order subject to Terms and Conditions form/document in your possession or available at [URL link]”. If you have not received, or have in your possession, their T’s & C’s document, be sure to ask for it before confirming the order back to the Buyer.
If up till now the customers you’ve worked with have minimal T’s & C’s, then it’s probably good for you to be aware that they can vary quite a bit customer-to-customer. When quoting and taking jobs from new customers it is critical to review their standard T’s & C’s and dialogue with the buyer on questions or concerns you have.
I’ve listed some of the common components you’ll find outlined in T’s & C’s, but know there are many more that can be included:
How can ProShop help?
In ProShop, contract review at the point of Customer PO order entry is built into the system! You can’t miss it!
We have included checkboxes for the critical fields on the PO that need to be reviewed (ex: Part Rev, Part Number, Delivery Date, Qty, shipping Address, Price, Terms) and added a list of key aspects to be completed as part of Contract Review/Risk Evaluation (ex: Payment terms, T’s & C’s, FAI requirements).
We even leverage the ability to create and review a Task in ProShop dedicated to following a step-by-step process for Contract Review/Risk Evaluation.
With these tools at your fingertips during order entry, you can quickly & efficiently complete the required contract review and get to the best part…..making parts!!!
If you aren’t using ProShop, I can’t stress enough the importance of developing & implementing a standard contract review process now for your business! A small amount of time upfront can save thousands of dollars and a lot of fire fighting in the long run.
Or if you’re interested in knowing more about the solutions ProShop offers for this and many other challenges facing your shop, we’d be happy to talk with you.
By: Lacey Hill, Implementation Specialist
Author: Paul Van Metre
When I started writing this blog post, it seemed oddly familiar to me, and I had a feeling I had written something similar before. So I went searching in my Google Docs, and sure enough, I had written a blog post on this exact topic for Production Machining Magazine not more than 6 months ago, with a focus on how Covid has forced many shops to look for new clients. Besides needing to visit the doctor to get my memory checked, I thought I’d just link to that article and update this blog with a bit more client feedback I’ve received in the past 6 months.
The premise is that shops can’t just promise great quality and delivery. They need to prove they have the processes and systems to guarantee they will execute. This will open doors to more discerning clients. Through discussions with clients over the past few months, this theme has proven itself to be true. Here are just a few examples of things that clients have told us about their usage of ProShop as a sales tool:
“Just last week we were able to get on the approved vendor list for a new customer, which is very promising. It’s a globally recognized brand, and we can compete now on larger volumes than we are used to seeing, and that’s something we want to do more of. We wouldn’t have been able to get on that approved vendor list if it wasn’t for proving that we could meet their quality requirements, and once we showed them once what the inspection reports and dim-tagging and quality capabilities were in ProShop. Once we showed them what that output looks like, they said, "Perfect, this lines up exactly with what we need. So here’s a bunch of drawings to quote.” And that was huge! I was so excited. I’m not trying to sound like such a ProShop fanboy, but the reality is without having ProShop we wouldn’t have been able to do that. So we’re very excited at the doors that are opening as a result of having this system in place, and how that enhances our reputation, our manufacturing prowess, if you will, to be able to compete for jobs we traditionally haven’t been able to...It almost felt too easy.” - Dave, G&S Tool
“Our new sales rep is blown away by its capabilities, and he’s bragging about it every time he makes a call. I am setting him up with the proper equipment to do a short demo of its capabilities when he’s out and about. One client that followed him to Kajan is interested in ProShop for his own business.” - Kurt, Kajan Mfg.
“ProShop has been a cornerstone sales tool for us since we got it. We’ve had customers like SpaceX come in here and literally tell us that this is the best system they’ve ever seen, and when we open up ProShop, their eyes get wild...We had one of the toughest customers we do work for, tell us that ProShop was sexy! We thought that was one of the best compliments you could get.” - Matt, 3D Industries
Lastly, here is an article that was written in Modern Machine Shop Magazine about a client of ours who saved a very large client and grew their business with them based on their use of ProShop and having it feature prominently in a vendor audit. It’s a hard-hitting, real-world example of the stakes that shops deal with every day.
Want to read more examples? Click here
Can ProShop Help?
While we’d love to talk with you about adopting ProShop in your company, these principles are universal and you can build robust business processes yourself starting tomorrow. Possibly with your current ERP, connected digital travelers using something like Google Sheets or Office 365, or some other creative use of the tools at your disposal. The main takeaway is that in order to stand out from the competition and grow your business, you must overcome the skepticism of your potential clients by proving to them proof that you’ll deliver as promised.
Author: Paul Van Metre
I haven't talked with a single shop that loves having job travelers, but so many of them can’t imagine running their shop without them. It’s hard for them to imagine a different way because they’ve done it for so many years, or they believe that trying to eliminate travelers will not be well received by their employees. In the meantime, enormous costs are being incurred every day because of their paper travelers. These costs are not obvious and aren’t on top of people's minds.
What functions do job travelers serve? Let's clarify what I mean by a “job traveler”.
Most ERP systems create a job router based on the information that is in effect at the time the order is processed. That information is a snapshot in time and the printed router becomes the controlling item that moves around the facility and triggers people to do things and tells them what to do. The router identifies what material to buy, what rev of the drawing to build the part too. It will also be the document where signatures or quality stamps will be recorded, creating an audit trail of who did what to ensure the part was made properly. There is no doubt that the information contained on the router is vitally important and every shop (at least QMS certified shops) needs to capture and retain that information.
The fact that all this crucial information is conveyed and recorded on a piece of paper in so many shops in 2021 is mind-boggling. To try to make the point, imagine this: You want to see how the big game of your favorite team is going, so you walk to the corner market to buy a newspaper? Of course not! By the time your newspaper publishes the score, the game will have been long finished.
Why then do shops keep insisting that paper job travelers are so important to their business? There are huge numbers of liabilities inherent in paper travelers. Let's just list a few:
1. The information on the traveler is highly likely to change. More in some businesses than others, but it happens all the time. When information changes, people need to chase down the traveler and replace it or mark it up with the latest information. If that doesn't happen, people can and will make mistakes and parts can be scrapped, late, made wrong, or any number of other bad outcomes.
2. Paper travelers slow down the process. People in planning, purchasing, quality, and programming don't know that they need to work on something until it lands on their desk. What if it gets stuck at the bottom of a pile? Material or tools aren't ordered, programs aren't created and work doesn't progress on-time. It can lead to late jobs, expedite situations, and worse. Or what if they need to work from home because of a pandemic?
3. Travelers get lost. All...The...Time! This causes all sorts of waste like waiting, motion, transportation, overprocessing, scrap, and more. Probably all 7 wastes identified by the Toyota Production System. It has ramifications for the current job in the process, and also for future jobs of the same part number. Crucial notes that shop workers scribbled on the back of drawings or scraps of paper get lost which means the next time the parts are made, that information is lost and needs to be recreated. It's a snowball effect of waste. See fig 2.
4. Jobs often need to get split up into multiple batches. Hot jobs need to have partials sent ahead of the rest of the job. Parts need to be re-worked and catch up to the main work order later. What do you do with the job router? Photocopy it? What about all those supporting documents like work instructions and inspection sheets? There are no great answers.
5. Penmanship and legibility can be big factors on paper documents. Someone jots down a note, a quantity, an inspection result, and someone else misinterprets the information. This can cause many problems.
6. Traceability is suspect when relying on people to enter their initials for signing off crucial steps. Even unique rubber stamps can be “borrowed” by someone else who signs off on work not done by the person in question.
7. If a job traveler package makes it through the shop unscathed, it then needs to be filed or scanned. If filed, managing a year's worth of old travelers is a huge headache and expense. Filing cabinets fill up, rooms fill up, storage units fill up. Some customers require job records to be held for 10, 20, or 30 years to retain that audit trail of who made what, out of what, and inspected it with what. Having to go look up records for an audit can be a monumental undertaking. If they can't be found, that's a major liability for a shop facing a customer or ISO/AS audit!
These are just a few of the liabilities inherent with paper travelers. We've identified that the information contained on the router and traveler is crucial. So then our goal is to retain and enhance the good parts of those documents and mitigate the liabilities of having paper versions of that information. We are advocates for 100% paperless, digital-only versions of the information contained on that paper.
The biggest obstacle to going paperless is the fear of change. It’s human nature to resist change, especially when it’s such a dramatic change. People are uncertain about how it will work, and how their job will change. We’ve seen that time and time again when employees are first introduced to a paperless environment. Almost without fail, the clear and obvious benefits start to reveal themselves quickly and people realize how much they’ve suffered from the waste they didn’t realize for so many years.
The second biggest obstacle to going paperless is the actual technology used to make the transition. Until recently there hasn’t been a practical way to easily manage the data needed to run a dynamic job shop environment, with less labor investment, without paper.
With ProShop ERP, we’ve been running paperless and highly effective job shops for over 20 years. We have helped hundreds of other manufacturing companies become more efficient, save cost, save trees, take their company through a true digital transformation, and reach the pinnacle of going paperless. We’d encourage you to watch the accompanying video and reach out to us if this sounds like an interesting consideration for your shop.
Author: Paul Van Metre
As I write this post, the Coronavirus is sweeping the world. Schools, borders, events, gatherings and workplaces are being closed at a rapid pace. It’s an uncertain and ever changing situation. Some of the concerns I’ve heard shop owners share this week include how to best keep their employees safe, and mitigate the risks to their business as this pandemic unfolds.
For companies who primarily do “digital” work, like Microsoft, who recently asked employees to work from home, the impact is significant, but manageable. For manufacturing companies, this is a less feasible scenario. In a machine shop for example, you still need people to run the machines, inspect parts and ship product. You need to quote new jobs, and keep your business running.
For companies with a traditional installed client/server ERP system, this is particularly difficult. For some, it may be possible to have office workers work from home and connect remotely using VPN and RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). But that isn’t typically practical as most don’t have the IT infrastructure in place, or installed software on remote computers from home. There is also the issue of the paper-based workflow being an obstacle. Job travelers need to be printed, and people within the office often don’t know they have something to work on until the traveler is placed on their desk. Hardly compatible with a work-from-home situation. And managing the on-premise infrastructure is another obstacle. If your server goes down or needs maintenance, it will require your IT staff, or remote IT provider to address it.
I have the unique vantage point to see many different shops before they implement ProShop ERP. I spoke with a shop owner last week who uses an installed ERP system. His estimator had been home sick with a common cold, so they had not been estimating jobs for nearly a week since the estimator could not connect to their ERP system. This will lead to a drop off of new orders within the next week or two, and a drop off of shipments and revenue several weeks later.
Fortunately, users of ProShop ERP, with its built-in digital workflows, have the added benefit of minimizing negative impact from a “social distancing” event, or any need for remote work, for that matter. Here are just a few ways ProShop makes a difference.
When trying to contain the spread of diseases like COVID-19, or even just the common seasonal flu, the advice from experts says, more social distancing that is implemented, the better off your company will be. If office workers can get their jobs done from home, the company is better off. Out in the shop, there are greater distances between employees, and there is likely less of a chance of spreading an illness from one employee to another. And because there is no job traveler to contend with in ProShop, the only thing moving around the shop is the parts themselves and using gloves and other precautions to keep parts washed and clean is easy. Even last-minute customer changes, triggered by a remote office employee, will instantly propagate throughout the system without a need to reprint any job information.
One of the biggest unknowns with this new situation is how it will affect the economy, and your order book. It’s entirely possible that a recession will follow and shops will be looking to cut costs, get more work done with fewer staff, and ultimately look to find new customers to replace those who have canceled orders or are just ordering less in general. ProShop can help here too. Our clients report an average throughput improvement of 20-35% on the factory floor, with the same number of staff. And they can often reduce overhead hours by a significant percentage as well. We’ve had customers with just as little as 4-10 office staff be able to reduce overhead functions by 1-2 full time people by either redirecting them to more value added roles, or allowing attrition to reduce overhead costs. Here is a case study of a 35 person shop who freed up 3 full time overhead staff with a move to ProShop.
When it comes to adding new customers to backfill work, ProShop becomes one of the most effective sales tools a shop has. Watch this short video of a shop in Chicago who has to pry their customers away from the conference room after giving them a ProShop demo. Buyers and audit teams are “blown away” by the capability in ProShop.
This article from Modern Machine Shop outlines another ProShop customer who won a considerable statement of work with a customer as a result of their ProShop implementation. And consider how much more confidence a customer will have in your company when you show them how you can manage their work when your team can work remotely during unusual times like this.
With our proven 9 step implementation process being entirely performed remotely, you and your team don’t need to travel, or have our team visit to be up and running on ProShop in just a few short weeks. Watch this video to see how a client discusses just how fast and easy the implementation process was.
Can an ERP system like ProShop help give your shop a competitive edge over your competitor in the best of times? Absolutely. And it can become a crucial tool during challenging times like the one we face today. If your company is considering how to handle this current situation while still maintaining a high level of efficiency, we’d love to discuss how ProShop can help. Contact us or book a demo today. Thank you. Be safe. And good luck out there!
