The work you never had time to go and get
Price the job you have never made.
A customer rings and asks for something you have never run. Today you quote from feel, or you tell him you will call back and the enquiry goes cold. Blitz finds the closest thing you have made, takes what that actually cost, prices his recipe at this week's material rates and adds your margin — while he is still on the phone.
Material is priced at your last approved supplier bill, not a rate somebody typed in last year.
Why it matters
There are two ways to answer a new enquiry, and both of them cost you.
You can quote from feel. You add a bit for the unfamiliar, the customer takes it, and you find out eleven months later that the job was carrying the factory in the wrong direction the whole time. Or you can tell him you will work it out and call back — and by the time you have, he has a price from somebody else.
This is the only page on this site about work you are not doing yet. Everything else here is about running the factory you already have. This one is about the orders you have been turning away because the arithmetic took three days.
The closest thing you have made
Not the nearest category. The product whose recipe and machine time actually resemble what he is asking for.
What that really cost
Material, energy, labour and overhead from runs your sensors measured. Not a rate card, not an estimate somebody kept in a book.
His recipe, this week's rates
His mix, his weight, his width, priced at what you are paying for those materials now — then your margin on top of the whole cost, not on the material.
The machines it would take
Which machines you would have to book to make his monthly quantity — cheapest way and fastest way, before you promise a date.
Where the number comes from
Every line of it traces back to a run that happened.
A new product has no history of its own, so Blitz borrows one. It searches the jobs your machines have run, scores how closely each resembles the enquiry, and carries the machine time across from the best one. That is the only borrowed figure. Everything else is current.
Material is priced from your last approved supplier bill. Energy is what the machine draws, at your tariff. Overhead is split by the machine time the product would actually use, not spread evenly over metres. It is the same arithmetic behind your true cost per unit — pointed at a product that does not exist yet.
See how it worksOne figure is borrowed and it is labelled. The other five are yours, and they are this week's.
Why you can send the price
Call him back within the hour with a number you can hold to.
When Blitz prices a new job, the resemblance it leaned on has earned it: that likeness has to explain at least half of the difference in machine time across every run it has seen. Above that line you get a price you can send, with the job it borrowed from named on the screen next to it and every other line openable on the same report your costing comes from.
Below it you get a blank and the sentence that tells you what was missing — not a wide range, not a number with a warning under it — the same way a missing material price leaves the cost per unit blank rather than quietly calling it zero. A guess that reads like a quote is worse than no quote: you can tell a customer you will call him back in an hour, but you cannot un-send a price.
So an enquiry you would once have passed on becomes an hour's work and an order you can win.
A price, and where each part of it came from
The job it borrowed from is named, the fit is on the screen, and every other line is a figure you can open yourself on the same report your costing comes from.
Blank, and what it would take to fill it
Nothing close enough, or an input missing behind the closest match. It names which, so you know whether to run a trial or to go and fix a price in your material list.
The second half of the question
A price he can accept is only half of it. The other half is whether you can make it.
He does not want one metre. He wants a quantity, every month, by a date. So Blitz works out which of your machines would have to be booked to reach it, and shows you the two answers that are actually different from each other.
The way that costs least
The fewest, best-suited machines, run longer. Lower cost per metre, and a date further out. Usually the right answer when he has given you a month to do it in.
The way that finishes soonest
More machines on it, including the ones that suit it less well. An earlier date, at a higher cost per metre — and you can see exactly how much earlier, and exactly how much higher, before you promise either.
Quote the part you can make
If the quantity will not fit in the month on the machines you have, Blitz says how far short it lands. You quote him the part you can make instead of a date you were going to miss.
The occupancy behind this is your own: what a machine is already committed to, and what it can hold alongside it. See how machines and positions are set up.
And the call that never came
Pricing a new job is worth more when there are new jobs to price.
Quoting well only pays if the phone rings. Blitz also finds firms that buy what you make, leaves out the ones you already deal with, writes the first email in your own words, sends it, and keeps a note of who you wrote to and when — so twenty enquiries do not become twenty evenings. The same search works the other way, for a cheaper supplier.
Quoting new work, answered.
Can Blitz price a product I have never made?
Yes, when something you have made is close enough to borrow from. Blitz looks through the jobs your machines have actually run, finds the one whose recipe and machine time most resemble the enquiry, and builds the new price from what that job really cost — then prices the customer's own recipe at this week's material rates and adds the margin you set.
Where does the price actually come from?
From runs that happened. The machine time comes from a product your sensors measured, not from a rate card. The material comes from your last approved supplier bill, not a standing rate typed in a year ago. Energy is what the machine draws at your tariff, and overhead is split by the machine time the product would actually use.
What if nothing I have made is close enough?
Then Blitz says so. A past job has to explain at least half of the variation in machine time before it is allowed to carry a price across. Below that line you get a blank and the reason it is blank, not a number. A guess that reads like a quote is worse than no quote.
Does it tell me whether I have the machines to take the order?
Yes. Blitz works out which machines would have to be booked to make the monthly quantity, two ways: the cheapest way and the fastest way. If the quantity cannot be reached inside the month on the machines you have, it names the shortfall in units rather than quietly returning a date you would miss.
Bring an enquiry you turned down.
Book a 20-minute demo and bring a job you passed on, or one you quoted and still wonder about. We price it on your own floor's numbers, in front of you.