Laserhub improved CNC-turned parts quotation accuracy with Werk24’s PMI Extraction solution
1000s
of CNC-Turned Part Files Processed Every Month
1
Manual Intervention Per Week
Who is Laserhub?
In 2017, Laserhub was founded as a B2B company that has developed a procurement platform of metal parts in Stuttgart, Germany. The idea behind the superior procurement solution is that Laserhub connects customer specifications with the suppliers’ resources through a digital process that encompasses all stages, from the automatic creation of an offer to order placement, implementation, logistics, and invoicing. Laserhub's flagship product solution is for a wide range of industries, such as producers of special machining and construction design firms that require customized metal parts for machine procurement.
Industry - Metal Procurement Processing
Headquarter - Stuttgart, Germany
Product - Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) Extraction
“The precision of our cost calculation strongly
relies on Werk24’s PMI Extraction - and we encounter almost no files where the tolerances of threads are not correctly extracted from technical drawings.”
— Christoph B. Roessner & Adrian Raidt, Co-Founders at Laserhub
Challenge
Increase quoting accuracy for CNC-turned parts with the information from Technical Drawings and simplify the procurement of metal parts.
Outcome
With automation, Laserhub significantly reduced the commercial risk of quoting prices under the production cost and the number of subsequent pricing adjustments due to details on the drawing that were not considered during instant quoting on the platform. At the same time, they improved the efficiency of the ordering process. Thus, they now offer lower prices for simple parts and charge accurate prices for more complex parts. In addition, Laserhub improved the user experience by removing the burden of entering the detailed specifications of tolerances or threads manually. Afterward, there was a noticeable increase in repeat customers. Werk24’s PMI (Product Manufacturing Information) extraction service from technical drawings of CNC-turned parts enables an easy, reliable, and cost-effective procurement procedure.
Challenge Accepted
Laserhub‘s procurement process methods include laser cutting, bending tube laser cutting, welding, and CNC turning. Concerning the CNC-turned parts procurement process, Laserhub presented Werk24 with a “simple challenge”: how to automate the customer's manual information entry of fits, tolerances, and threads.
Before integrating the Werk24 solution, Laserhub’s Ordering Platform required the user to manually enter the product manufacturing information. This process can be lengthy and tedious, as it includes both collecting a lot of information (measures, tolerances, surface roughness, general tolerances, threads, etc.) and potentially performing calculations (e.g., determining the smallest tolerance is difficult when the drawing specifies both absolute tolerances and fits). Understandably, many users skipped the step or filled the form only partially. As a result, the quoted prices were not as accurate as they could have been.
Therefore, Laserhub sought a unique solution and partnered up with Werk24. Laserhub automatically extracts product manufacturing information from technical drawings in an easy, reliable, and cost-effective way. Hence, they compete with traditional producers.
Challenge Completed
After accepting the challenge, Werk24 was integrated into the order flow of Laserhub. This significantly improved the user flow on the Laserhub platform. Users now upload all production relevant files (CAD and technical drawing-PDF) in advance, Werk24 automatically extracts all relevant information in the background, and Laserhub uses this information to quote an adequate price. The user feedback is great - customers indicated that this is just as they would expect the order process of CNC turned parts to be.
With the new approach, the internal processes are substantially optimized – gone are the days that the Laserhub team had to reach out to a customer to discuss a subsequent pricing adjustment because details of the drawing were not considered during the initial quotation.
Laserhub was able to achieve this improvement using the Werk24 PMI extraction product, which makes the thread and tolerance information readily available before the cost calculation. The effect is substantial, as 94% of Laserhub's uploaded parts contain tolerances and fits, and around half of those items contain threads in their technical drawings.
According to Christoph B. Roessner & Adrian Raidt, Co-Founders at Laserhub, multiple thousand CNC-turned parts files are uploaded each month and processed.
Laserhub benefits from Werk24's ability to automatically accelerate the metal procurement process resulting in improved digitization and customer business growth.
The challenge is mastered, but the partnership between Laserhub and Werk24 is just getting started!
Increased Customer Retention
The challenge has been met, but Laserhub and Werk24's partnership continues! Alongside the technical advantages, Laserhub has seen an increase in returning customers; their order flow is easier to use, and customers continue to use it due to the automated extraction of PMI data.
Benefits
Companies like Laserhub use game-changing technologies as a result of the engineering industry's rapid evolution and ongoing digitalization.
In general, Laserhub enhanced the effectiveness of the part-ordering procedure. Automatization has decreased the frequency of price adjustment during online quoting and the risk of inaccurate quoting prices. In addition to providing more precise pricing, Laserhub enhanced the user experience by eliminating manual processes.
✅ Time Saving
✅ Cost Saving
✅ No Manual Work
✅ New Opportunity
Interested in the solution?
Schedule Demo
PMI Extraction
Werk24's AI is able to analyze and interpret technical drawings, extracting important manufacturing information (PMI) from them. By using our API, you can easily submit an engineering drawing and receive a structured output in the form of an Excel spreadsheet or JSON file. This output includes information such as the need for specific manufacturing steps, such as polishing for tight tolerances. Our API allows you to easily integrate this capability into your existing processes, such as for automating feasibility analysis or price calculation.
✅ Key Features
✅ Analysis of of Material
✅ Analysis of General Tolerances
✅ Analysis of Tolerances/Fits
✅ Analysis of GD&Ts
✅ Analysis of Radii
✅ Analysis of Surface Roughness