• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Your Membership
    • Edit Your Profile
  • Services
    • Advertising
    • Case studies
    • Design
    • Email marketing
    • Lead generation
    • Magazine
    • Press releases
    • Publishing
    • Sponsored posts
    • Webcasting
    • Webinars
    • White papers
    • Writing
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Cart
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
  • Events

Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

  • News
  • Features
  • Video
  • Webinars
  • White papers
  • Press releases
  • Featured companies
    • AMD Xilinx
    • BlueBotics
    • Elite Robot
    • RGo Robotics
    • SICK Sensor Intelligence
    • Vicor Power

Automation Drives COGS Reduction for Small and Mid-sized Manufacturers

January 20, 2020 by David Edwards Leave a Comment

By Mike Franz, founder and creator of the WorkCenter from ManufacturingPower

Automated access to summary cost and margin information for each SKU delivers light SaaS “MRO/tail-spend” price transparency, returning a minimum 11-14 COGS (cost of goods sold) reduction to the bottom line.

Every manufacturer must pay attention to costs and competitors’ pricing. For better or worse, purchasing professionals are rewarded for capturing the lowest price; few have the time to scour the internet for ever RFQ to see if the bid offered is indeed competitive. Measuring value with price experiments is not realistic.

Full-time competitive pricing professionals could work 24/7 to generate statistically valid and accurate data. For the small and mid-sized manufacturer, the solution is to automate price comparison functionality. Until recently this was prohibitively expensive and often too complex. Automating costs and competitive prices can be achieved in a $5,000 per year SaaS solution.

Outsourcing data collection is mandated because of rapidly changing prices. Whether due to tariffs, international competition, spikes in oil causing much higher delivery costs, the monitoring of competitors’ costs simply takes too much time and effort without automation.

ManufacturingPower collects competitive prices from sites and marketplaces like Amazon, Google Shopping, Grainger, and eBay in real-time.

Automated price scraping

Realizing the need for automated price-setting, developers began marketing price scraping software and setting consumer cost for products. Scraping programs automatically retrieve competitors’ pricing and product information. The scraped data can be posted to an e-commerce site in real-time.

By automating this process, scraping must be tailored to provide the critical analysis and manual adjustments required. Automated solutions introduce a scientific technology combining big data and cloud technology to set price points for even the smallest manufacturers.

Automatic and real-time monitoring

Powerful analytic tools help forecast optimum pricing in advance. Small manufacturers set the best price; this may not be necessarily the lowest price for each customer. Dynamic pricing can look to big data to provide information that affects purchasing strategies.

Beyond competitors’ prices, market trends affect sales including geographic location and supply chain issues.

Automating product costing is central to the critical decisions made daily by small and mid-sized manufacturers. Decisions about the products manufactured, the prices charged, and the tactics implemented to improve the processes, make or break the company’s profitability.

Only with a cloud-based application designed to quickly calculate, analyze, share, and maintain detailed, accurate, and actionable product costs, can spreadsheets be eliminated as the methodology for price comparisons. Only when manufacturers stop basing critical business decisions on inadequate spreadsheets can the purchasing department succeed.

About the author: Mike Franz is the founder and creator of the WorkCenter from ManufacturingPower, a cloud-based market intelligence solution designed to help small to mid-sized companies streamline and achieve real-time visibility into Industrial Supply spend, collaborate better with suppliers, mitigate risk, and realize significant cost savings.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Skype
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Pocket

You might also like…

Filed Under: Computing, Features, Promoted Tagged With: automated, automating, competitive, competitors, cost, costs, critical, data, decisions, manufacturers, manufacturingpower, mid-sized, price, prices, pricing, product, purchasing, real-time, scraping, small, solution

Join the Robotics & Automation News community

Reader Interactions

You must log in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest articles

  • Factory Visit: Investment bankers tour client’s robot-filled machine shop
  • Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
  • AutomationWare prepares for future with new robotic joints
  • RoboUP launches ‘the most intelligent and precise robotic lawn mower ever created’
  • Switzerland’s IAR Group establishes new subsidiary in Germany
  • Techman unveils ‘industry’s lightest high-payload AI collaborative robot’
  • The Future of Personal Computers: What to Expect in the Next Decade
  • 5 Ideas for Getting More Clients for Your Business in 2023
  • Improving Building Entry Security with AI
  • How do you heat a car to sleep?

Most Read

  • Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
    Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
  • Stiga launches ‘world’s smartest’ autonomous lawn mower
    Stiga launches ‘world’s smartest’ autonomous lawn mower
  • Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
    Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
  • Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
    Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
  • Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
    Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
  • Schneider Electric invests €40 million in new smart factory in Hungary
    Schneider Electric invests €40 million in new smart factory in Hungary
  • Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
    Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
  • Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
    Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
  • What You Need to Know About Fixing an Engine Misfire
    What You Need to Know About Fixing an Engine Misfire
  • DeepRoute.ai launches $1,000 ‘map-free’ self-driving solution
    DeepRoute.ai launches $1,000 ‘map-free’ self-driving solution

Overused words

ai applications automated automation automotive autonomous business companies company control customers data design development digital electric global industrial industry logistics machine manufacturing market mobile operations platform process production robot robotic robotics robots safety software solution solutions system systems technologies technology time vehicle vehicles warehouse work

Secondary Sidebar

Latest news

  • Factory Visit: Investment bankers tour client’s robot-filled machine shop
  • Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
  • AutomationWare prepares for future with new robotic joints
  • RoboUP launches ‘the most intelligent and precise robotic lawn mower ever created’
  • Switzerland’s IAR Group establishes new subsidiary in Germany
  • Techman unveils ‘industry’s lightest high-payload AI collaborative robot’
  • The Future of Personal Computers: What to Expect in the Next Decade
  • 5 Ideas for Getting More Clients for Your Business in 2023
  • Improving Building Entry Security with AI
  • How do you heat a car to sleep?

Footer

We are…

Robotics and Automation News was established in May, 2015, and is now one of the most widely-read websites in its category.

Please consider supporting us by becoming a paying subscriber, or through advertising and sponsorships, or by purchasing products and services through our shop – or a combination of all of the above.

Thank you.

Independent

Archivists

January 2020
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Dec   Feb »

Complex

Old-skool

This website and its associated magazine, and weekly newsletter, are all produced by a small team of experienced journalists and media professionals.

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact us at any of the email addresses on our contact page.

We’d be happy to hear from you, and will always reply as soon as possible.

Future-facing

Free, fair and legal

We support the principles of net neutrality and equal opportunities.

Member of The Internet Defense League

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT