This invention relates to housing construction and more particularly to a system for converting and validating a quote for housing components, namely cabinets, to an order.
Generally, when a housing development is under construction a cabinet supplier for the development provides the builder with a quote for cabinets for the houses in the development. Several styles of cabinets are made available at different prices for selection by purchasers of the houses in the development. The housing development typically includes several floor plans, each with different requirements for cabinets. Each floor plan may further include optional layouts, such as an expanded kitchen or master bath, which would have different requirements for cabinets.
Previously, the cabinet supplier would provide a quote to the builder for each optional layout of each floor plan in each style of available cabinet. In that way, the builder could provide the range of options to the purchasers and the prices for each option. When the purchaser selected a floor plan, any optional layouts and cabinet style, the builder would communicate these selections to the cabinet supplier. The cabinet supplier would then create an order by entering the SKUs for each cabinet component and hardware that were necessary for the selected options. This re-entry of the data, including re-keying the SKUs, was time-consuming and prone to occasional errors.
A quote-to-order system according to the present invention builds an order for cabinets for a house directly from the quote provided to the builder. This reduces data entry time and errors. The system also validates the final order relative to the quote and relative to the builder's purchase order.
The quote-to-order system takes the user step-by-step through the process of building an order based upon the quote. The quote includes the floorplans in the development, optional layouts and available styles of cabinets. The quote also associates each of these options with a set of SKUs representing the cabinet components and hardware that would be needed for those options. By building the order based upon the underlying quote to the builder, the order is guaranteed to have the correct SKUs and pricing.
Other advantages of the present invention can be understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:
A quote-to-order system 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown schematically in
Pricing may be associated with each SKU in the SKU database 40, such that pricing is the same across quotes 30. Alternatively, pricing for each SKU may be stored in each quote so that pricing is different in each quote 30. Alternatively, pricing may be stored in both, so that default values in the SKU database 40 are used unless specified or modified in the quote 30.
Based upon the software and user inputs via user computer 12, the server 20 converts the quotes 30 to orders 44. The orders 44 contain the specific SKUs needed for a house, the total price, delivery date, delivery location, billing party, etc. The orders 44 are sent to an assembly plant 50 where the cabinets are assembled for each order 44. The user computer 12 may access software running on the server 20 via a web browser, for example.
A quote selection screen 60 to be displayed on display 16 of the user computer 12 by the server 20 is shown in
The user can return to the plan selection screen 70 by checking the “plans” box 72. In the plan field 76, the plans 32 associated with the quote 30 selected in the quote selection screen 60 (
In the option and style selection screen 80 (
Referring to
In the SKU list field 96 is a SKU 41 for “Hardware.” Double-clicking on the “Hardware” SKU 41h brings up a pulldown menu 97 listing a plurality of optional hardware SKUs 41h. The user selects one of the hardware SKUs 41h in the pulldown menu 97, which is then inserted into the SKU list field 96 as the pulldown menu 97 again disappears.
After the desired SKUs 41 are all in the order, the user clicks “Finish” which initiates a validation of the order. During validation, the total price of the order is compared to the builder's P.O. (if there was one) and the quote. If the total price of the order varies by more than a threshold amount from the P.O. or the quote, then the user is given the option of revising the order or sending the order to “pending” status. In “pending” status, the order is not sent to the plant 50 (
If the order is validated, or if a supervisor authorizes it, the system then proceeds to the finalization screen 100, shown in
In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes and jurisprudence, exemplary configurations described above are considered to represent a preferred embodiment of the invention. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6810401 | Thompson et al. | Oct 2004 | B1 |
20020107749 | Leslie et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070011018 A1 | Jan 2007 | US |