Godfrey Marine Goes Live with BuyDesign® Product Configurator Software from TDCI
Leading Recreational Boat Manufacturer Streamlines Order Entry & Manufacturing
(November 2008) TDCI, Inc. (TDCI), the leading provider of configurator-based software solutions, announced today that Godfrey Marine, a unit of Nautic Global Group (NGG), the fourth largest manufacturer of recreational boats in the United States, has gone live with the BuyDesign product configurator integrated with the company’s Infor ERP SyteLine business system. Godfrey Marine is now using BuyDesign Configurator to guide order entry and generate manufacturing order details for all nine of the company’s boat brands, comprising over 150 models, each with numerous features, options, accessories and color schemes.
BuyDesign Configurator is the core component of TDCI’s BuyDesign guided selling and configuration software suite. BuyDesign is a comprehensive solution developed to streamline the sales process for customized products. BuyDesign helps companies that manufacture products with a wide range of features, options, and dimensions increase sales by becoming ‘easy to do business with’ while also reducing order processing time, cost, and errors.
Godfrey Marine was able to implement BuyDesign Configurator for its first boat line in less than three months and all nine boat lines in just over a year. As part of this process, the project team captured extensive manufacturing knowledge from product experts and developed the rules within BuyDesign for guided configuration, order validation, pricing, and manufacturing order generation. All while at the same time implementing a whole new manufacturing system!
BuyDesign now guides customer service personnel through entry of features and options for each boat model, allowing only valid combinations to be ordered. Training requirements are significantly reduced and product changes can be implemented immediately. BuyDesign automatically calculates the correct price based on the boat configuration, dealer, and other factors. Once an order is entered, manufacturing order information is generated with the bill of material and routing for that particular boat configuration and option set. That information is passed directly into Godfrey Marine’s manufacturing system with little or no review required. This has freed up valuable time within the manufacturing department while reducing both errors and order-to-production cycle time.
“BuyDesign Configurator along with our Infor ERP SyteLine system has enabled a true paradigm shift,” says Doug Reese, NGG Corporate Director of IT. “For the first time, we truly understand our products and have that knowledge incorporated into our systems. We’re operating with a level of detail we never had before. In addition, we now have order history with details about features and options that enables us to analyze sales trends over time.”
About Godfrey Marine
Godfrey Marine is a unit of Nautic Global Group (NGG) which also includes Rinker Boat Company. NGG is the fourth largest recreational boat manufacturer in the United States.With production facilities in northern Indiana, Godfrey Marine manufactures nine lines of deckboats, pontoon boats, and fishing boats. Godfrey Marine brands include: Hurricane, Sanpan, Aqua Patio, Sweetwater, Tuscany, Parti Kraft, Sea Ryder, Polar, and Polar Kraft. Godfrey Marine boats are sold through over 500 dealers across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Learn more at www.godfreymarine.com.
About TDCI and BuyDesign
TDCI specializes in helping manufacturers and their distributors streamline the buying process for customized products. TDCI’s BuyDesign® software is a comprehensive web-based guided selling and configuration solution developed to help companies increase sales by becoming ‘easy to do business with’ while improving profitability by reducing order processing time, cost, and errors. Built using a powerful product configurator, BuyDesign provides modular applications for guided product selection and configuration, product visualization, quoting and ordering, drawing and data generation, consumer interest creation, intelligent product catalogs and more.
