At Miller, we regularly ask customers for feedback on what matters most in their experience working with supplier partners. One theme that surfaces consistently: the importance of accurate quoting. 

In manufacturing, the project estimating process is rigorous. Miller’s estimators bring deep experience and sharp pattern recognition to every project, and estimating has long been a core competency – but in a business where complexity is the norm, even a well-honed process can be sharpened. That’s why, this year, we’re making even greater estimating accuracy a priority.

Pushing Further

Fabricated products involve a wide range of variables, including material types, engineering complexity, production processes, labor considerations, supply chain conditions and changing market dynamics. Balancing speed, accuracy and consistency can be challenging.

Consider, for example, a part that requires drilling a one-inch hole. The cost of that operation depends on the material – steel, stainless, aluminum, alloy – the size and weight of the part, the machine it runs on, its orientation and dozens of other variables. The same hole that takes a fraction of a second in one scenario could take an hour in another. 

That complexity, multiplied across hundreds of operations and thousands of parts, creates opportunity for refined estimating precision.

Our goal is to replace as much uncertainty as possible by applying objective, data-driven formulas – operation by operation – to enhance our estimators’ already-strong judgment and experience.

What Better Estimating Means for Customers

For our customers, the most direct benefit is even more accurate pricing they can plan around. A quote represents much more than a number – it helps customers schedule production, evaluate project feasibility, manage budgets and align expectations internally across purchasing, operations and leadership teams. The more pinpoint-accurate our estimates, the more confidently customers can build their own plans.

And there’s a less-obvious benefit that matters just as much: improved capacity management.

Precise cost models improve scheduling reliability. That enables us to manage our production capacity with greater accuracy – which means we can give customers a clearer, even more-dependable picture of lead times and delivery windows. 

For customers managing complex supply chains and responding to fast-moving demand, that kind of predictability provides genuine value. It allows them to manage their own capacity more effectively, reduce inventory and move projects forward with confidence.

Our Approach

The work we’re doing is structured and cross-functional. Sales, engineering, production and finance teams – who have always been part of Miller’s estimating effort – are even more closely reviewing process steps, comparing estimates to actuals on completed routings, identifying which work centers or processes show the biggest gaps and focusing on improvement efforts there.

Some operations lend themselves to this kind of precision more readily than others. With laser cutting, which involves highly quantifiable factors – material, cut length, pierces and energy consumption – we can estimate a job very close to the penny. 

Complex welding on a large, fabricated assembly is a different story, due to far more variables that are harder to capture in a formula. But we’re refining there too, using repeatable, data-driven analysis.

Investments in quoting software and an upgraded ERP system are helping us tie together data in ways that weren’t previously possible. Looking further ahead, artificial intelligence holds promise for helping interpret the complex, multi-variable scenarios that have historically relied almost entirely on human judgment.

A Competitive Advantage Built on Trust

In today’s manufacturing environment, customers are under constant pressure to move quickly, manage costs carefully and make confident decisions in highly competitive markets. Strong supplier-customer relationships are built on transparency and predictability – and accurate estimating is foundational to both. Our goal in 2026 is to be even better at estimating than we already have been – and to make that improvement felt by every customer we serve.

When customers know they can rely on our quotes to reflect actual project costs and delivery schedules, they can operate with greater confidence. That trust, earned consistently over time, is what makes Miller the partner customers call first.