Proposal Strategy using Strategic Filters

Insights

We will use as a case study the same Defense Contractor Client discussed in the April e-newsletter. One of the things we learned in that project was the significant labor that can be expended developing a proposal. Depending on the opportunity, engineering, materials and direct labor costs have to be estimated at a high degree of confidence to ensure that they price-to-win but don’t get stuck losing money on a project. Because none of the people working on the proposal want to make a mistake, they tended to default to more detail than was intended.

The problem statement of this project is shown on slide #1 and the current state process flow map on slide #2. You can see that there is a lot of work that goes into creating a proposal… much more than this company thought.

Proposal Strategy Using Strategic Filters PDF.

Here is how proposal strategy using strategic filters is applied. When an opportunity arises management (sales, finance, supply chain) put the deal through a filter. They decide on the level of detail that is appropriate for this proposal. Many companies have these conversations, but they don’t formalize it into a clear communication plan. Consequently people work in the dark, do their best, but many times get off track. It is amazing what saying “this is a Level 3 effort” can do for an organization on providing clarity.

We’ve found that 5 levels is the right stratification of many of our Clients’ proposal opportunities. These can be defined in your company however it is appropriate. Below is an example of these definitions.

Level 1 is the simplest type of proposal. Historical data is sufficient. They can be Level 1 for a number of reasons; because there is little chance of winning but we want to submit a number just in case, we were asked by a corporate parent or customer to submit a bid, or maybe we know we will win it and therefore don’t want to expend resources on a proposal.

Level 2 is a step up in complication. This company defined Level 2 as using historical cost data but doing some checks to make sure that there are no surprises when they win a project and have to deliver to the contract. It is like Level 1, but provides some additional assurances.

Level 3 is an 80/20 cost estimating effort. By choosing the few cost drivers, and estimating these completely, they can do a “good-enough” job and be economical in the resources allocated. After implementation, many proposals became Level 3. It is often the most popular proposal strategy level.

Level 4 is a Level 3 with some engineering effort and a deeper cost estimate, but not complete.

Level 5 is a full engineering project with a complete cost estimating effort.

Whatever your strategy, be deliberate in your proposal development process. You want your efforts to be by design, not default.

Client Voice

What Clients Say

View All Testimonials

"If you are looking for someone to help drive improvements, create repeatable processes and mentor younger staff in your facility then reach out to Supply Velocity. Your expertise and dedication have driven significant im..."

Tim Donohoe

COO, Chemline

"I am thrilled to provide this testimonial for Supply Velocity and their outstanding work in implementing Lean Warehouses and processes at Crescent Parts & Equipment through the COVID pandemic. With their data-first focus..."

Josh Cole

Director of Supply Chain, Crescent Parts & Equipment

"For several years we have worked with Supply Velocity to support us with their expertise on Lean Operations and Supply Chain Management. Supply Velocity has helped us implement Lean, improve our inventory systems, and ed..."

Lorenza Pasetti

CEO, Volpi Foods

"Supply Velocity is driving instrumental change in our inventory management processes. This is critical for us to be competitive in a supply chain environment with numerous disruptions. They are making change happen, whic..."

Jim Carroll

Executive Vice President Operations, Schaeffer Manufacturing

"In a time of volatile supply chain disruption, Supply Velocity is helping us develop Demand and Supply Planning processes to proactively tackle these new challenges. They are genuine partners, working with our team, faci..."

Jane Thrasher

Vice President of Supply Chain, Horizon Hobby

"Mitch Millstein and his team helped guide our shop fabrication division in the re-layout of our custom pipe and steel fabrication facility when we moved into a new building. It is not only the results but how he helped...."

Geoff Gross

President, Gross Mechanical

"In 2015 we began working with Dr. Mitch Millstein to optimize our inventory locations supporting e-commerce and in-store inventory needs. From this work we developed a new omni-channel warehousing and inventory plan that..."

Rob Bowers

Vice President of Strategy, Total Hockey

"Myerson engaged Supply Velocity, specifically Ray Davis to visit our plant in Trinidad to conduct a two day assessment of our production procedures and provide us feedback on areas for improvement and where applicable, a..."

Lee Hartwell CPA

Plant Manager, Myerson Tooth

"Supply Velocity has provided the technical expertise and political capital to move our project forward. They have just the right amount of push and the right amount of support. Supply Velocity has helped us make real cha..."

David Walters

President, Hy-C

"Our experience with Supply Velocity was one of the best values we have ever had from a consulting project. Cyril Narishkin brought a structured lean methodology, invaluable experience and engaging facilitation skills to..."

Mike Howard

CEO, Aspeq

"Supply Velocity has helped Clean succeed in a number of ways. First, they provided the education that kicked off our Lean Process Improvement journey. They also facilitated a number of large supply chain and process impr..."

Jeff Lazaroff

Senior Vice President, Clean Uniform

"We engaged with Supply Velocity to help us embed process improvement at all levels of the business. Our team learned from Mitch to let the data drive decisions, to use Lean tools to help us see our processes critically a..."

Dionne Dumitru

COO, Weekends Only

"Supply Velocity gave us the tools to analyze our business and processes based on the facts and numbers versus our perceptions. Our common quote was "Let the numbers lead us". The key for our organization was how quickly..."

Ned Lane

President, CeeKay Supply

"We used Supply Velocity to rethink our sales process. By analyzing the entire process we found wasted time in our Sales, Admin and Operations departments. Streamlining this process created extra time for each Sales Rep,..."

Jeff Reitz

Vice President, Central States Bus

"Supply Velocity created visibility within our Assurance Services Group... visibility of performance, Client-service, employee satisfaction and processing time. Using the Supply Velocity System, Audit Report Cycle time is..."

Fred Kostecki

Partner-In-Charge, Assurance Services, Rubin Brown

"Supply Velocity's Lean Six Sigma System has given us new tools to help improve our sales performance. We have learned new ways to analyze our business which makes problem solving more accurate and has made us better lead..."

Rachel Andreasson

Executive Vice President - Marketing, Wallis Companies

"The role of the Erie Insurance Marketing Department has been evolving over the past several years - from a support role to a more critical role of driving growth in our organization. Because of our increased workload and..."

Karen Rugare

Director of Marketing, Erie Insurance

"Isolating a problem, finding short, and long term solutions with measurable results is what was promised and results is what was delivered by Supply Velocity. Upon launch of the Lean Six Sigma Selling System, we knew mor..."

Mark A. Presker

General Manager, Architectural Millwork of St. Louis

"In the spring of 2003, the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross engaged Supply Velocity, Inc. to perform a study and make recommendations to streamline office processes, maximize cash flow in purchasing and w..."

Joe White

CEO, American Red Cross - Saint Louis Chapter

"We are using Supply Velocity's Lean Six Sigma methods to analyze a variety of processes including rationalizing SKUs (stock-keeping-units). By using math to evaluate SKUs we took some of the emotion out of our decisions...."

Mark Kelso

Director of Process Improvement, Save-A-Lot

"Anheuser-Busch Precision Printing had been implementing Lean Operations on our own for the past two years. We needed to move faster and partnered with Supply Velocity, Inc. Through Supply Velocity, Inc.'s mathematical wo..."

Rich Lavosky

General Manager, Anheuser-Busch Precision Printing

"C&R was struggling with labor productivity. The construction crews were often missing materials that they needed to do their work. This caused significant idle time. Supply Velocity, Inc. and C&R used value stream mappin..."

Tom Kuthe

V.P. Construction Operations, C&R Mechanical

"Your process encourages this group to work together, better communicate and have fun doing it."

George Edinger

President, C&R Mechanical

"Closure Medical recently completed a major reorganization in order to enhance our ability to rapidly create innovative medical devices. We hired Supply Velocity to help us map out the process and service flows of the new..."

Gabe Szabo

Vice President, Product Development, Closure Medical - A Division of Johnson & Johnson

"We are pleased that Essex selected Supply Velocity, Inc. as our Lean Implementation Partner. At one facility, we have saved over $350,000 in work-in-process inventory, reduced throughput time from 2 weeks to minutes and..."

Terry Etter

Vice President of Operations, Essex Medical Systems

"In thirty years of hiring consultants, Supply Velocity, Inc. was the first to tell me what they were going to do, set a price they stuck to and substantially exceed my expectations. I have recommended them to friends and..."

Bill Gilbert

President, Fusion Coatings

"Many thanks to all three Supply Velocity presenters. I think you guys took a very difficult time for learning and capitalized on everyone's time and training needs. I truly hope this helps your business as this was a con..."

Mark Holdinghausen

VP of Operations, DEMA Engineering

"We used Supply Velocity on our Warehouse optimization project. One of the key characteristics of Supply Velocity is that they listened to our requirements and provided a clear path for our Warehouse processes using lean..."

Haris Tokalic

President, Grand Rock, Inc.

"I’d recommend Supply Velocity to organizations looking for a hands‑on, data‑driven warehouse assessment with actionable outputs - particularly those dealing with operational change, new systems, or scaling challenges."

Jayson Wickenkamp

Senior Vice President, Image Solutions