Efficient application of configuration and pricing technologies to industrial service products at Valmet Technologies Oy

The developing technologies and the growing number of customer requirements have challenged companies to remain competitive while aiming at customizable production. In order to keep pace with others, companies need modern approaches to the long and complex sales processes that they manually lead. With possibilities to construct fast and precise quotes, a Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software has evolved from sales and product configuration systems to relieve that struggle. At the time of the study, Valmet was in the process of integrating their products to a configurator in order to streamline their quotation process. The spotlight was on Valmet’s Breast Roll Shaker (BRS) – one of the company’s Paper Improvement Projects (PIP). A high demand for the product made it seem like a good fit for CPQ, and the company needed its configuration and pricing structures. A BRS PIP delivery structure was proposed along with the pricing BOM for further implementation as a configurator. In addition, a general PIP delivery structure was deduced, which would serve as a basis for Valmet’s future similar PIP CPQ development projects. The structures were partially modelled into the configuration software with the results presented to the company. Based on the experience obtained from the study, guidelines for the company to follow smoother product configuration projects in the future were developed. In addition, the products’ evaluation criteria were created so that Valmet would know whether a product would be a good fit for CPQ before even starting its implementation. Finally, recommendations for further research were outlined. The possible obstacles were also revealed as precautions for the future