Bid Modeling: A Proposal in 3D

Should you include a 3D model in your bid? Should you even spend the time and effort needed to build a model for a job you haven’t won? If you’re in aerospace or automotive industries, perhaps it makes economic sense to build a fairly detailed model before you bid to get an accurate assessment of the cost, material, and time involved to manufacture the job you’re pursuing. But should you do it for electronic components or consumer products?

If your engineers are already overburdened with existing projects, who can you turn to to churn out the models you need for your proposals and bids? Your Sales team? Is there someone among them who knows his or her way around a CAD program? Do you need a CAD program?

To be honest, I don’t know the answer to these. But SpaceClaim’s cofounder Blake Courter might be able to offer some insights. Next week, he’s scheduled to deliver a webiner on how to “Use 3D to Increase Bid Win Rates and Respond to More RFPs” (Wed. May 12, 12:30 PM Eastern).

In this brief interview with Blake Courter and his colleague Jeff Waters, SpaceClaim’s account executive, I ask them about bid modeling, or design for bid. It is, according to them, a trend worth watching.

Blake Courter is a founder of SpaceClaim, where he advises product development organizations on leveraging direct solid modeling in new and innovative ways and makes 3D more accessible to all engineers and designers. Blake started his career at PTC, where he held a range of product management and business development positions. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University in 1996.

Jeff Waters is an account executive at SpaceClaim. He spent 9 years defining the “upfront” CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) category with Blue Ridge Numerics and its groundbreaking CFdesign simulation tool. He maintains the blog Lifeupfront, where he writes about personal productivity, innovation, technology, and travel.