Frequently Asked Questions

Click on a topic of interest:

• Price Quotations
• Competitive Pricing
• Production Capabilities
• Advance Notice & Turnaround
• Quality Assurance
• Pick Up & Delivery
• Purchasing
• Warehouse
• Insurance Liability
• Security

Price Quotations

I am interested in outsourcing some work but I am not sure if it will be financially feasible, how should I proceed?

Call our Business Development Office at 315-272-1703 and request a no charge consultation regarding your interest and job requirements or fill out the electronic price quotation request form and we will call you to follow up.

This will give us the opportunity to evaluate your requirements and to confirm our production evaluation. We will prepare and submit a written price quotation following our discussion of your requirements.

How do you quote a customer's job requirements?

We start with estimating the amount of direct labor it would take to complete the desired requirements. Then we identify all of the material and supply costs. Finally, we calculate and add our labor, material and supply cost with an overhead charge based on the size and scope of the job.

How am I invoiced for the production services and what are your credit terms?

Customers with established credit are invoiced with financial terms of net 30 days. First time customers must establish credit by requesting, completing, and submitting our credit application. New companies with limited credit history may be asked for 50% down.

A firm per piece price is identified and confirmed in writing which describes in detail the specifics of the job task involved. Price quotations are always finalized prior to starting any production services. 

There is an exception to te above price. A per piece price cannot be applied when quoting services. Janatorial rares are calculated by the visit (week or month) and are confirmed in writing. 

What if Progress Industries/LCI actual cost exceeds the quoted price? Is Progress Industries/LCI or the customer responsible?

It depends on what the cause of the increased cost is. If the job requirements were not changed from the description in the quoted price, Progress Industries/LCI would be responsible for those additional costs. Following completion of the initial order requirements, Progress Industries has the right to re-evaluate and revise the price quotation. The customer can review the revised price quote and decide at that time if they want to proceed with the new pricing. 

The customer is responsible for cost increases involving any additional task requirements that were not discussed or addressed on the original price quotation.

 

For Example: 

If Progress Industries/LCI was told the parts would be supplied and we begin to receive a considerable amount of unexpected damaged parts, these parts now require an inspection process to sort the acceptable or good parts. If the customer is purchasing and supplying the parts and did not identify this extra inspection time, we would need to evaluate this additional cost and increase the price of the job to the customer accordingly.

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Competitive Pricing

How can Progress Industries LCI Company save me money over my company utilizing our own employees or hiring temporary workers through an outside agency?

Our overhead and direct labor expenses are much lower then the majority of our competitors because we are a "Not For Profit" company. If you use your full time, part-time or temporary workers, it becomes very expensive when you start tracking all of the accumulative expenses such as supervision; advertising; hiring; overtime; lay offs; benefits; and health insurance to name a few. The cost of your plant space, overhead expenses, mandatory payroll taxes (FICA and workman's compensation insurance) and maintaining productivity of your workers which can be very challenging to your budget.

When you outsource to Progress Industries/LCI we are maximizing production efficiencies at our facilities because we specialize in, and are set up to handle a diversified volume of production requirements. We have an available workforce of 275 workers and our customers are charged a fixed per piece rate that doesn't fluctuate. This charge could be looked at as a fixed expense.

When you decide to complete the work in house, you may have exposed your company to fluctuations in your expenses that can grow and expand very quickly. Your full and part time employees could offer you more value if you could maximize their utilization and have them focus on your core business requirements.

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Production Capabilities

I reviewed your web site and I don't see the expertise or capabilities for the type of work I have an interest in outsourcing, what do you suggest?

Call the Business Development office to discuss your needs because our brochures and the web site information are limited and is not intended to be all inclusive. We have an extensive evaluation process and we would confirm our capabilities or, in some cases lack of capabilities following our evaluation of your requirements.

We take pride in only bidding on those requirements we feel confident we can provide and offer our customers a quality service. We will develop the necessary skills and purchase the required equipment to provide for your production services if the volume is large enough to warrant it

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Advance Notice & Turn Around

How much advance notice do you require for starting production services and what kind of completion time should I expect?

The amount of advance notification time is contingent on the size of the requirement and whether equipment, material and supplies need to be ordered in advance. If quantity requirements are small (under 10,000 units) and we are only providing the direct labor on the job we can usually schedule these jobs in with minimal advance notice. As the job requirements get larger, and, in particular, if they are tied to equipment or machinery after finalizing the price quotation, a two week advance notice to schedule the necessary amount of production time should be satisfactory.

We recommend you call or email an inquiry regarding our current production capacity for a specific job requirement. Each job requirement is handled individually. We usually have from 10 to 15 jobs running at the same time; all with different completion dates. With this many jobs in process some jobs are running ahead of schedule, which allows us to fulfill a certain amount of short notice orders.

The "General Rule of Thumb" for consideration is the "the larger the job requirement the more advance notice and planning is required". In some production situations we may have considerable equipment and material purchasing requirements which can take additional time to secure delivery.

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Quality Assurance

What kind of quality assurance or quality control program do you offer?

Our production operation utilizes one of two Quality Control Specification Standards either the Military Standard MIL- STD-105E or the American National Standard ANSI/ASQCZ1.4-1993.

All production services receive constant in process inspections along with final inspection sampling complying with the sampling procedures and tables for Inspection by Attributes. We strive to surpass our customers' quality requirements and to assure that we have 100% customer satisfaction.

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Pick Up & Delivery

Does your company provide pick up and delivery services?

We do have our own trucks for pick up and delivery services in the surrounding four county geographic area. We most often recommend to our customers to have the materials drop shipped to our location instead of being delivered to your plant then moved to our plant. If drop shipping is not possible, we are set up to receive common carrier delivery and pick up requirements.

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Purchasing

Do you always purchase the necessary materials or can the customer purchase and ship in the materials?

It depends on our customer's requirements. We are open to whatever works for our customer. Our price quotation can include the cost of materials, or if the customer provides the materials, and our price quotation would reflect the lower price. We also have customers that provide materials by having them dropped shipped to our plant. Finalizing the details before you order materials allows you to have the materials drop shipped to our destination saving the freight from going to your plant and then having it re-shipped to our plant.

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Warehouse

What are your warehouse and storage capabilities?

We have approximately 5,000 sq. ft. of storage at our main facility but we lease outside storage space and have access to an additional storage space in the immediate surrounding area.

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Insurance Liability

If one of your workers is hurt or injured while performing or working with my materials can I or my company be held responsible?

No, you are not held liable. Our plant and the workers are fully insured and Progress Industries/LCI is responsible for their safety. Progress Industries/LCI carries an extensive amount of insurance coverage and proof of insurance is available upon request.

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Security

We are concerned about product security. If we shipped our materials in to your shop, can you assure us that they are secure and safe?

Yes, our facility is modern, climate controlled and equipped with sprinklers and a security alarm system wired directly to the police and fire department. We take great pride in caring for customer materials by having a secure facility and a secured lock up area, if warranted. We are always receptive to discussing additional security requirements on an individual basis and, if security needs to be tightened, appropriate steps can be taken. Progress Industries/LCI carries an extensive amount of insurance and proof of insurance is available upon request.

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