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Configure, Price, Quote by the Numbers
Turning a configurable engineered product into fast, correct, profitable quotations, from option rules to the order
Quote configurable engineered products quickly and correctly: model options and constraints, price from cost, write quotes, link orders to drawings and control discounts.
Start readingAbout this book
Manufacturers of configurable products live and die by their quotes. A customer wants a bench 2.1 m long with a sink on the left and two undershelves, and wants a price today. The estimator looks up the last similar quote, adjusts it, checks a few costs, types it into a template and sends it two days later. Sometimes the price is wrong, sometimes the configuration cannot be built, and sometimes the customer has already bought elsewhere. Configure-price-quote, usually shortened to CPQ, is the discipline of turning that process into rules, so that a valid configuration, a correct price and a clear quote come out in minutes.
This book is for owners, sales engineers, estimators and product managers at manufacturers of configurable products. It does not sell any particular software. It shows how to measure quoting, model options and constraints, build prices from cost, write quotes customers trust, connect accepted quotes to orders and drawings, control discounts, keep rules and prices current and measure whether the system works. Each chapter works one decision through the running case with real numbers and ends with an exercise and its worked answer.
The running case
The book follows a fictional fabricator of stainless-steel benches for food factories. The range covers eight lengths from 900 mm to 3,000 mm, two depths, up to two undershelves, three splashback options, optional castors and four sink positions: 1,152 combinations, of which 600 can be built. The firm quotes about 120 benches a month, wins about 40% of them, and each quote has taken an estimator about 45 minutes.
All quantities, costs, prices and results are invented for teaching. This is an illustration. None of it describes a KEVOS® project or product. Money is in Australian dollars and each example states whether GST is included.
How to use the book
Read Chapters 1 to 3 in order: they build the measures, the option model and the price model that the rest depend on. Chapters 4 to 8 can then be read as needed. The companion book CAD Automation by the Numbers covers generating models and drawings from rules, which Chapter 5 connects to.
Source limits and professional responsibility
A book on developing CAD software products was supplied with the request for this series. It informed only the emphasis on planning a tool around its users’ workflow. The structure, case, calculations and figures here are original. Pricing, tax and consumer law points are general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. A configurator produces exactly the products and prices its rules allow, so the rules need the same engineering and commercial review as any price list or design standard.
Who this book is for
Owners, sales engineers, estimators and product managers at manufacturers of configurable products who quote many variants and want quotes that are fast, consistent and profitable.
What you will learn
- Measure where quoting time, errors and margin are lost before choosing any software.
- Model a product's options and the rules that make some combinations invalid.
- Build a price from cost with margin, rounding and GST shown correctly.
- Connect an accepted quote to the order, bill of materials and drawings without retyping.
- Control discounts and keep rules and prices current, with tests and measures that show the system works.
Inside this book
Chapters
- 01Measure the quoting you haveBefore changing how quotes are made, measure their volume, effort, turnaround, accuracy, win rate and discounts, so you know where time and margin are really lost.
- 02Model the options and their rulesWrite down a configurable product's options, count the combinations, express the rules that make some impossible, explain refusals to users and test every pair of choices.
- 03Price from cost and rulesBuild a configured product's price from material, labour and overhead with a target margin, avoid the markup-margin mix-up, round sensibly, show GST and keep prices in step with costs.
- 04Write quotes customers trustProduce quote documents that state the configuration plainly, show prices and GST clearly, give an honest lead time from real capacity, set validity and terms, and track revisions.
- 05Connect the quote to the orderCarry an accepted configuration into the order, bill of materials, drawings, job card and purchasing without retyping, from one product model, and handle changes after the order.
- 06Control discounts and marginShow the margin effect of every discount, set approval levels, separate earned price differences from concessions, remove manual overrides and measure discounting after the change.
- 07Keep rules and prices currentUpdate costs and rules through a controlled step, test every change against a set of reference quotes, review the price differences before release and catch unit errors before customers do.
- 08Measure what the system changedRepeat the quoting baseline after the configurator, compare like with like across seasons, separate the system's effect from the market's, and calculate an honest payback.
References and source notes
The manuscript and worked examples are original KEVOS® writing. References inform particular concepts; their authors do not endorse this book. Web references were consulted on 26 October 2026.
- Luke Malpass, AngelSix. SolidWorks 2009 API: Advanced Product Development, first edition (2008–2013). Supplied source, used only as background on planning software tools around a user's workflow. No text, code or structure is reproduced.
- Alexander Felfernig, Lothar Hotz, Claire Bagley and Juha Tiihonen (editors). Knowledge-Based Configuration: From Research to Business Cases (2014). Morgan Kaufmann. Named as background on modelling product options and constraints. No content is quoted; Chapter 2's rule model is a simplified teaching version.
- Australian Taxation Office. Registering for GST (current web page). Background for GST on quoted prices in Chapters 3 and 4. General information only.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Consumer rights and guarantees: who is protected (current web page). Background for Chapter 4's note that consumer guarantees can apply to business purchases of A$100,000 or less.