From cad to creation--with a series of clicks.

Users of mechanical design software from SolidWorks (Concord, MA; www.salidworks.com) now have an easy opportunity to find a supplier who can produce whatever it is that's been designed--easy as in creating an email. SolidWorks has joined forces with MfgQuote (Atlanta; www.mfgquote.com), a company facilitates the connecting of buyers of manufacturing services--machining, mold making, measuring, and even design and analysis--with suppliers via an easy-to-use online RFQ system. SolidWorks has established what it calls a "Manufacturing Network" that consists of an array of companies--some 1,300. So with this new relationship, SolidWorks users can select from the list of potential suppliers that meet the criteria for the job at hand, then create a standardized RFQ and simply attach the SolidWorks files and associated parts specs. On the receiving end, the potential suppliers then use a quote wizard that guides them through the response phase. Then the customer can readily evaluate the responses. This sounds remarkably like an initiative that was tried in Detroit not all that long ago. The difference is, this one apparently works.