With the recent release of quote comparison tools, we focused on helping you understand the granular price differences between manufacturers. However, you can't get a full picture of a manufacturer from price alone. Some factories are built for speed, while others are optimized for quality.
Today, we're announcing new features that give you more insight into each factory, so you can make informed decisions when you source packaging on Lumi.
Quotes on Lumi now display factory scorecards with three new features:
- Factory Highlights gives you personalized insights about the strengths of each factory
- Best Match identifies the best fit for your needs
- Performance Metrics provide insight into the factory's quality standards and on-time delivery.
In addition, we've improved manufacturer feedback and added CSV exports for quotes.
Factory Highlights
When you submit a quote request on Lumi, several manufacturers will enter the bidding process. Manufacturers are selected based on a combination of factors:
- Specifications and needs defined in your quote request
- Verified and self-reported factory capabilities
- Factory audits by our sourcing team
- Aggregated production and quality data from Lumi members
- Broader trends such as supply chain disruptions
Factory Highlights give you personalized insight into the strengths and capabilities of each factory as it relates to your needs.
Best Match
Our goal for quotes on Lumi is to always provide you with several viable options. Best Match aims to predict which manufacturer fits your needs the closest.
Price, shipping distance, lead time, capabilities, and historical data all go into a quote being labeled Best Match.
You will often have more than one viable option on Lumi, but there will only be one Best Match per packaging style quoted. That means you can still choose a different quote if your priorities have changed or the differences between manufacturers are subtle.
Performance Metrics
The third component of the factory scorecard is Performance Metrics. This feature helps you understand how the manufacturer has performed historically with other orders placed on Lumi.
Quality tells you how many units this factory has run with Lumi and how many of those units were reported as defective. Delivery Speed tells you how often this factory delivers within its stated lead time.
Improved feedback for manufacturers
When you select a quote you now have the option to provide feedback about why you made this choice. This feedback is optional, but helps selected manufacturers understand their strengths and the other manufacturers where they may have fallen short.
Export quotes to CSV
If you want to analyze your quotes beyond the capabilities available in Lumi, you can now export them to CSV. This allows you to compare quotes in a spreadsheet, analyze them with your other data, or perform more advanced scenario planning.
Thanks again to our beta testers for providing feedback along the way. Do you have suggestions? Reach out to us, we love to hear from you.
