From weeks to hours: How Sigmatron is modernising its global quoting process with Luminovo

Sigmatron International is a full-service electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider with five plants across North America and two sites in Asia. With over 25 years of experience delivering complex assemblies, Sigmatron has built its reputation on reliability. Now, the company is adding a new edge: becoming data-driven. And the transformation starts with quoting.

"I've done it the hard way for 15 years. Now we're doing it the smarter way." - Jason Anfinsen, Corporate Manager: Material Analytics, Supply Chain Solutions & Logistics, Sigmatron International 

Challenge: Scaling a complex process across plants and teams

Sigmatron's quoting process was a well-established, multi-step workflow spanning procurement, plant operations and sales, executed entirely by hand. Material requests were distributed to distributors and suppliers via mails, each North American plant calculated manufacturing costs independently using its own spreadsheets, and all inputs were manually consolidated before the finalised quote reached the customer.

The result: a standard turnaround of two to three weeks per quote.

As Sigmatron's operations grew across five plants in North America and two sites in Asia, two friction points became increasingly apparent:

• BOM preparation and validation consumed several hours per quote, delaying the entire downstream process.

• Consolidating supplier bids and evaluating the best option by price, lead time, and availability required significant manual effort across teams.

Achieving a unified picture of true costs, including overhead, labour rates, and machine times, was particularly challenging without a centralised system. With teams operating across multiple facilities, cost assumptions were difficult to validate and compare consistently.

"We thought we understood our true burdened labour rates. Understanding that gap was the starting point for change." - Jason Anfinsen, Corporate Manager: Material Analytics, Supply Chain Solutions & Logistics, Sigmatron International 

Step by step to a smarter quoting process with Luminovo

Sigmatron conducted a thorough evaluation of four solutions before making its decision. The final choice came down to Luminovo and one competitor. The competing product lacked the labour costing module Sigmatron specifically required.

"It felt like old software from the 2010s with a new package and you could feel that Luminovo was built by people in the industry, for people in the industry." - Jason Anfinsen, Corporate Manager: Material Analytics, Supply Chain Solutions & Logistics, Sigmatron International 

Two things stood out beyond the product itself. Luminovo's intuitive interface lowered the barrier to adoption significantly, which matters when the goal is replacing a 25-year-old process. And when the team encountered friction during the trial, Luminovo proactively sent personalized walkthrough videos tailored to their specific workflows. Sigmatron is now building an internal library of these resources to support the wider rollout.

The initial rollout is focused on a core team of four in North America, with Asia to follow once proficiency is established. Three areas are already showing measurable results:

• BOM processing is now under an hour. Luminovo automatically interprets distributor line cards, determining which parts belong with which suppliers (e.g. Avnet, Digikey, or Futures), without manual intervention. A process that previously consumed several hours per quote now takes less than one.

• ERP integration is surfacing hidden value. Since connecting Sigmatron's ERP system to Luminovo, the team has gained a new layer of intelligence. When a customer recently submitted a BOM with obsolete parts, Luminovo automatically cross-referenced it against Sigmatron's internal data and identified an active AVL for the same component. 

"We didn't know that. So now we don't have to go back to the customer for approval. That's going to speed things up," Jason explains. 

With instant access to that kind of intelligence, Sigmatron can consult its customers faster and more confidently, turning every quote into an opportunity to strengthen the relationship.

• Labour cost modelling is now centralised and consistent. Sigmatron can model true overhead, labour rates, and machine times across all five plants within a single platform. The result is more accurate pricing, improved margin visibility, and quotes that can be confidently presented and defended.

Results at a glance

What Sigmatron's customers gain

In competitive RFQ situations, speed and accuracy are the first signals of supplier capability, often before price is even discussed. Sigmatron's ambition is clear: be the first to respond.

"I look forward to being the first guy in line with the quote finished." - Jason Anfinsen, Corporate Manager: Material Analytics, Supply Chain Solutions & Logistics, Sigmatron International 

When Luminovo proactively identifies obsolete parts and resolves alternatives using internal data, customers are spared unnecessary back-and-forth.

"It shows them we're an intelligent, capable supplier. We can solve problems for them," Jason says.

That level of responsiveness is what differentiates a transactional supplier from a long-term strategic partner.

Outlook: Scaling across teams and time zones

The next step is bringing sales onto the platform alongside procurement. With both teams working in one shared environment, quotes move faster, consultation improves, and customers feel the difference: quicker responses, better-informed conversations, and no delays caused by internal handovers.

"Luminovo is going to grow with Sigmatron. That's my vision for it." - Jason Anfinsen, Corporate Manager: Material Analytics, Supply Chain Solutions & Logistics, Sigmatron International