Framework to Manage Customer Enquiries for SMEs

For most Smaller Manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs), how to manage customer enquiries at the customer enquiry stage is of great importance to maintain the competitive advantage and secure future customer orders. A lack of coordination between marketing/sales and production at this stage often leads to confirmed orders being delivered later than promised and/or being produced at a loss. In the paper, the problems and the solutions for managing customer enquiries faced by many SMEs are addressed. A general process for dealing with customer enquiries at the customer enquiry stage and a corresponding DSS approach are presented in detailed. The SMEs would benefit from the proposed DSS in which the considerations of current material and production capacity are given to the customer enquiry management process.