Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) was founded in 1942 along the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin to meet America's growing demand for naval construction. From humble beginnings with a contract to build five wooden barges, FMM has grown into a world-class shipbuilder, having designed and built more than 1,500 vessels. Today, the company operates within the Fincantieri Marine Group as one of a system of shipyards, building ships for both the commercial and government markets. FMM is currently the prime contractor to design and build Constellation-class guided missile frigates for the US Navy.
Before ProPricer: Inconsistent, Risky Estimating Processes
As project volumes grew, FMM struggled to keep up. Bid cycles dragged on for weeks, compliance risks mounted, and profits were at risk—leaving the company vulnerable with its large prime contractors. At the heart of the problem: a patchwork of spreadsheets and homegrown tools that made consistency, accuracy and compliance with US government regulations, like the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA), almost impossible.
Inconsistent formulas and disconnected spreadsheets meant costly errors were a constant threat. Estimators could insert hard-coded data over formulas, and develop their own unique estimated labor estimates, forcing leaders to waste hours double-checking every calculation. “I'd have to review and validate every calculation on every single file,” stated Phil Knop, FMM’s Director of Accounting and Estimating Compliance. “We wasted countless hours checking and double-checking the math to ensure that we were not simply accepting bad data.”
Phil specifically cited the need to gain consistency in the use of cost estimating relationships (CER). “We needed to develop and maintain CERs… for example, each welding hour could have the proper allocation of welding wire, weld gas, etc.,” said Phil. “Those relationships simply did not exist in our Excel models or other tools, or they were not applied consistently.”
Not only was the lack of consistency putting FMM’s profits at risk, it also spelled potential trouble with their prime contractor customer relationships. Each prime wanted to receive their estimates and pricing in a standard format and bid package to perform their own validations in a timely manner. According to Phil, “Negotiating a routine change order was horrible, as the prime would pick the estimates apart and request that they all align exactly with their view of a compliant bid. There was an endless back-and-forth.”
Recognizing the need for a more robust estimating and pricing tool, Phil and his team began to look for a solution that would ensure FMM could streamline and standardize their estimating and pricing processes.
ProPricer Transforms Chaos into Speed, Accuracy, and Confidence
The breakthrough came when FMM realized its top customer—a leading government defense contractor—was already using Deltek ProPricer. Adopting the same solution meant faster collaboration, greater credibility, and an opportunity to finally standardize their estimating process. “That was a great selling point to our senior leadership team,” stated Phil. “It would allow us to save lots of time and effort by seamlessly sharing files with them.”
Once the FMM team met with ProPricer’s experts, FMM recognized how the discipline inherent in the solution could serve as the driver to standardize their estimating processes. “To use the tool properly, you need to have your pricing algorithm built and document the steps to roll up into that,” explained Phil. “It forces you to be very specific about who has responsibility for each and every item.”
In just a few weeks, Phil's team achieved buy-in regarding roles and responsibilities, and the ways in which estimators would roll up costs. For example, FMM established specific roles for the following: the individual responsible for all direct and indirect rate information; the individuals charged with estimating hours for the various skill blocks; the individuals responsible for estimating direct materials; and the department responsible for consolidating and building the master file. “Once we defined that and documented the process and procedures, it became pretty seamless,” said Phil. It also provided a view into how much FMM had previously relied on organizational knowledge over robust processes. “We had a pretty good laugh when we realized an electrical engineer had been calculating many of our manufacturing estimates,” stated Phil. “We realized the extent to which we needed ProPricer’s structure.”
After ProPricer: 75% Faster Bids and Scalable Growth
Eight years later, the results speak for themselves: FMM slashed bid cycle times to a fraction of what they once were, eliminated endless back-and-forth with primes, and gained confidence in every estimate. With ProPricer enforcing consistency across rate tables and cost relationships, errors are caught automatically. Change order problems are also a thing of the past, as FMM can price the largest of them in just a couple of hours once the estimates are complete. There is no more negotiating on form and format. What took weeks now takes hours.
Not only is ProPricer helping FMM produce fast, accurate bids, but it also enables simultaneous reporting. “I can dump ProPricer data into tables and reports the way our senior leadership team likes to view them,” said Phil. “We also established a specific version for our prime-contractor relationship within ProPricer and exchange files with them in their standard bid package format automatically.”
An unforeseen benefit of ProPricer has been the ‘sanity check’ it imposes on estimates. Prior to using ProPricer, FMM estimators would commonly adjust staffing numbers without simultaneously adjusting all related costs. Today, they always adjust criteria in proportional amounts. “At first, people thought ProPricer was randomly piling on costs, but they quickly saw that ProPricer was properly enforcing the formulas and CERs, preventing them from under-estimating prices,” added Phil. “We definitely have a better handle on our costs and what our bids should be.”
A third major benefit of ProPricer has been FMM’s ability to scale up and down as needed. Because ProPricer serves as the singular data hub for all project estimating, different individuals work on different components of a bid, while one person choreographs the roll-ups. “It means we can scale for things like our latest opportunity,” said Phil.
We bid another 10 ships using ProPricer in the time it would have taken us to bid 3 before.
Why FMM Loves ProPricer
Phil cites the structure, standardization, accuracy, and process speed gained as ProPricer’s four primary benefits for FMM. Yet, all that was made possible because FMM staff found it easy to get ‘up and running’ quickly with the tool. “Once people are in ProPricer and use it, it's pretty easy,” said Phil.
FMM also benefited greatly from ProPricer support and services. When the Naval Sea Systems Command required certain unique forms and formats accompany every bid, ProPricer support staff programmed a custom form filler and output for FMM. “I literally would have spent six months typing these out manually,” said Phil. “For a very nominal fee, I now have them in the templated formats which I can print or share immediately.” In fact, on a recent bid by FMM, Phil estimates he saved a full week using this approach.
Looking Ahead: Confidence as a Prime Contractor
Armed with ProPricer, FMM has the confidence to win bigger contracts. In fact, the company secured the US Navy’s prime contract for the next generation of guided missile frigates, something leaders say would not have been possible without the rigor and structure ProPricer provides.
“There is a lot more oversight and regulations when one becomes a prime contractor. We have all the business system requirements we never had before,” said Phil. “But we know we have the rigor and structure in place as well as the ability to provide the extra level of documentation they will require.” He noted this would not have been possible prior to implementing ProPricer. Phil concluded that without it, FMM would not have passed the reviews. With the estimating system in place, FMM is set to meet all requirements.
