The hidden cost (€2.37M) of order errors in manufacturing

3 orders. 3 mistakes. 1 week.
That’s when things broke.

Production was delayed. Materials wasted. Lead times blew.

The cause? The same one as always.

A pricing spreadsheet… half broken, outdated, and passed between sales and ops like a hot potato.
No one owned it.
No one questioned it.

Because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”

But that week, something changed.

The production manager walked into the CEO’s office, dropped three printed orders on the desk, and said:

“These all had errors. Fixing them cost us a week and thousands in rework. I had to stop the line and reorganize everything several times.”

The CEO called in the VP of Sales.

“What is this? Why are we still doing things this way? Come on guys… it’s 2025!”

The VP already knew.

Their whole process was based on a v37 Excel file no one fully understood anymore (built by the “Excel guy” who left a while ago).

Products, logic, and rules changed constantly. Options were added. Pricing updated.

And reps were just trying to get quotes out the door.
And orders in.
Fast.

Until the mistakes reached the factory floor.

When the leadership team finally took a closer look, the numbers were clear:

~15% of all orders contained errors.

Some small. Some big. All expensive.

In one year, these mistakes cost up to €2.37M in lost margin, rework, and delays.

And here’s the thing:
Every manufacturing company is facing some version of this.

Do the math:

• How many orders do you process per month?

• What % of those have errors or require rework?

• What’s the average cost per error (materials, time, delays, lost margin, bad rep)?

Even if it’s 5% of orders and €500 per mistake, you still lose €25k/m. That’s €300k per year.

The VP Sales started looking for solutions.

He didn’t want a new or better spreadsheet… or more training.

He wanted something that removed the risk entirely.

He found Visual CPQ.

A platform that made configuration simple, visual, and guided.

For sales. For dealers. Even for end-customers.

• No errors.

• No missed options.

• No pricing mistakes.

• No tribal knowledge buried in Excel.

He pitched it to the CEO the next day.

The CEO asked one question:

“How fast can we get this live?”

60 days later, it was…

• Order errors dropped by 90%.

• Sales didn’t waste time double-checking pricing.

• All quotes went out the same day, with 73% less work.

• Production got exactly what they needed.

And customers noticed. Immediately.

What changed?
Not the product.
Not the people.

Just a decision to stop accepting broken processes as “normal”.

If any of this sounds familiar, we’d be happy to walk you through how companies like yours are solving it—fast and for good. Talk to an expert.