DEMO — fictional range. Local brief only, NOT SENT. No personal data is collected or transmitted.
BUYING
What a quotation needs in order to be a quotation.
Most machining enquiries stall because the buyer has a part in mind and no specification on paper. This page is the list worth completing before the first message.
- The part
- A drawing, or at least the features that decide it
- The material
- Alloy and temper, not "aluminium"
- The tolerance
- Which dimensions matter and which are clearance
- The finish
- And whether it is measured before or after coating
- The quantity
- And the split, because setup cost is divided by the batch
- The standard
- What the part has to meet, and who confirms it
- The inspection
- What is measured, by whom, and when
- The route
- Where it goes and what it has to survive on the way
Why a photograph is not a specification.
A photograph sets a direction. A specification gets a quote. The gap between them is every dimension that was never written down, and each one becomes a question later.
The most useful sentence in an enquiry.
"The feature we are worried about is the bore position, and here is how we will measure it." It tells the supplier where to spend attention, and it is the sentence that most enquiries leave out.
Why written beats verbal.
The expensive conversations in a programme are the ones about what was agreed. A brief that exists only in a meeting leaves every disputed detail open.