Cost reduction for your fabricated sheet metal or machined parts
Part Cost Reduction Making a Difference
As a purchaser, you never know what you are going to get back when sending out an RFQ. For instance, last week, I dealt with a customer that wanted a machined part fabricated, just the nature of the design consisted hours of tedious surfacing. There were other circumstances involved, but to make short of it, for this part (which was a quantity of one, prototype) he was quoted close to $3,500.00. This was way beyond the budget he was expecting, and was going back and forth with the vendor on and off for about a week.
After we worked with him and gave him some advice to chop away at the cost of his part, he was able to have the part fabricated for $1,300.00 from the same vendor. If he was aware to go through us first, none of that would have gone on the way it did. A lot of back and forth, man hours dealing with the project, things of that nature. The success story is in the result:
1. He was able to stick with the same vendor
2. The Vendor didn’t have to wrestle back and forth with the customer in order to get the business, after he turned to us.
3. A PO was cut to the same vendor, which is the reason behind the whole thing.
4. Including the costs for our services, he saved $1,950.00.
RFQ Preparation
When a customer is prepared to send out their RFQ, they would send it to us to insure all the information is provided to eliminate any questions from their vendor. As you may know, some vendors need to nurture or train their customers to provide all the necessary information involved with a quote. Either we can send the RFQ out or they can. Either way, they get feedback from anything we may have found. If they want us to send it out, they’re copied…
Nothing slows down the estimating or purchasing process faster than a lack of information. Or spending an hour to find a strange kind of material, where to purchase it, costs, etc.. Just to find out later that the customer has the material and is planning to supply. It’s details that make or break a fast turn on a quote. Please check out this article to see what I’m talking about
How to Expedite your Sheet Metal and Machining Quotes.
Conclusion
All this may be nothing new to you, as I’m sure your shop may deal with many of the same circumstances we and others have concerning this topic. The Benefit for you as a machine, sheet metal, or other type of fabrication shop would be less time (and overhead) involved with the estimating / materials end of everything. You’d have all the information required in order to quote. If you send your customers our way, it shows them that you want to help them get their parts done cheaper, and removes the burden from your company… No sliding around with your shop rates in order to get a job that you wouldn’t have otherwise.