Maybe this is an over simplification of the truth. Guys working out of their garage for $28.00/hr think they are killing it. A real shop owner sees certain death. A novice to business,(not just machining, any business) thinks he is just garnering market share instead of leaving all his profit on the table. I am not suggesting price fixing. But, there is a huge differance between a $55-$75/hour rate and anything below $40/hr. Purchasing agents have also ruined things. They are only driven by price. When engineers were purchasing, they had a reasonable expectation of what a job required and allowed pricing to be in-line with their knowledge. Any shop that constantly bends over for ruthless purchasers only gets screwed ultimately. As soon as you bump your rate even a little, they throw you out with the garbage and are down the road looking for the next sucker. Any job put out for bid to 50 different shops is a certain killer. It only makes since that someone is going to make a mistake and win the job while losing the farm. Or, the purchaser will try to cherry-pick each quote and give each shop only the parts they will lose money on. To wrap it up, I am saying we are being taken advantage of collectively and individually! We need to be more educated about approaches to projects and business. There is a big differance between sharing actual quoted numbers and balanced approaches to arriving at a fair price for the shop.  |