09-30-2005, 09:34 PM
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| | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: usa
Posts: 376
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You probably posted in the wrong forum, but, 90% of the time its a crapshoot. If you quote enough and do enough jobs it just becomes natural. First and foremost is what is your shops hourly rate, we generally run $65 an hour for machine time, and $35 for non machine time. Basically you start with how long is this going to take??? How many setups? How long is each setup going to take? Run time? Part checking and part swapping time, this really comes in with some castings and high tolerance items, since there are some parts that you just slap another one in and hit go, and some that you check before you slap another one in. How tight are the tolerances and how will that effect your scrap rate, what kind of lead time do they want? Whats the quantity, one is way more expensive per part then 1000.
As far as the natural part goes, I am lucky enough to do mostly DoD work and there is almost always a previous history. The really lucky part comes with I only have to quote the machining part and the boss/owner figures out the rest of the crap, material cost/heat treat/coatings/NDT/shipping/packaging/etc... The really reallly good part is that 'the shop' only has to purchase materials on only about 1% of our contracts, so the fluctuation doesn't hurt us.
From watching the POs I've got a pretty good feel as to what the outside processes cost, and can figure out a good target price. If I can't meet it, I give the boss an honest answer (we've had a couple parts that are way undervalued due to cost of material increases and people are still undercutting)
If your an HSM, and my guess is that you are since the forum is CNC machine building, you need to realize that a production shop with good machines can knock out a part in a fraction of the time than most HSM machines can.
As for a general answer, if you keep losing bids, your too high, if you get flooded with work, your too low. If a company needs a quote the best line you can give them is "whats your target price?" If your on the phone with them and you can meet or come in under, you will probably get the job. (the RED SOX just won!!!) If you can't meet their target, tell them, if you know them ask them whats their lowest bid and say you can do it for like 25 cents under, if not, tell them hey, you got a good price. A good relationship with the buyer is key, if they are local and can swing by your place every so often, even better. The worst part is the kissing ass thing, I'm not much for it, but it needs to be done(not full on french kissing, just a brushing of the cheeks), if you get them what they need, when they need it, especially if its HOT!!!!! They will come back to you on other jobs without getting other quotes(target price once again) since they KNOW you will deliver.
That probably didn't help at all, but keep your quality good, and kiss ass when you need to. If you screw up, apologize and fix it as fast as humanly possible(all nighters if need be, depending on the customer). Keep to your deadlines and if you can't, inform who ever as soon as you know you can't, nothing is worse than letting a ship date slip by without so much as a phone call. So I guess that good quoting isn't really as important as kissing ass, sad isnt' it..  |
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