CNC MACHINING COMPANIES
How a CNC Job Shop Owner Can Quote Faster and Win Better Work
Four RFQs sit in your inbox on Monday morning. Each has a drawing, a quantity and a deadline for the quote. You can price one properly before lunch, and the other three get a rough figure from memory. Two of those figures will be too low.
We work with the owner on how a job shop quotes and runs. Machine-hour rates, setup and tooling in the price, quote follow-up, and a weekly look at idle time and unpaid invoices. We do not advise on programming, tolerances or machine selection. Your programmers and buyers decide those.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Machine-hour rates are guessed or copied from a rival, so a job on the older VMC and a job on the five-axis cost the same on paper.
- 02Setup time and tool wear are left out of small-lot quotes, and the shop loses money exactly on the jobs that look easy.
- 03Quotes are sent and forgotten, so the owner cannot say how many were won, how many lost on price, or which buyers reorder.
- 04Idle spindle time hides inside a busy shop, because nobody records waiting for material, waiting for inspection or waiting for a fixture.
- 05Operators are paid a flat salary regardless of cycle time, so a faster proving of a program brings nothing to the person who did it.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01Machine-hour rate card per machine, built from depreciation, power, operator, maintenance and floor space
- 02Quote sheet with separate lines for setup, programming, tooling, cycle time and inspection
- 03Quote log with date, buyer, price, result and reason for loss, reviewed monthly
- 04Repeat-part list showing which customers reorder, how often, and the last price quoted
- 05Spindle-hour board showing running, setup, waiting for material and breakdown for each machine
- 06Free-issue versus own-material rules written on the quote so there is no argument at invoicing
- 07Operator incentive linked to proved-out cycle times and first-time-right parts
- 08Debtors list by buyer with promised payment dates and the person who rings
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Work out the true hourly cost of your busiest machine on paper: instalment or depreciation, operator, power, tooling and maintenance, divided by hours actually run. Do not use hours the machine is merely switched on.
- Hypothetical example: a machine costs ₹55,000 a month in all, and runs 220 productive hours. The true rate is ₹250 an hour, not the ₹180 you may have been quoting.
- Open your last month of quotes and mark which you won. Then ring two buyers you lost and ask what price they chose. That conversation costs nothing and teaches you plenty.
- Ask each supervisor to note, for one day, every time a machine stood still and why.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A machine-hour rate card and a one-page quote template that includes setup and tooling
- A quote log and a weekly follow-up routine for open RFQs
- A weekly spindle-hours review with the supervisor, with a short action list
- An incentive note for operators and programmers tied to cycle time and rejections
Not the right fit when: If the shop is losing work because of a quality or tolerance fault, fix that with your quality and programming leads before changing how you price.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
