Whats your quoting process?

[motor-vater]

More and more the quotes seem to be piling up on my desk, its getting hard to keep up with them and still have time to actually program. I some times wonder why they even have me quote since they generally gut my quote and submit it to the customer how they want to anyway.. lol Seriously its driving me nuts. If I fill out the sheet and say 2 ops, 15 hours program and set up, 17 min first op, 4 min second op..... They just change it to 4 hours set up, 12 min first op, 2 min second. Then when it hits the floor the production coordinator is on me cause it says on the traveler what they quoted at.. lol I'm at the point where I'm gonna start making copies of my original submital to show the PC that I am right on time with what I said it would be.. I mean it takes time to program, fixture, test cuts, and proof out a program right? By giving them an honest estimate of that time you would think I was doing them a solid right? LOL... end of rant!

 

But that being said it takes me to much time to quote because I am pretty thorough, Alot of times I will spend an hour or so whipping  up some quick toolpaths just to get a better idea of how I wanna machine it and how long it might take. Cutting into the time I need to actually program. I think most guys rely on experience and can just look at something and say, yeah this is gonna take this long, but  every time I do that I seem to miss an important feature, an undercut or something that requires a custom tool, etc. So I prefer to actually spend a little time looking at it in the world of 3d. But I am wondering if anyone uses some sort of system to make this process any easier? I am assuming most of the burden of quoting falls on the programmer anyway so I might as well find out how to conquire the quoting system. Thanks for the help, and if this turns into everyone ranting about how their company does the same kind of BS well thats fine too, at least I will know I am not alone in this... Lol

[htm01]

at least you get to see it first, i just get "program this" and oh yeah it's due to ship Friday!

[motor-vater]

I get that too... lol

[Reko]

I almost never program it to get a cycle time... unless it is a big dollar job I don't want to make a mistake on... that just takes too long. 

I agree with your bosses... generic estimate of set up time... I can usually estimate cycle time by referencing past parts that were similar.

What I focus on is not missing details like close tolerances or areas of the part that might take a special set up like EDM or something.

Don't miss heat treat or coatings... and try to picture if special tooling will need to be purchased.

[Newbeeee™]

As Reko says + I look at the mtl first, then general tolerances, then scan the drawing for the +/-.0000000001 limit.

For me, it's a gut thing based on knowing your customers (and what customers will pay what as some have more expensive "tastes" than others) and guestimation based on existing/similar parts.

Edit:- I would very occasionally throw a path on a part and post it out and run it through NCPlot to get a time for that feature.

[lowcountrycamo]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 2:57 AM, htm01 said:

at least you get to see it first, i just get "program this" and oh yeah it's due to ship Friday!

I have received that twice this week.  3 parts programed and done today, "sorry I forgot to tell you last week."

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I'm getting "Here, make some of these so we can test them in the morning" at 4:30pm.

And I deliver.

[BrianP.]

On 5/8/2018 at 5:57 AM, htm01 said:

at least you get to see it first, i just get "program this" and oh yeah it's due to ship Friday!

 

On 5/8/2018 at 12:26 PM, motor-vater said:

I get that too... lol

 

18 hours ago, lowcountrycamo said:

I have received that twice this week.  3 parts programed and done today, "sorry I forgot to tell you last week."

 

13 hours ago, Matthew Hajicek™ - Conventus said:

I'm getting "Here, make some of these so we can test them in the morning" at 4:30pm.

And I deliver.

Man I do not miss that. The place I am at now we do microwave components. Almost everything gets brazed. Then maybe machined again, Then plated or chromated. Possibly painted. Then tested. Nothing ships by Friday. Everything is weeks to months out. I recently had a job offer with almost a 15 percent pay raise. It was back to a job shop. I thought about it and decided it was not worth it. They want me back in that rat race going to have to offer more than that.

[DUM1]

YOURE NOT ALONE ! they finally quit asking me to help quote ...mostly ... 

 

[Newbeeee™]

Quoting is a difficult job. In my old place I 100% hated it. Being a salesman, you're on parade everyday.

I've worked at places where the machinists would say "that's too cheap - we should be getting $X for this job" but the reality is, customers generally know what they can "allow" and certainly know how much they'll pay for a part.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you take on a job for the sake of it and loose money - never loose money - always at least break even.

But if your customer is constantly low balling you, you have two choices. Cut them loose or step up. To quote Barefoot CNC - Don't be out-machined!

[CADCAM3D5AXIS]

^^  The Funny thing is most people do not even second guess how much they get charged for things like car maintenance or plumber or electrician  work they just pay mostly whatever the guy says or they learn to do it themselves.But when it comes to Machine/sheetmetal/any other metal working   /welding processes they think its only worth a few dollars or cents on the dollar for the precision parts they may need.If it is somebody fishing for cheap parts that cost more in material than what they want to pay  I usually tell them to go down to the corner store or hardware store of there choice and see if its hanging on the shelf and then pick some up. And if its not there then go ask the Manager how come they don't have it and that you needed it yesterday  and you dont wont to pay the list price but some other price you dreamed up. Then you lay the reality check on them and go into all of the detail i just mentioned above to them as they look at you with the deer in the headlight look in there eyes cuz they do not even have a CLUE   !!    for the most part anyway .