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Minimum job size

Pattnmaker

Stainless
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
Do you guys have minimum job sizes, how do you handle the small jobs you are asked to quote especially from major customers? I sometimes get tiny RFQs from customers often customers that I get a fair amount of work from. These are 1 off jobs that are less than an hour to 2 hours long. I find I spend as long or longer pricing material, typing up the quote, getting material, thinking about the best way to do the job, delivering or calling for pickup and then billing the job, than I do making the job. Unfortunately I have been doing a lot of little jobs lately. I do find I get much further ahead when I work on larger multiple week jobs even when I go over on the quoted time on the large jobs.
 
I will do the occasional freebie for an established good customer that I get steady volume from. Otherwise, if it's just a tiny order, it gets quoted with accommodations for all that stuff you mentioned. Customer either really needs a $60 washer, or they say no, and you stop getting tiny orders. If I were to get several of those from the same customer (without sufficient offsetting larger orders) I would explain to them the overhead, and that's why they are getting "crazy" prices for tiny orders. That way there's no hard feelings.

Regards.

Mike
 
From the buying end, I can say that I often have little quotes I need. Feel free to hate me! :) That said, when I do get a quote (many suppliers simply ignore) it is either of two ways:

1) "LOT charge". In other words, a minimum job charge.
2) Price quotation of work + "Tooling Charge". I basically take that to mean the service charge for the time spent on those aspects you mention.

Maybe I'm out of the norm, but I have no issue with such stipulations. I need you to make money (but not be greedy) in order to fulfill the order. The two things that irc me royally, though, are 1) complete non-response. 2) a "we don't want this job" quote. The latter is a ridiculously high price. I would rather receive a clear, quick, no-nonsense "no quote" reply. I know I'm probably not your typical customer, but perhaps I can shed some light on a representative few.
 
What I do with one customer who does this quite a bit, asking for a 'one-of' prototype: if I plan to do it on the cnc, and could make 2 or more for very little more trouble than the price of 1, I quote them the prices for a lot of 1 or 2, and typically, this makes the price of each item in the lot of 2 about half of what it would otherwise have been. This introduces the concept of cost savings to them, as they might as well get two for nearly the same money, and I look less like an a-hole for the high quote on 1 part.

And it helps me out if one of them doesn't make it all the way to final product, there is still one left. And they get it for the price of 1, not half the price of a lot of two.

But other stuff where we're making parts manually, then I do not offer the discount for 2, because it is nearly twice the trouble.
 
Small Orders

Our work is aerospace and all the paperwork, certs. and inspection is required on every order. Also we usually will have to babysit the customers inspector.

$500.00 lot charge is our min. and sometimes that is not enough for a ten dollar part.
 
Here we go, just be honest and say you dont do small short runs and one offs make you lose time and money unless they give you a blank check.

You need to get what you want and by dicking around you suffer the loss and you dont need that.

Send them to a good job shop that does one part orders, if they come back add $200 to the quote and put it in your pocket.
 
I use a spreadsheet that is easy to add quantities to the quote. When the customer asks for one piece, I always send a quote for 1, 5, 10 and 100. Sometimes the cost for 100 is less than twice the cost of 1 part. That way they can see that the labor of making the one part is the smallest part of the job, and they 'get it'. If they want one, charge for it, and cry all the way to the bank.
 
It is the $60 washer type jobs that I am talking about. I wonder if I am making any money on those jobs when all is said and done.


As a 1-man shop, I pretty much make a living solving problems big shops don't want to mess with because they are too small or too fussy for them to deal with. I charge for the total time it takes me to solve the problem, not what I think the customer wants to spend, or what I think I would want to pay. Usually my bills are more than I would want to spend myself, but I'm cheap.

I consider time to do everything the OP mentions, and there isn't much I can do for $60, unless it's just drill some holes or something equally simple. If it's really simple, I don't even bill for it, as my paperwork takes more time than it's worth. I'll just add a little to the next job.
 
I would say that the job size is not the issue . What you need is to establish a minimum charge for your work

And perhaps a charge for quotes. I would be reluctant to do that for every walk-in, but if you had some customer that seemed to use you solely for the "third quote", I would most definitely shift to "Your quote is ready, your courier will need $xx to pick it up".

Why not? When it seems the "customer" is using you only as an appraiser, a price for the appraisal is justified.

Perhaps 5 - 10% of the quote, which would be credited towards the work, IF they agreed to the work.

If the quote morphs into a bill of materials, order of operations, machine usage etc. document,that isn't an appraisal, that's consulting.

And consulting is most likely a multiple of your shop rate.

Good Luck,
Steve
 
This is a no- brainer.

Major customer? So these guys are your bread and butter?

1 hour job? Charge them a token amount that looks good.

But, keep a tally of the time not billed, add this to the big jobs and it's a win-win thing.

Dang, been doing this for years.
 








 
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