Extra parts, give to customer or throw it in the bin?

[Phil in Montana]

It is all in how you make the deal, I always deliver what was ordered and up to 5% over run if the parts are good. I can not make 1 or 2 more if if goof so a order of 100 pcs, I will make 105 and probably ruin 2 or 3 in set up. The good overrun of 2 will be billed....Phil

 

[M.B. Naegle]

If it's a custom job that we can't sell, or we know it's not going to be a repeat job, depending on the part we'll either give the customer the option to buy the extra parts (typically full price), or if it's bits and pieces just throw it in for free. Our loss for overstock. If the customer doesn't want them, occasionally we'll save it on the off chance it can go towards a future order, or just as a sample/pattern for our own internal evaluation, but often it'll go in the scrap bin so we at least get a few pennies for it.

Over the last five years however we've been consolidating about 100 years (seriously) of random bits of used parts, old stock inventory, and left over custom stuff, and I can tell you there is a danger in saving too much "just in case," but there are also at least as many cases where that one bit of garbage saves you from a bunch of headache. The thin line that separates you from being a hoarder however is lots and lots of practical organization. If you can't find it, it won't make you any money.

 

[indianamoon]

With me it always depended on the customer. The ones who were a pain in the a$$ got to buy them later if they needed them, the good customers got the extras for free.

 

[TeachMePlease]

Most of my customers will accept a 10% undership but zero over ship.
Imagine that you order 50 .1025 wide Top-notch groovers and I ship you 55 with a bill for all. Some okay with this, many are unhappy.
From the customer side depends on if a will be a repeating item and to some extent the size of the customer. (some of the biggest allow no overs and some of the smaller don't have it in the budget)
Processing run scrap is hard to know in advance so we run extras. These go on the shelf and for sometimes up to 10 years or more.
I do mention to the customer from time to time that I have a few in stock and that they can have them not only fast but at the pricing from the original order.

There is also the siting and rotting if the job has gone somewhere else. I may just dump a my handful overrun on a an engineer's desk for free at this point as a sales tool.
Ship it no cost with the original order and few will remember this favor down the road.
Bob

I buy a LOT of custom tooling. Like... a LOT.

I don't think I've ever had a quote that DIDN'T say something to the effect of "Custom made to order, subject to quantity variance of +/- 10%" which I tacitly accept when I place the PO using that quote.

 

[tcncj]

Gave the part extra to the customer in the end. Maybe for testing purposes.
First thing he said.... "ok that's great! The little toolmark (that's the reason why I wanted to scrap the part) is not an issue. And we only need the other parts of the assembly next time"
Lessons learned haha
Scrapped parts --> to the bin

 

[gustafson]

spammer reported

 

[Ox]

spammer reported

That is weird, I am sure that I punched someone's ticket with that same message in the last day'r two.

Was it two different identities - or did I bugger up the ban/delete?

Hmmmm... ???


This one here has 4 other posts elsewhere that I kan't reach, but if you see it - it should show "banned", so ....




----------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Bill D]

The term "bakers dozen" is supposed to have originated in England when they imposed severe penalty's, like flogging, for short changing on the weight of a loaf. For a single loaf they would give a small slice extra. For a wholesale purchase of 12 loaves they threw in an extra loaf to make sure they had counted enough.
Used to be as a kid when you bought something they threw in an extra screw, washer, nut etc just in case. Now the stuff from China has the exact parts count and shame on you if your drop one and lose it.
Bill D

 

[ttrager]

For Jobs where we've included some number of extras to account for St. Murphy Events, our procedure is:

1) At the outset identify if the customer is willing to buy the extras, if any, when the job is completed.
2) If yes, they ship with the order.
3) If no, they are boxed up, labelled, and put into our special "Extras" Inventory stock. Should the customer have an emergency and needs something fast, we've been able to ship them a few parts instantly, or a jump-start on a repeat order.

We might also put parts on this shelf if they are . . . slightly . . . out of tolerance. Again, for the purposes of a rapid response to a customer in the event they have a problem. We've actually had this happen a couple of times, we simply let them know what's being shipped and what the dimensions are, and we've been able to save a customer some heart ache by keeping them running long enough to get an order of conforming parts to them.

 

[jackal]

I have a customer that has started ordering gear box adapter plates. He orders 10 at a time.
I tell him I'll make 12 to make sure 10 are good ( also the burnouts are better priced by the dozen).
He goes along.
Sometimes he gets 12, and sometimes 11, but they are $90 each either way.

 

[wheelieking71]

I have a customer that has started ordering gear box adapter plates. He orders 10 at a time.
I tell him I'll make 12 to make sure 10 are good ( also the burnouts are better priced by the dozen).
He goes along.
Sometimes he gets 12, and sometimes 11, but they are $90 each either way.

This is similar to what I do. If I get an order for 100pcs, I order 110 for scrap allowance.
I'm lucky that the customers I have "get it" and will buy however many I can not scrap when the run is complete.
A good portion of my work now is a family of parts I have been doing for years. 10 part#s. 5 of them get 5 set-ups. 5 of them get 7 set-ups.
I have only gotten through the whole run once (in 6 years) with zero scrap!
And, I have only delivered less than the order quantity twice. LOL

 

[Mark P.]

I machine most of the time assemblies for customers.
These are a bit complex and I always make a few extra. So that if I screw something up or a tool brakes I don't have to go back to operation 1.
This cost me a few minutes extra. But if I have to start from the beginning it will cost me a couple of hours.
On a good day I don't have any scrap parts and I have a few extra good parts. Or parts with very small imperfections.
But what should I do with them? Give them to the customer as extra? Just throw them in the bin? These are not repeat jobs

We are closing. One customer took the time to come and look over things in our shop. They saw some of their parts in storage and offered to buy any spare parts of theirs lying around at cost. Another customer, I offered parts of theirs to them at a discounted rate and haven't heard back. Maybe keep yours for a while....you never know

 

[HuFlungDung]

The way i look at it, if the customer orders 10 of a 1 time job (and it is a cnc job), I'm going to price the job on making 12 parts, whether they all turn out or not. I want to be sure that he gets at least the quantity ordered. So I include the extras at no extra charge if they are good ones. It's never the first one that is cheapest to make, it's the last one after the program and setup are proven.

If the material is pricey for the extras, then I'll ask the customer to pay extra for the extra stock which might not be needed, or if he is ok with getting fewer than ordered if a couple don't make it all the way through.

For orders that repeat regularly, I'll make extras and hold them in stock.