Using Xometry as a "free" quoting software?

[Trevor360]

Curious if any shops out there have ever uploaded customer parts to Xometry to see what Xometry would have changed them before quoting.

On that note, what are people's thoughts on the prices Xometry changes to its customers (not talking about what they pay their vendors, which everyone agrees is low). Do you generally end up charging your customers more or less than Xometry would have (for what is likely a worse version of their part)?

We do challenging work for very picky customers, and Xometry would be unable to produce the parts we do reliably, so we are not competing with them. But it is an interesting thought experiment to see if their instant quoting software could be used to shops' advantage. Just upload a customer part and then multiply by some factor and send along a quote....

Of course, you can only upload work that would not breach contracts or regulations (NDA, ITAR, etc.), so it is somewhat limited. Also, to be clear, this is not our business model; we use spreadsheets to quote, but more of an interesting thought experiment.

 

[BarnFab]

I do it all the time it is great and gives you a number to work off if you feel like being lazy or just generally charging more than you would have usually.

 

[F35Machinist]

I have uploaded files to check their pricing. I only do this when the customer tells me they are quoting the part on xometry as well. I always bid higher than the instant quote, but that doesn't include tapped holes and tolerances anyway.

Xometry's pricing is too low in my opinion. I have had very few occasions when I would have bid lower than xometry.

 

[jccaclimber]

On the flip side, when working with one man shops I’ve specifically told them to use Protolabs as a quoting reference if they aren’t sure what to quote.

 

[EmGo]

On the flip side, when working with one man shops I’ve specifically told them to use Protolabs as a quoting reference if they aren’t sure what to quote.

How can they not know how to quote ? If they take the job, that should mean they have an idea how to do it, shouldn't it ? If you know how you plan to do it, just write that down in order - "Saw barstock, $1.50 each at Saws-R-Us, bore jaws, twenty minutes. Put blank in chuck, 5 seconds. Three rough cuts on o.d., 45 seconds .... " etc etc

There's your time, multiply by the hourly rate, multiply by your fudge factor, and there's the quote, yes ? How can there be a question ?

 

[Stirling]

my question is. When you use their calculator. How close is it to the actual end of job invoice?

The few times I peeked at it, you could not add very much before it said, send print for quote.
Any taped holes/threads. Any precision better than +-0.002” and they wanted a drawing and consultation.

I do don’t it interesting to see what other processes would cost at different volumes, such as anodizing, zinc plating. No one does this work around me so it’s a good gauge.
If I need those coatings I may very well use Xometry for the job.

An interesting gauge but I think they falsely drive down the cost expectation to potential customers.
If customers don’t go through the full process they don’t get a true price, but in turn see $10 per part. “Can you match them” when the Xometry quote had yet to add in the threads and those 2 bearing fits…..

 

[Trevor360]

my question is. When you use their calculator. How close is it to the actual end of job invoice?

The few times I peeked at it, you could not add very much before it said, send print for quote.
Any taped holes/threads. Any precision better than +-0.002” and they wanted a drawing and consultation.

I do don’t it interesting to see what other processes would cost at different volumes, such as anodizing, zinc plating. No one does this work around me so it’s a good gauge.
If I need those coatings I may very well use Xometry for the job.

An interesting gauge but I think they falsely drive down the cost expectation to potential customers.
If customers don’t go through the full process they don’t get a true price, but in turn see $10 per part. “Can you match them” when the Xometry quote had yet to add in the threads and those 2 bearing fits…..

My understanding of the "drawing required" note is that for precision or tapping they need a print included with the order. However the Calculator does automatically increases the price when you select the number of tapped holes or number of higher precision features.

I have never ordered a part from Xometry, but Im 90% sure the price you see is the price you will pay regardless of the print that is uploaded.

 

[jccaclimber]

How can they not know how to quote ? If they take the job, that should mean they have an idea how to do it, shouldn't it ? If you know how you plan to do it, just write that down in order - "Saw barstock, $1.50 each at Saws-R-Us, bore jaws, twenty minutes. Put blank in chuck, 5 seconds. Three rough cuts on o.d., 45 seconds .... " etc etc

There's your time, multiply by the hourly rate, multiply by your fudge factor, and there's the quote, yes ? How can there be a question ?

Seems silly, but it’s happened. Some cases:
1. Used to use a primarily manual gage shop. Typically really simple stuff, holes in plates, rectangular pockets, etc. Was a gage shop, but would fill some dead time with our parts when work was light. We were happy because lead time was short. At some point 2008 or so we discovered Protolabs was ok for our quality, just as fast, and on anything at all complicated way cheaper than he was. He wanted to know why we suddenly started beating him up on price or not sending him work for some stuff but didn’t care on others. The answer was “we’re getting them here, if you want to know the competition here’s how you can find out.” That employer was somewhere between thrifty and cheap, but we did pay our bills and in hindsight the shop was hungry. I’ll keep the local guy in business, even for a slight premium to maintain the relationship, but couldn’t justify 2x.

2. Another was a buddy who had been machining a while but had just hung up his own shingle. He wasn’t used to estimating for a few months, and when we sent him something very different from what he was used to it was faster to estimate that way than to estimate cycle time->cost. He figured it out fast enough.

3. Quite often instead I’ll get a “What is the price target on these?” from new-to-me shops. I understand they’re trying to make sure that I’m not expecting them at volume production prices, but the easy answer is “Protolabs wants X.” If they’re order of magnitude correct then all is well. For whatever reason it results in less questions than saying “I understand prototypes are not priced like production parts.”

 

[EmGo]

Seems silly, but it’s happened. Some cases:

Ah. I was thinking of this from the point of a machine shop, not the place that just buys stuff and isn't involved in making it. I guess from a purchasing agent point of view it makes sense.

Can't say that I like that approach tho

 

[Marvel]

I've used it on occasion, I think knowing your customer's pricing expectation is a big aspect of quoting. I've thrown parts on there that were 3x what I know my customer would ever pay and I've had some on the flip side that were lower than what I quoted.
I have one particular customer that I don't quote work for, I invoice T&M and after a job, knowing material, and any tooling cost, and my hours, I've calculated and compared to Xometry's price, and their pricing in some cases would easily clear $500/hr for the work I did.

 

[Fal Grunt]

When I started out with Xometry I compared offered prices with another forum member here, and the prices were drastically different. Say his price was $600 and mine was $1100. And neither of us would have done it for $1100.

I also took parts they offered and fed it back through their quote system. Their markup on some parts was over 50%, I threw everything away so I don’t have notes, but I think the highest I saw was 70%.

A friend of mine works in advanced development for a tier 1 supplier and they frequently use protolabs (I’m pretty sure it’s protolabs). He brought a part to show me that was nicely made. But they were having problems with the parts. I asked the obvious question, why don’t you guys bring it to me? Besides the bureaucratic BS? He said I wouldn’t want the work. The part he brought to show me was very complex. And it was nicely done. Protolabs charged $80ea for 5. I wouldn’t have made 5 for $800ea. And they did it in less than 2 weeks.

 

[gustafson]

How can they not know how to quote ? If they take the job, that should mean they have an idea how to do it, shouldn't it ? If you know how you plan to do it, just write that down in order - "Saw barstock, $1.50 each at Saws-R-Us, bore jaws, twenty minutes. Put blank in chuck, 5 seconds. Three rough cuts on o.d., 45 seconds .... " etc etc

There's your time, multiply by the hourly rate, multiply by your fudge factor, and there's the quote, yes ? How can there be a question ?

Yes it is that simple but when the quantity gets higher than you are used to, self doubt creeps in. With complex parts you have to figure out how you are going to make it in order to quote.
When you are buying material, no matter the simplicity, are you really going to go lower than 2x material costs?

 

[goldenfab]

I just did a demo this week with a sales guy for this

CNC Archives - AMFG

amfg.ai

It's basically a portal on your website that does instant quoting for you like xometry does. You can find tune the parameters so it quotes what you want.

 

[hunterwithmicroestimating]

I just did a demo this week with a sales guy for this

CNC Archives - AMFG

amfg.ai

It's basically a portal on your website that does instant quoting for you like xometry does. You can find tune the parameters so it quotes what you want.

How does it calculate run times?

 

[goldenfab]

How does it calculate run times?

I have not played with the software myself but from what I remember from the demo..
It has different metrics like features, volumes, and dimensions that you assign weight to. You feed it CAD files and tell it what you want it to quote it at. I don't remember if it calculates run time or just price. You also set an allowable percent difference from known CAD files you gave it a price for such that if a new CAD file is different by a percent you say it won't generate an automatic quote.