Episode 21: Solutions to Quoting Mishaps

What can you do if your quotes don’t work out? Ian Sandusky (@Let’s Machine​) shares his experience and recommendations.

Here’s a classic situation you might often have deal with (hopefully not that often): a customer asked for a quote, you work on the quote and submit it, you win the job, you send it to the shop floor to start machining the parts and then you realize that the job is gonna cost you more than what you thought and quoted.
Why does that happen and are there solutions to the issues?

The simplest way to avoid this unpleasant situation is to improve the quoting process. This might sound like an obvious recommendation, but, as Ian explains in the video, changing your approach to quoting from a time-per-part estimate to a total-time-for-the-job estimate might be the ultimate solution to your quoting issues.

Other solutions to the issue include improving the communication with the machinists on the floor to make sure they understand your quoting thought process and finally avoid perfectionism.

Have you ever faced quoting problems? How did you approach it? Share your thoughts and experience in the comments or join the conversation on the Practical Machinist forum.

Stay tuned for more machining videos!