How to Quote Inspection and CMM Time

Most shops know how to quote machine time, material, and setup. Inspection is different. It doesn’t make chips, but it consumes capacity, ties up skilled operators, and determines whether a job ships or gets rejected. Underquote it and you eat the cost. Overquote it and you lose the bid.

The problem isn’t that inspection is hard to estimate — it’s that most quoting workflows treat it as a flat percentage or a single line item. That works until a customer sends a drawing with 40 GD&T callouts, a first-article requirement, and a CMM report in the deliverables.

Why Inspection Quoting Goes Wrong

Three patterns show up again and again:

• Percentage padding: Adding 10-15% to the total quote for “QC” without knowing what the drawing actually requires.
• Ignoring first-article inspection (FAI): FAI per AS9102 or PPAP can take 4-8 hours on a single part. If it’s not line-itemed, it disappears into overhead.
• Treating all CMM time as equal: A 5-minute go/no-go check and a 3-hour CMM program with alignment, probing strategy, and reporting are not the same thing.

These shortcuts made sense when inspection was a small fraction of job cost. In high-mix, tight-tolerance digital manufacturing, inspection can hit 20-30% of total cycle time.

Break Inspection Into Quoteable Units

Start by categorizing every inspection activity your shop performs. A practical breakdown:

1. In-process checks — Operator verification at the machine (go/no-go gauges, handheld micrometers, visual). Usually minutes per check.
2. Bench inspection — Height gauges, optical comparators, surface roughness testers. 15-60 minutes typical.
3. CMM inspection — Programmable coordinate measuring machines. Break this down further:
   • Programming time (offline or at-machine)
   • Setup and alignment
   • Run time (probing cycles)
   • Report generation (PDF, CSV, FAI forms)
4. Specialized inspection — CT scanning, white-light scanning, gear inspection, thread gauging, hardness testing. Often outsourced; quote as a pass-through with margin.

Each unit gets a rate: labor rate + equipment rate (if CMM or specialized gear). Your quoting system should let you add these as discrete line items, not a lump sum.

Extract Inspection Requirements From the RFQ

Don’t wait for the quality team to tell you what’s needed after you’ve won the job. Build a quick triage into your quoting workflow:

• GD&T density: Count callouts per drawing sheet. More callouts = more CMM time.
• Datums and alignment complexity: A part with 3 datums and basic dimensions is faster to align than one with 6 datums, composite position, and profile tolerances.
• FAI / PPAP level: Level 1 (dimensional only) vs. Level 3 (full documentation, material certs, process records). Each level adds hours.
• Reporting format: Simple pass/fail vs. annotated balloon drawing vs. AS9102 forms vs. customer portal upload.
• Sampling plan: 100% inspection? AQL? First-off only? This drives total CMM runs.

If the RFQ package doesn’t specify, ask. A 5-minute clarification email saves hours of rework later.

Build a CMM Time Model You Can Reuse

You don’t need a new estimate from scratch every time. Create a parametric model inside your quoting engine:

• Base programming time: 30-60 minutes for a new part (import CAD, create alignment, define features).
• Per-feature time: 2-5 minutes per measured feature (plane, circle, cylinder, position, profile).
• Complexity multipliers: +50% for composite tolerances, +30% for scanning paths vs. touch points, +20% for palletized/multi-part setups.
• Report time: 15 minutes for basic, 45-60 minutes for FAI ballooned reports.

Calibrate these numbers against your last 20 CMM jobs. Track actual vs. estimated. Adjust quarterly.

Quote Inspection as a Separate Phase

In your quote output, show inspection as its own phase with line items. Example structure:

• Phase 1: Programming & Setup — 1.5 hrs @ $120/hr (CMM + programmer)
• Phase 2: First Article Inspection — 3 hrs @ $120/hr
• Phase 3: Production Sampling (AQL Level II) — 0.5 hrs/part @ $120/hr
• Phase 4: Reporting & Documentation — 1 hr @ $85/hr (quality engineer)

This does two things: the customer sees exactly what they’re paying for, and your shop floor knows what’s expected. No “I thought QC was included” arguments.

Handle Outsourced Inspection Transparently

If you send parts out for CT scanning, gear verification, or accredited lab work, quote it as a pass-through line item with your standard markup (typically 15-25%). Include lead time for the external lab in your overall schedule. Note any shipping or fixturing costs the lab requires.

Track Actuals to Close the Loop

The only way to improve inspection quoting is feedback. Your MES or job tracker should capture:

• Actual CMM programming time vs. quoted
• Actual run time vs. quoted (per part)
• Rework or re-inspection events
• Customer-accepted vs. rejected FAI submissions

Review monthly. If you’re consistently under on programming but over on run time, adjust the model. If FAI rejections spike, add a buffer for “FAI revision cycles.”

Conclusion

Inspection isn’t overhead — it’s a deliverable the customer pays for. When you quote it with the same rigor as machining or printing, you protect margin, set clear expectations, and avoid the “just one more check” scope creep that kills profitability on tight-tolerance jobs.

Solvi’s quoting engine lets you build inspection phases as reusable templates with parametric CMM time models, so every quote reflects the real cost of quality. See how it works.