by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Most shops know how to price machine time and material. Far fewer have a repeatable way to quote inspection — especially First Article Inspection (FAI) — so it often ends up as a flat fee, a guess, or a line item buried in overhead. The result: you either lose money...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Most shops know the feeling: a quote goes out for a seemingly straightforward CNC or sheet metal part, but once the job hits the floor, fixturing eats half a day. Custom soft jaws, vacuum tables, modular clamps, or welded fixtures — they all take design time,...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Statistical process control (SPC) requirements show up in RFQs more often as customers tighten quality expectations. For digital manufacturers — especially CNC shops and 3D printing service bureaus — these requirements add real cost that’s easy to underestimate....
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Sheet metal nesting turns a flat sheet into a puzzle — and if your quoting doesn’t account for every piece, margins disappear fast. Unlike CNC milling where you quote per part, nesting means one sheet feeds multiple jobs, multiple parts, and sometimes multiple...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Quoting a multi-cavity mold job isn’t just scaling up a single-cavity estimate. The tooling cost, cycle time, and per-part economics shift in ways that can make or lose money on the program. Shops that treat multi-cavity like a simple multiplier often underprice...
