by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Every RFQ feels like an opportunity. But quoting takes time, and time spent estimating a job you’ll never win — or shouldn’t want — is time stolen from work that pays. The best shops don’t quote everything. They qualify first.Here are the questions...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Low-volume, high-mix (LVHM) work is where a lot of shops quietly lose money. The parts are interesting, the customers keep coming back, and the invoices look fine — but the margins don’t hold up because the real costs hide in setup, changeover, and one-off...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Raw metal prices rarely sit still. Steel, aluminum, copper, and specialty alloys can move week to week, and every swing eats directly into your margin if your quotes lag behind. For sheet metal shops, CNC machining shops, and on-demand manufacturers, material is often...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Ask ten shops what their labor rate is, and you’ll get ten confident numbers — most of them wrong. A labor rate that doesn’t reflect your real shop floor quietly bleeds margin on every job. Here are the questions we hear most from CNC, sheet metal, and 3D...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Ask two estimators to quote the same part and you may get two very different numbers. One pads for risk, another forgets a setup charge, a third uses last year’s material cost. For a digital manufacturing shop, that inconsistency quietly erodes margins, confuses...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Every estimator knows the pain: an RFQ lands, the part looks simple, and then the questions start. Wall thickness that won’t hold up, tolerances that force a secondary process, features no standard tool can reach. Each unknown adds a round of back-and-forth, and...
