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...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
For most manufacturing service businesses, the quote is the first real test of how you work. Before a customer sees your machines, your finishing quality, or your on-time delivery record, they see how fast and how clearly you respond to their RFQ. Get it wrong, and...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Ask three estimators to price the same complex sheet metal part and you’ll often get three different numbers. One accounts for extra bend setups, another forgets a secondary finishing step, and a third pads the price out of caution. The result is inconsistent...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Most digital manufacturing shops don’t lose quotes because their work is bad. They lose them because their quoting is slow, inconsistent, or disconnected from how the shop actually runs. An RFQ lands in an inbox, waits for an estimator, and by the time a price...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
For most 3D printing service bureaus, the quote is where jobs are won or lost. Customers upload a part, expect a price quickly, and often award the work to whoever responds first with a number they trust. Yet quoting remains one of the most manual, time-consuming...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Ask any shop owner what they lose when a quote goes out late, and the honest answer is: they don’t know. That’s the problem. Slow RFQ response times rarely announce themselves. There’s no alert when a customer chooses a faster supplier, no line item...
