by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Post-processing is where digital manufacturing quotes either win or lose margin. For a one-off prototype, you can estimate sanding, dyeing, or heat treatment time with a rough multiplier. But when a customer asks for 500 dyed MJF parts with threaded inserts and a...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Every shop has been there: a hot RFQ lands, the margin looks great, and the instinct is to say “yes” to the customer’s aggressive timeline. Two weeks later, the job is stuck behind three higher-priority orders, the machine goes down for maintenance,...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Ask ten estimators how they calculate shop rate and you’ll get ten different answers. Some use a single blended hourly number. Others separate machine time from labor time but apply the same overhead multiplier to both. Few actually track them independently from...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Every shop schedules preventive maintenance. Few shops quote around it correctly. The result? Either you bake in a fat buffer that makes you uncompetitive, or you quote tight and scramble when a CNC or printer goes down for its quarterly PM.The fix isn’t...
by Chris Anjel | Aug 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
Most shops treat recurring orders the same way they treat new RFQs: open the file, check the material, verify the process, calculate the time, build the quote, send it, wait for approval. Do that twelve times a year for the same customer and you’ve burned a day...
