Notes for owners · Sales management
Quoting for a development part: tooling, samples and the volume nobody has committed to
How an auto component maker quotes a new part: the tool on its own lines with ownership and payment stages, the sample rounds the price includes, and a piece price tied in writing to the volume it assumes.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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A tier-one supplier has sent the drawing for a new side panel. The RFQ gives an annual volume and asks for tooling and piece price separately. Nobody has committed to that volume. It is a forecast for a model that has not launched. So quote a development part in three blocks. First the tool, paid once and owned by whoever pays for it. Then the samples, with the number of trial rounds your price covers. Last, a piece price tied in writing to the volume it assumes, and what happens if that volume does not come.
What makes a development quote different
A running part has a tool, a sample approval and a price history. A development part has none of them. Expect the drawing to change after you start, because the buyer's own design is still settling. And the volume depends on how a vehicle sells that nobody has driven yet.
Each of these becomes your cost if the quote is silent about it. The reply format itself, in the buyer's item order with a deviation table on top, is set out in what to put in an RFQ reply. Here the subject is what goes inside the tooling and price lines. Purchase teams compare those lines across vendors.
The development quote, line by line
| Line | What to write | What it costs you if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | Mould or die, number of cavities or stages, tool steel, and rated life in shots or strokes | A tool worn out at the buyer's volume and replaced at your cost |
| Fixtures and gauges | Checking fixture, inspection gauges, welding or assembly fixtures, each priced | Gauges the buyer expects free because they were never listed |
| Tool payment | Stages, such as part with the tool order, part on first samples, balance on sample approval | Your cash sitting in tool steel for months before the buyer pays |
| Tool ownership | Who owns it once paid, an ownership plate on the tool, where it is kept and who insures it | A quarrel over handover when the part moves to another vendor |
| Samples | Trial rounds included, sample quantity per round, the charge for extra rounds | Free rounds without limit while the drawing settles |
| Engineering changes | Changes after tool kick-off quoted separately, against the revision letter | Tool corrections swallowed by the original price |
| Piece price | A price for each volume tier, with the raw material rate and its date | One price set at the forecast and held at half of it |
Amortise the tool, or charge it up front?
Some buyers ask you to spread the tool over the piece price, so they pay nothing at the start. Be careful here. Agree only when the buyer already takes running parts from you and pays on time. The volume should also be in a signed schedule, not only in the RFQ. And the quote must say what happens to the unrecovered balance if the part is dropped or moved.
For example, an illustrative ₹6 lakh mould spread over a forecast of 60,000 pieces adds ₹10 to each one. If the model sells 20,000, you have recovered ₹2 lakh. The other ₹4 lakh is yours. Charge the tool separately for any new or young buyer, and whenever the tool cost is large against your working capital. How to lay out the two payment routes for the buyer is worked through in tooling cost in a rubber moulding quote.
Write down what the price assumes
A purchase team may not commit to a volume for a new part, but a price band is easier to agree. Quote the piece price at three tiers around the forecast, and add one sentence: if call-offs over an agreed period fall below a tier, the price moves to that tier's rate.
A large OEM with standard purchase terms may refuse the clause. Keep the tiers in your quote anyway, and set the base tier at the volume you believe rather than the one in the RFQ. Ask how the buyer reached the forecast. A figure taken from the vehicle maker's own schedule deserves more weight than a planning number.
Then attach one page listing everything else the price rests on. When a revised drawing or a smaller schedule arrives, this page is what you renegotiate from.
- Drawing number and the revision letter you quoted against
- Material grade, its supplier and the rate date
- Cavities, and the cycle time or strokes per minute assumed
- Sample rounds included, with the quantity per round
- The volume tier your base price uses
- Packing, delivery basis and the date the quote expires
- Anything the buyer supplies, such as inserts, child parts or returnable bins
Imagine a moulder in Ghaziabad
Imagine a plastic injection moulder on the Meerut Road industrial belt in Ghaziabad, quoting a two-wheeler tier-one supplier for a side panel and its mounting clip. The details are illustrative. The moulder sent one mould price, one piece price at the buyer's forecast, and "samples free of cost", which was how it had always quoted running parts.
The drawing changed twice after the mould was cut. A rib was added, and a boss moved to suit a new fastener. Each change meant a mould correction and another sample round, and the quote had promised free samples while saying nothing about changes. Then the model launched slowly and schedules came in at a fraction of the forecast. The single piece price stayed where it was.
For the next part from the same buyer, the moulder rebuilt the quote. Tool, fixtures and gauges went on separate lines, payable in three stages, with an ownership plate on the mould. Two sample rounds were included. Corrections caused by drawing changes after kick-off were priced against the revision letter, and the piece price came in three tiers. The buyer accepted the tiers, pushed back on the correction rate and settled on a cap. The longer quote also took the moulder two extra days to prepare, and one rival still won the part on a lower tool price. The argument was now about a number on paper, not a loss already taken.
When a short quote is enough
Some buyers send their own tool when they move a part from another vendor. Then quote the piece price and the terms for receiving the tool: its condition on arrival, the trial run, and who pays for repairs found during it. For a simple part from a buyer you have supplied for years, one page will do.
If the drawing is marked preliminary and carries no volume, mark your quote "budgetary". The buyer gets a number to plan with, and you stay free to quote properly against the final drawing.
Before the next drawing arrives
Pull out the development quote that cost you most and set it against the table above. The lines it lacked are your new template. Keeping such a quote alive through the buyer's review is quotation and proposal follow-up, and the trade as a whole is on the automotive components page. If you want your next development quote built with you, tell us what you need.
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