Responding to a request for quotation on a precision component drawing

The drawing lands at four on a Friday with "quote urgently" in the subject, and the estimator wants to send a figure before leaving. Resist it. The shop that replies with a number in an hour feels fast. The shop that replies with a short note, saying what it understood, what it still needs and what its price assumes, looks careful, and for precision work care is what the buyer is hunting for. A confident wrong price costs a revised quote, a rejected batch or a buyer's trust.

What should the first reply say?

Within the same working day, if you can, send three short things: that you received the drawing, what you understood it to be, and what you need before you can price. The price can follow. A buyer who has sent an RFQ to several shops has a reason to talk first to the one that wrote back with sense.

Keep it to a short email. Name the drawing number and revision, the material and quantity as you read them, and the questions. Our post on what to put in an RFQ reply goes into the full contents of a reply.

A reply layout for a drawing RFQ

Subject: RFQ [drawing no.] Rev [x] - [part name] - acknowledgement

Dear [name],

Thank you for the RFQ for [part name], drawing [no.], revision [x].

What we have understood
  Material: [as stated]    Quantity: [n]    Delivery: [as asked]
  Critical features: [two or three, by feature number]

Questions before we price
  1. [Feature no.]: tolerance is not shown. Please confirm.
  2. Material certificate: required with each lot? Which type?
  3. Surface treatment: is it to be done by us or supplied?

What our quotation will assume (please correct us)
  - Material from [form, e.g. bar or forging], supplied by us
  - First-article inspection report with the first lot
  - Packing in [method], delivery to [place]
  - Quote valid until [date]

We will send the price on [date] if we hear back by then.

[Name, role, phone]

The last line is a promise about your own reply, which is fine and useful. Only promise what you can keep. A filled-in version of one section, with invented details: Material: aluminium 6061 bar, as stated Quantity: 300 Delivery: 4 weeks ARO as asked Critical features: bore 12 (F7), flatness on face A.

What to ask, and what to leave alone

Ask about anything that changes the cost or the risk. That means a tolerance that is missing or tighter than the process allows, the material grade and form, and the certificate required. It also means the treatment after machining, the inspection report the buyer wants and the quantity across the year. These move the price.

Do not ask what the part is for or who the end customer is. That is the buyer's business, and some buyers, defence ones especially, will not say. Ask only what the drawing needs.

Price the set-up apart from the part

Programming, a fixture and the first-article inspection are one-time costs. One way is to spread them silently over 300 pieces, but then the price looks high at 300 and absurdly low at 3,000, which the buyer notices when asking for the next quantity. Showing them as separate lines is clearer, with the per-piece price at two or three quantity bands. If the buyer says the annual need is larger than this order, ask whether the price at that quantity is wanted too. It costs you a sentence and can decide who is called back.

The mistake that costs a batch

A costly error is pricing on the shape without reading the notes. A general note on the drawing may call for a special finish, a particular inspection method or a certificate for each lot. The shop that quotes from the picture and finds out at the first article loses the margin, or the order.

Read every note, view and revision block before you price. If a note is unclear, ask.

For example: a Belagavi shop and a bracket drawing

Imagine a shop in Belagavi that receives an RFQ from a Bengaluru buyer for 300 aluminium brackets. The foreman looks at the shape, sees nothing difficult and quotes the same day. Three weeks into the order, the buyer rejects the first lot, and the shop redoes 300 pieces at its own cost, about ₹40,000 in treatment and inspection (invented figure). A note in the title block had asked for a surface treatment and a dimensional report on every piece. The shop had priced neither.

Handled the other way, the shop would have replied the same day with the layout above. It would have said: "Your drawing notes call for surface treatment and a full dimensional report. Please confirm both are required, and whether treatment is by us or supplied." The buyer would have answered, the price would have included both, and the first lot would have been accepted.

Speed was never the problem in Belagavi. Pricing before reading was.

When to take longer, and when to say no

Take longer if the part needs a fixture you must design, a material you must source on a long lead, or a process you outsource. Tell the buyer, with a date, and keep to it. A buyer can wait for an honest price more easily than recover from a fast guess.

Say no promptly if the part is outside your machines, your tolerances or your material range. Write a short, polite reply that says what is outside your capability. You may even say what you could make. That keeps the door open for the next RFQ.

Track every RFQ you receive: date in, date replied, price sent, result. Without a record, silence from a buyer is invisible. Our note on RFQs that arrive by email and wait until someone checks covers keeping the inbox from swallowing them.

Make the reply a habit

Save the layout as a template. Use it for the next three RFQs. Notice which questions you ask every time and add them to the template. The wider picture for component makers is on our aerospace and defence components sales and marketing page, and RFP and tender management is the related service for larger bids. If you would like help setting up the template and the log, tell us what you need.