What belongs in a capability statement for a precision component maker

A buyer with one drawing and a stack of shop profiles skims each page quickly. For a precision component maker the page has to say what you machine, in which materials, to what size and tolerance, on which machines, measured with what, and what you have already made. It must also claim nothing you cannot show on the shop floor the day the buyer visits.

What does the buyer look for first?

The engineer with a drawing in hand is asking one thing: could this shop make this part? So the page should let the engineer answer at a glance. Lead with the work, not the history. A line about "three decades of excellence" says nothing; "turning up to 300 mm diameter, milling on five axes, in aluminium, stainless and titanium" says a lot, provided it is true.

If your capability changes with the part, say so: "Tolerances to be agreed per drawing" is honest, whereas an invented headline figure is not.

A one-page outline you can copy

[Company name]   [Town, state]   [Contact: name, phone, email]

WHAT WE MAKE
  Turned, milled and ground precision components in
  [materials: e.g. aluminium alloys, stainless steel, titanium]
  Typical part size: [min] to [max]   Batch sizes: [one-off to ___]

PROCESSES
  Turning: [number] CNC lathes, bar capacity ___ mm
  Milling: [number] machines, [3-axis / 4-axis / 5-axis]
  Others: [grinding, wire cut, drilling, finishing done in-house]
  Outsourced: [heat treatment, surface treatment, named in general terms]

INSPECTION
  [CMM make/size, height gauge, micrometers, surface roughness tester,
   hardness tester, etc.: only what you own]
  Inspection records kept with each job: [yes / format]

QUALITY SYSTEM
  [Certificates you hold today: body, scope, valid until]
  [Or: "In progress: ____" with nothing else]

EXPERIENCE
  Parts made for: [sector, described in general terms or named with permission]
  Materials with certificates: [yes / how supplied]

CAPACITY AND PEOPLE
  Shifts: ___  Programmers: ___  Inspectors: ___
  Lead contact for technical queries: [name, role]

A worked line, with invented figures: Turning: 3 CNC lathes, bar capacity 65 mm, up to 300 mm diameter in chuck work. Fill every line honestly, then remove any line you cannot back up.

The five places a statement goes wrong

Machines you do not own. Listing equipment on order, or at a friend's shop, as yours. Buyers visit.

A certificate that is not current. Quoting one that has lapsed, or giving a scope wider than the document. Copy the wording exactly from the certificate.

"Aerospace grade" without meaning. Words like these claim a standard without naming one. Say what you hold or have made, and leave the grade to the buyer.

No limits. A statement that claims everything is read as claiming nothing. Name what you do not do. A buyer can then trust the rest.

A customer list nobody approved. If you cannot name a firm, describe the sector instead.

For example: a five-axis shop in Hyderabad

Imagine, as an invented case, a seven-machine shop in Hyderabad with three CNC lathes, three vertical machining centres and one five-axis machine, plus a CMM bought a year ago. The old profile was a glossy folder with a photograph of the building and the phrase "serving aerospace and defence". It listed fifteen machines, among them two the shop had only once hired time on.

The owner rewrote it on one page, listing the seven machines owned, with bed sizes, and the CMM by size and what it could measure. The materials actually cut went in, with a sample inspection report attached, the customer's name blacked out. Under quality went only the certificate held, with its scope as printed, and "further approvals in progress" only where that was true. Heat treatment and surface finishing were listed as done by outside vendors, without names.

The page was shorter and made smaller claims. A buyer who rang found the visit matched the page. But the shorter page also drew fewer enquiries in the first two months, and one buyer dropped the shop because the five-axis machine was too small for its parts.

Claims a buyer will test, and what you need in hand

If the right-hand cell is empty, the claim stays off until it is filled.

How to present it

Say what a buyer cannot see from outside. A shop of seven machines can suit a small batch better than a shop of seventy, because the owner reads every drawing. If that is true here, put it on the page in one sentence, with the batch sizes you handle best.

Keep one master page and cut a short version for each buyer. A buyer who makes turbine housings does not need your wire-cut work on the first page, and one who wants prototypes needs your smallest batch size at the top. Change the order of the lines, never the facts.

Make the statement one sheet that opens on a phone, since buyers read there too. Use the same text on your website and keep it consistent across your company profile and directory listings. Date it. Revise it when a machine arrives or a certificate changes, because an old statement with a retired machine on it is a trap.

For what happens before a buyer even asks for the page, see what a buyer checks before sending a drawing to a new supplier.

Draft the page and walk the floor with it

Print your draft, walk through the shop with a pen, and tick each machine and instrument you see. Anything you cannot tick comes off the page. Approvals and certificates differ by buyer and body and change, so check with your own adviser or the issuing body before you state one. The wider picture is on our aerospace and defence components sales and marketing page, with capability presentations as the related service. When the page is accurate and you want help designing and using it, tell us what you need.