Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Digest Number 1957

--- CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Addresses:
> FAQ: http://www.ktmarketing.com/faq.html
> FILES:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO/files/

Message: 16
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 23:40:13 -0000
From: "sir_tancred" <gary.mort@...>
Subject: Re: job shop auctions

This concept would work great if everbody could be
trusted to not cheat. I'm afraid you'd have to hire
Job Shop Cops to police the process. Or get the Gov.
involved...yikes.

There will ALWAYS be a guy that's hungier and
willing to do the job at a break even or loss,
let alone charge for a quote.
Yes there are MANY problems with the quote process.
But that's the way it is, and it gets more cut throat
every year. I'm certainly all for ideas on changing
the process to make it more fair, but not sure your
solutions really are that. "Some" purchasing agents
constantly play one shop off another in an effort to
"beat up the competition". Down right brutal in some
cases I've heard of. Also remember, the more detailed
and involved the details of the bid are, the more time
& effort lost if you get beat. Takes enough lost
production time as is to generate a min. acceptable
proposal (for wigits). Custom machinery type projects,
design & build etc., is a different story.
The online "bid for work" sites usually seem to
attract the parts no one wants to make. IE, super
tight tol. or
wierd material, etc. Some of them charge outrageous
subscription rates. If anybody here has had good
luck with any one of those services, please share your

insight if you would.

One last thing.
Anyone have experiences with "quoting software"
they'd care to share. This is a tool that can save
some valuable time & increase accuracy. Quite
cost prohibitive in my pocket though.

All & all there is lots of good insight in this
subject thread!


dan k

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Area51tats@a... wrote:
> The only problem with a shop bidding on something
that you want made
is that
> you may ask 5 shops to bid on a job and only one of
them is gonna get
the job
> and the other 4 shops have to eat the money they put
into figuring
out what
> it was gonna cost. The shop I work at has finally
got tired of it and
now we
> charge a minimum of $10 to tell you how much
something might cost.
And we
> really only do that with a couple of companys that
have there own
shop but
> ask us to quote a job and then they charge there
customer what we
quoted the
> job at and do the job themselfs.
>


My feeling is that there is more than one problem with
the quote
process.

1)The person placing the item out to bid has no idea
how much it will
cost. Which is kinda why they are placing it to bid
in the first place.
If it costs 5 cents a part, it might be worth doing.
If it costs 5
bucks a part, it might not.

The solution: when you want a ROUGH estimate to
determine if its
economically feasible, make sure you ask for a ROUGH
estimate. Not a quote.

2) Sending something to 5 shops for bidding causes
them all to put work
into it, and get nothing out of it.

Solutions:
Shops could charge fees for quotes which involve a
great deal of work
to calculate. This works by the basic laws of
economics, shops that
need the work are unlikely to charge fees. Shops that
don't will. It
helps to balance out the workload.

The inventor could give a project to a single shop and
promise not to
go to another job.

3) Shops could sit on bids for weeks, especially bad
if the inventor
only goes to one shop.

Solution: If your only going to one shop, tell them
they have X weeks
to deliver a bid after which point you will open up
the bidding to other
shops.

4) Shops can steal an inventors ideas

solution: Document, document documet. Notarisation.
Etc.

5) The price per piece for 1 item is much different
than the price per
piece for 100

Solution: split your bid into an initial setup fee, a
job setup fee,
and than price per part for the quantity desired.
This way the customer
knows
1) If he changes the quantity, the setup fees remain
the same
2) If he orders a small quantity and comes back later,
the initial
setup fee is already paid for so he only has to pay a
job setup fee +
quantity

6) Cherry picking. A request for a bid on multiple
related pieces.
Some shops may be tempted to quote lower rates on some
of the less
expensive items in order to get the job for the more
expensive items.
Customers than may be tempted to farm out only
portions of the job, choosing
the best price for each piece.

Solution: Always word your bids as a complete job,
don't get down to
the details. If he wants details, than give him the
cost for particular
parts as if you were doing them by themselves and
explain the
difference.





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