Terms
How we work
The technical half of this is the build standard and the inspection half is the quality regime. This is the half that decides whether the account is worth having: what we commit to, what we will never ask you for, and where we have left room on purpose.
What we commit to
Eight of them, and they are the whole basis
Published rather than negotiated, because a term you had to extract from us in the third meeting is a term you will spend the next two years checking.
The requirement set reaches you before you quote
The destination market, the approval route and the equipment certification needed for it are established and sent with the enquiry. You are not asked to price a risk you have not been shown.
The specification is frozen before you price it
Drawing, equipment schedule and electrical design agreed in writing. A change afterwards is a written variation with a price and a date attached, not a message asking whether it is possible.
The agreed price is not reopened
Once a specification is frozen and priced we do not go back to it. A quotation that was accepted stays accepted for the order it was given for.
A frozen drawing is not shopped
We do not take a drawing another plant engineered with us and send it out to be repriced. Where we move a build, it is re-engineered rather than re-quoted, and you would be told.
We pay for the inspection we order
Where the written order includes independent inspection of the finished unit against the frozen drawing, it is at our cost. An inspector paid by the party being inspected is not an inspector.
Acceptance is written and it is quick
Within five working days of the inspection report we accept or reject in writing. A rejection names the requirement and the evidence. Silence is not a rejection and it is not a lever.
Payment follows the milestone, not the sale
Milestones are agreed at order and paid when they are reached. Whether the unit has found an end customer is our problem, and financing our working capital out of your production is not a term we ask for.
A repeat order is the same drawing
Where a build works we reorder against the same frozen specification rather than redesigning it, which is the only reason a second order is cheaper to make than a first.
What we will not ask you for
Six things
- Ask you to certify something you did not build, or to sign a compliance statement for a market whose requirements you have not been shown.
- Ask for a sample unit free of charge, or for tooling to be absorbed into a unit price. Tooling is priced and paid for as tooling.
- Ask you to hold stock against a forecast we have not committed to in writing.
- Run a quotation you gave us against another plant to move your number.
- Ask for exclusivity. Your other customers are your business and a supplier with one customer is a fragile supplier.
- Ask you to carry the cost of a rejection that came from our drawing rather than from your build.
Where the cost actually sits
Not in steel
Most of the cost in this trade is not in steel. It is in quoting for buyers who never order, re-engineering to a specification that keeps moving, and arguing at the end about whether a requirement existed.
Every commitment here removes one of those, and in return we expect a better number than a buyer who leaves all three unresolved and pushes on price instead.
No prices or percentages
Payment percentages, unit prices and volumes belong in a contract with a named counterparty. What is set out here is the shape, which is what you need before you spend an afternoon quoting.
Where we have left room
On purpose
A specification that pins every dimension forces new tooling for no benefit. These six are the places to use what you already have.
An envelope, not a dimension
Where a dimension is not fixed by an approval limit or by an appliance that has to fit, it is stated as a range rather than a number. Use the panel size, the door set and the chassis length you already stock. A tolerance you can hit with existing tooling is worth more to both of us than a millimetre we never needed.
The specification, or the part
Where a component is named, the standard says whether that is the part or the performance. Where it is the performance, an equivalent is accepted with its evidence, and you do not have to import somebody else's brand to satisfy us.
Non negotiable is marked as such
Anything carrying an approval, a certificate or a marking for the destination market cannot be varied, because a concession from us would be worth nothing at the border. Everything else can be argued, and the argument is welcome before the build rather than at inspection.
Deviation has a written route
A requirement that cannot be met is raised before material is cut, with the alternative and its evidence. Accepted deviations are recorded against that build and that serial, and the inspector then checks the deviation rather than the clause.
Consolidation is ours to arrange
Mixed models against one drawing set, consolidated into one shipment, is our problem to plan rather than yours to absorb.
Your engineering stays yours
We own the specification and the configuration. You own your process, your jigs and your tooling. Neither of us uses the other's without saying so first.
Quote it before you talk to us
The standard, the inspection regime and the evidence timing are all published. There is enough here to price a unit and to decide against one.