Prepare product and supplier for series production

• Before an enquiry goes to your existing or already selected supplier – or before you accept its quotation.
• When the supplier interprets your drawing differently, or simply confirms it is “feasible” without saying how it will make and inspect the part.
• When it is unclear which assumptions about material, machining, surface, tooling or inspection the quotation rests on.
• When your team sends questions to China and only incomplete answers come back.
• When a first sample deviates and you want to clarify, before the next sample round or order, whether the drawing and requirements are unambiguous.

One item, one supplier, one specific decision. For €390, we review one item in an agreed revision with a standard document package comprising the drawing, related specifications and expressly named standards. The scope also covers an existing quotation or other commercial basis where available, an existing or already selected supplier for the clarification round and one specific procurement decision. We identify inconsistencies and supplier assumptions. With your approval, we conduct one consolidated written clarification round and follow up no more than once. We assess the first substantive reply received by the agreed cut-off date.

You receive a compact decision brief as a PDF, an editable clarification and action workbook with up to three priority characteristics or points for sampling, and an editable RFQ addendum for the supplier. A 30-minute handover call is included. The files belong to you; no follow-up engagement is required.

Supplier search, several suppliers or quotation rounds, engineering design or drawing changes, complete inspection planning or PPAP documentation, sample and laboratory testing, and on-site work are not included. For considerably larger cases, we state the additional scope and quote an adjusted fixed price before work starts. Examples include assemblies with many parts, extensive specifications, unusually large document packages or several suppliers. Additional work starts only after written approval.

Send the drawing and revision, related specifications, expressly applicable standards, planned quantity, and existing quotation or commercial basis. Include supplier questions or sample reports and the decision you need to make.

We check where the supplier might interpret or price your documents differently, or commit without supporting evidence. We rank each finding by its effect on quotation, first samples and ordering.

• Revision status and contradictions between the drawing, specification, enquiry and quotation.
• Material, surface treatment, heat treatment and possible “equivalent” alternatives.
• Critical characteristics, acceptance conditions and intended evidence.
• Production and costing assumptions that may be missing from the quotation.
• Tooling, inspection, marking, traceability and packaging where relevant to the decision.

We consolidate open points into one supplier enquiry, written in English and, where it helps clarify the questions, in Chinese.

Instead of “Can you hold 0.05 mm flatness?” we ask:

• Which production step creates the characteristic?
• Is machining planned for it – and is it included in the quotation?
• How, and with which measuring equipment, will you inspect it?
• Which evidence will you supply with the first sample?

With your approval, we send one consolidated written clarification and follow up no more than once. We assess the first substantive reply received within ten Chinese working days of the clarification questions being sent. We state the cut-off date when accepting the assignment. Without authorisation for direct contact, your team receives the same questions to send. Later replies, new revisions and further rounds are excluded and quoted in advance if required.

Each material point receives a status. You can see whether the answer is sufficient and which evidence or decisions remain outstanding:

CLARIFIED – answered unambiguously and recorded in writing, for example in the quotation; where evidence is needed, it is available.

PROMISED – the supplier confirms; the agreed evidence is not yet due, for example the measurement report with the first samples.

EVIDENCE MISSING – evidence that was requested or is due has not been provided.

YOUR DECISION – the supplier proposes a deviation or alternative; your engineering or purchasing team decides.

OPEN – not answered, or not answered sufficiently.

We mark changes to drawings and requirements as proposals. Approval remains with you. We do not change your drawing.

The three files belong to you: a PDF decision brief, an editable clarification and action workbook for Excel or LibreOffice, and an RFQ addendum for Word or LibreOffice. You can send the addendum yourself or ask us to send it. The overview below explains the contents. We state the file delivery date and reply cut-off when accepting the assignment. During a 30-minute handover call by video, we discuss findings, supplier assumptions, commitments and decisions for engineering and purchasing. Brief questions about our results are covered. No follow-up order is required.

• Sampling rounds are running and deviations need to be clarified characteristic by characteristic with the supplier's engineering and quality staff.
• Promises from the supplier clarification should be checked at the machine, tool or inspection station.
• Tooling questions are open: tool status, first tool samples, planned tool changes.
• A pilot run or the first series production should be accompanied on site.

Objective of the day, drawing and revision, open points (for example a deviation list or sample report), contact person at the supplier and preferred date.

1. Open points and sample deviations with the supplier's engineering and quality staff: deviation, cause, proposal.
2. Walk along the planned production route: machines, fixtures and measuring equipment for the critical characteristics.
3. Tool status and open changes.
4. Close: name missing evidence and decisions; agree actions with owners and dates with the supplier.

You receive a results and action overview using the status model explained above. It shows who is to provide what, and by when.

A project day covers up to eight hours including travel, plus up to one hour of follow-up. Travel within 100 km of Nanjing is included. Elsewhere in the Yangtze River Delta, a regional supplement applies per journey, with an indicative amount of €120. We confirm it in the quotation for the planned route. Outside the Delta, travel and accommodation require your prior approval and are charged against receipts. Further days require your prior approval.

Measurements and laboratory tests are included only if agreed separately. You give the supplier the approvals for samples, tooling and costs.

• The supplier does not know the required submission procedure, or only partly.
• The supplier's documents are incomplete or contradictory.
• Several functions at the supplier must provide evidence, including production, quality and sub-suppliers.
• Your customer's submission date is fixed and the evidence must be complete in time.

Send your customer’s submission requirements: the submission level or required elements and customer-specific requirements. We also need the drawing and revision, existing supplier documents and submission date.

• Identify the required elements from your customer's submission requirements, for example dimensional results, material and performance test results, process flow, process FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis), control plan, measurement system and capability evidence, cover sheet or Part Submission Warrant (PSW).
• Evidence plan: for each element, who produces it (supplier, inspection body, laboratory), by when and in what form.
• Supplier coordination: explain the requirements, follow up missing documents and corrections, clarify questions.
• Document review: completeness, revision, measured values against the drawing, contradictions between documents.

The evidence plan with responsibilities and dates, and the review result for the submitted documents with the status of each element and the open points.

Approval of the supplier's documents and the submission to your customer remain with you. We fix scope and price in a binding quotation before the order.