How's next year looking for you?

[ukracer]

I do wonder how some companies year will look . . . sent out a new drawing for quotes yesterday - I was expecting 2-300 quid each for 25 off.

First quote back - £550 ea.
Another at £395
One around the region I was expecting and was prepared to go for £265.

And then lunchtime today . . £130.

All respected existing suppliers to us, all pass our incoming inspection with no issues well enough to mostly not be inspected, so there's no worries who will get the order . . . but does lead me to wonder if either end of that range will be around to quote in the future.

I think much of the problem is highlighted in this post..

 

[ukracer]

I bet the first quote you got was actually subcontracting the work to the last one... Had that a few times

I had a well established machining company pester my boss before Christmas for work, apparently they were quiet... Boss got onto me telling me to give them RFQ and plenty of time for their responses... I waited a good 2 weeks for the quote... Then got a call off one of the regular companies we use "I've just been asked to quote all of this work for another company, just thought you should know in case of some funny business" cheers pal, no worries, i can absolutely guarantee you'll get the work this time around once again

What's RFQ?

 

[ukracer]

Last time around I was in the US a lot, mainly in Texas. Senior excutive types were agast at the possibility of Trump getting in that time . . . factory workers on the floor were cock-a-hoop at the thought he would.

I was in a plant in Arizona where I saw more of our machines around $35m worth) in one place than I have seen anywhere ever, including our own factory where we build them - all ordered, delivered during the last Trump-age.

Co-incidently alongside an air force base flying F35s - the first time I had seen any fly since working on the production of them back in 2003-5.

Speaking of the insane orange one its extremely scary with what's going on just now.
Did I hear correctly they are going to spend ( as a minimum) 550 Billion on Ai infrastructure?

 

[Barking Mat]

Speaking of the insane orange one its extremely scary with what's going on just now.
Did I hear correctly they are going to spend ( as a minimum) 550 Billion on Ai infrastructure?

Don't go there, bonkers doesn't cover it.

 

[Munkul]

What's RFQ?

Request for quote

 

[addjunkie]

What's RFQ?

Request for quote.

All part of the modern acronyms for everything these days! Ive been retired a while now, but once reviewed a procedure, post Deepwater Horizon, relating to starting up a new well that used 7 acronyms to describe the same thing. Obviously copy and pasted from several documents.

 

[addjunkie]

Speaking of the insane orange one its extremely scary with what's going on just now.
Did I hear correctly they are going to spend ( as a minimum) 550 Billion on Ai infrastructure?

Come back Spitting Image….lots of new material for a good show

 

[More Amps]

Speaking of the insane orange one its extremely scary with what's going on just now.
Did I hear correctly they are going to spend ( as a minimum) 550 Billion on Ai infrastructure?

The U.S. is spending big money....and our government are spending £7 million. I wonder who's going to be more successful.

 

[pressbrake1]

don't forget the taxation. I am thinking that it won't be too far off that the government will set a target, say £400 a week and anything more than that will be taxed away from you, so if your private pension pays you £221 a week the government contribution will be £179 achieving their figure of £400. Call me cynical but I can see it coming, this Ponzi scheme they have going at the moment called "Public sector pensions" is just not sustainable, look how much some town and county councils are taking out of their annual budgets to meet their pension obligations, it just cannot continue.

Don’t be bitter , they’re better than us.
Shame school didn’t teach us about approved careers that are considered living martyrdom..

 

[pressbrake1]

Well I haven’t even had stupid enquiries since August. Trouble with big stuff that you need a lump of money to transport it to the scrap yard

 

[bricol]

I bet the first quote you got was actually subcontracting the work to the last one... Had that a few times

I had a well established machining company pester my boss before Christmas for work, apparently they were quiet... Boss got onto me telling me to give them RFQ and plenty of time for their responses... I waited a good 2 weeks for the quote... Then got a call off one of the regular companies we use "I've just been asked to quote all of this work for another company, just thought you should know in case of some funny business" cheers pal, no worries, i can absolutely guarantee you'll get the work this time around once again

When doing a ring around for new suppliers to make something I thought we were being over-charged for, not an enormous amount, but we use a lot of them so it adds up - I ended up talking to one company that was doing the work for the company we buy from . . .

However, due to us having order placers, not engineering buyers, we still pay too much for them . . .

 

[GRW]

Come back Spitting Image….lots of new material for a good show

Nah! How can they parody something so outlandish that's already a parody of any kind of inept and corrupt Banana Republic?

 

[ukracer]

Well I haven’t even had stupid enquiries since August. Trouble with big stuff that you need a lump of money to transport it to the scrap yard

A lot of businesses have quirks ( maybe not the same magnitude) but as an example I now have over 500 T shirts , approx 30 rolls of filament a boat load of mugs and sublimation stuff together with slates , hip flasks and several trees worth of plywood for my lasers.

Sadly I don't have time to bring myself up to speed on all of the tools and processes to contemplate offering items for sale.

Ironically both times I had said ok I am going to try and see things are viable things went bad.
First time a guy I know was doing charity work and asked for purple T shirts but was not happy with the shades I had........that put me right off.

At Xmas a guy asked about T shirts for his daughter.
I said yes I will do them and my printer then broke.
I went on Xmas eve to but some sublimation tshirts.
They came out great but the arswipe who had asked for them very turned up to get them.

So I am put off again. Wife wants the back room decluttering but keeps wanting stuff put into the back room.

Space is a killer for me but having had a couple of units I realise that won't work .
Time is another killer : So even though I don't need to shell out a load of money before I can sell stuff I still can't get things done..

 

[Robotstar5]

When doing a ring around for new suppliers to make something I thought we were being over-charged for, not an enormous amount, but we use a lot of them so it adds up - I ended up talking to one company that was doing the work for the company we buy from . . .

However, due to us having order placers, not engineering buyers, we still pay too much for them . . .

We had similar at my last place, the "powers that be" decided to save money by streamlining the approved suppliers list, so we ended up with our original suppliers now supplying one of the approved suppliers who do nothing but add their percentage so we end up paying more than before

 

[pressbrake1]

We had similar at my last place, the "powers that be" decided to save money by streamlining the approved suppliers list, so we ended up with our original suppliers now supplying one of the approved suppliers who do nothing but add their percentage so we end up paying more than before

When I did a job in Basildon hospital it was the same thing , one approved supplier .
I did question him over his extortionate prices and he explained it was because they were such bad payers he had to essentially charge interest

 

[roofman]

When I did a job in Basildon hospital it was the same thing , one approved supplier .
I did question him over his extortionate prices and he explained it was because they were such bad payers he had to essentially charge interest

2 of my regular customers don't know they pay interest charges on the invoices i give them...its the less of two evils and one being me or my wife on the phone every day hounding for my money 2 months after the work is done

 

[pressbrake1]

2 of my regular customers don't know they pay interest charges on the invoices i give them...its the less of two evils and one being me or my wife on the phone every day hounding for my money 2 months after the work is done

Backing in 2010 onwards I had a real business…
I quoted for a huge multinational who I won’t name . The buyer being totally honest told me to double my price as they would mess me about for 120 days plus .
Because I knew this I was happy to wait for my gravy money. Once in the system it was almost working in hand for the first payment then every month if that makes sense.
Was a struggle though. But I was nicely remunerated!
I had the most successful three years of my life until a genetic heart condition from my maternal side ruined everything
It got me again a few years ago when I was back on the accent . I’ve now learned the smiter wants me to suffer so keep under the poverty line and off his radar

 

[addjunkie]

We had similar at my last place, the "powers that be" decided to save money by streamlining the approved suppliers list, so we ended up with our original suppliers now supplying one of the approved suppliers who do nothing but add their percentage so we end up paying more than before

I worked for a blue chip FTSE 100 company, who streamlined purchasing through 2 or 3 approved suppliers. So suppliers would quote them ex works, they add their bit, we would buy it. On a management course I was forced to attend there was a buyer there too. It was explained to me why they used buying houses. Each invoice was costing in real business terms ( office, wages, pensions, ni, it, etc etc etc) about 500 quid to process. They paid the buying house once per month. The buying house invoicing costs were about 20 quid a time. So being ripped off was cheaper due to how expensive the big machine was to run.

I quoted for a huge multinational who I won’t name . The buyer being totally honest told me to double my price as they would mess me about for 120 days plus .
radar

120 days is common for big companies, its them running their business on your overdraft!

 

[m_c]

I worked for a blue chip FTSE 100 company, who streamlined purchasing through 2 or 3 approved suppliers. So suppliers would quote them ex works, they add their bit, we would buy it. On a management course I was forced to attend there was a buyer there too. It was explained to me why they used buying houses. Each invoice was costing in real business terms ( office, wages, pensions, ni, it, etc etc etc) about 500 quid to process. They paid the buying house once per month. The buying house invoicing costs were about 20 quid a time. So being ripped off was cheaper due to how expensive the big machine was to run.

120 days is common for big companies, its them running their business on your overdraft!

The thing with those figures, is they're from a company with rubbish processes.
I also worked for a FTSE100 company (and am currently working for a different one that is the polar opposite), and order costs were estimated at £6 per invoice, and that was before the process was more automated, and actually dropped since that figure was calculated about 15 years ago.

Workshops raised orders, arrived goods, and inputted the delivery note number.
Suppliers emailed invoices to accounts payable.
Accounts payable was largely automated with invoices allocated, and any invoice within the allowed tolerance automatically approved for payment.

 

[Brad93]

When I did a job in Basildon hospital it was the same thing , one approved supplier .
I did question him over his extortionate prices and he explained it was because they were such bad payers he had to essentially charge interest

Not An industrial supplies guy is he?