The Weldment Enquiries Worth Turning Down
Estimating a weldment properly is hours of work. Winning one you should not have is worse. Both are avoidable, and the decision is usually visible within ten minutes of opening the enquiry.
Written for shops.
The six signals
1. The envelope does not fit. Not “we could turn it over twice”. If the part exceeds your travels, your table load or your crane, you are not the supplier. This is the cleanest decline there is and it should take minutes.
2. The tolerance is beyond what you can prove. Holding it is one problem. Demonstrating you held it is another. If the drawing needs geometry measured across metres and you have no way to measure it, the job ends in an argument about whose measurement is right.
3. The certification scope does not cover it. An EN 1090 certificate for EXC2 does not cover EXC3. A welding procedure qualified on 12 mm does not automatically cover 40 mm. Qualifying a new procedure is legitimate, and it is a cost and a schedule item that has to be in the quote rather than absorbed.
4. The buyer will not answer the unlocking questions. Every weldment enquiry has two or three questions that decide the price: stress relief, machining allowance, inspection extent. A buyer who will not answer them is asking you to carry the risk for free.
5. The date is impossible before you start. Plate lead time plus your queue plus an oven cycle plus machining plus coating. If that exceeds the required date on day one, saying so now is a service. Saying so in week six is a failure.
6. The part is at the edge of everything at once. Largest you have run, tightest you have held, tightest date, new material. Any one of those is normal. All four together is how shops lose money on work they were technically capable of doing.
The one that is hardest to admit
“We could just about do it.”
Just about means no margin for the part moving more than expected, no margin for a rejected weld and the rework loop that follows, and no margin for the tolerance being harder than it looked on the drawing.
If a part is at the edge of your capability, there are two honest responses: price it as edge work with the risk in the number and the assumptions written down, or decline it. Quietly hoping is the third option and it is the one that costs money.
How to decline without losing the customer
The decline is a sales communication. Treat it as one.
Be fast. Within 48 hours. The buyer needs the time more than they need the explanation.
Be specific. “Our largest table takes 2,500 x 1,200 mm and this part is 3,400 mm long” is useful. “Not a fit for us at this time” is not, because the buyer learns nothing and cannot filter you correctly next time.
Say what you do take. One sentence. “Parts up to 2,500 mm with machining in house, carbon and stainless, quantities from one” tells the buyer exactly when to come back.
Offer the adjacent thing if it is real. If you could do it split into two pieces with a bolted joint, say so. If you could do the welding but not the machining, say that too. Sometimes the buyer can change the design, and being the shop that pointed it out is worth more than the job.
What good declining gets you
Buyers keep a mental list of suppliers whose yes means yes. Getting on that list takes honest noes more than it takes eager yeses.
It also protects your estimating time. A shop that declines the wrong 30 per cent of enquiries quickly has more hours for the 70 per cent it can win, and quotes them better.
How we reduce the problem
Shops on this site tell us their travels, table load, crane capacity, oven size, materials, qualifications and what they subcontract. Enquiries are matched against that before a shop ever sees them, so most of the obvious declines never reach you.
Each preview shows part type, material, size envelope, weight, quantity, weld quality level and inspection scope, with the buyer identity hidden, so you can decline before spending anything.
Register your shop. If something still does not fit, tell us within seven days and we check it against the preview we sent.
Frequently asked questions
Does declining work damage the relationship?
Declining badly does. Declining quickly, specifically and with a clear statement of what you do take usually strengthens it, because the buyer learns they can trust what you say yes to.
What if we could just about do it?
Just about is the most expensive place to operate. It means no margin for the part moving, no margin for a rejected weld and no margin for the tolerance being harder than it looked. If a part is at the edge of your envelope, price it as edge work or decline it.
How quickly should we decline?
Within 48 hours. The value to the buyer is time, and a fast no is genuinely useful to them. A slow no is just a slow no.
Need a quote for this part?
Send the drawing. We match you with up to 3 shops that weld and machine it in house, and we reply within 24 business hours.
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