The Drawbacks of Crowdsourcing Your Parts
Today, especially in consumer-focused markets, you can get just about anything you want the moment you want it. This intoxicating sort of instant-gratification “problem” has started to find its way into industrial and commercial markets as well, sometimes causing significant disruption. In manufacturing, this problem is manifesting itself as crowd-sourced instant-quoting systems. Anyone, regardless of their background, can log into these platforms and instantly get prices for whatever part they upload. At first that sounds great, but we would argue that more often than not, customers who choose to crowd-source their CNC-machined parts are doing themselves a disservice when it comes to price, quality, and their personal growth as an engineer or designer.
Why should you do business with a local machine shop instead of an instant quoting platform?
Instant-quoting hinders your growth as an engineer.
We get it. In today’s get-it-right-now world, the idea of uploading your parts and getting a price back instantly is very attractive, especially for younger engineers. The problem with instant quoting, though, is that anyone can upload anything, regardless of manufacturability, and get a number spat out by the quoting system. An automated quoting system simply can’t see details and design nuances of a part that could lead to machining issues down the road.
Having a qualified machinist or estimator review your parts will always help avoid delays due to design issues and other problems that automated systems miss. Having this person-to-person feedback helps engineers learn what is and isn’t possible in the machine shop resulting in better parts, cheaper parts, and faster lead times.
You’re paying too much!
Any time a middleman is involved in a transaction, you’re paying more than you need to. In some cases, middlemen can bring value to the table in the form of industry knowledge and support. When it comes to instant-quoting services though, the only extra thing you’re getting is instant-gratification in the form of a price on the screen immediately. That’s great, but is it really worth paying 30-50% more for? We don’t think so. Why not wait an hour or two for your quote, and also receive helpful advice and feedback to make your parts easier and cheaper to manufacture?
No direct line of communication between you and the person making your parts.
It happens all the time. A machinist glances at your print, and sees that a few holes are missing diameter callouts, thread callouts, whatever. When you’re working with a local shop, the machinist can simply give you a call or shoot you an email and get quick clarification on the part feature in question.
When you use an instant quoting service, the person making your parts likely has no direct line of communication to you. He or she has to email the quoting service, they have to email you, and everyone has to wait for information to trickle back and forth. This can turn what would be a simple 30-second phone call into an hours or days-long ordeal resulting in delays, late delivery, and unhappy customers.
No flexibility with change-orders.
Change-orders happen. Occasionally, after sending parts out for machining, engineers will realize that they forgot to add a feature to their part before ordering. When you work with a local shop, issues like these can usually be dealt with quickly and with minimal disruption to lead times. If this happens to an engineer using an instant quoting system, changes are typically not accepted after orders have been placed. This can leave engineers stuck with parts that are unusable, or in need of significant rework.
Quality and experience inconsistencies.
When you crowdsource your parts, chances are you’ll probably never work with the same shop twice. This means that each time you get parts, they’ll be different in terms of quality, finish, packaging, and so on. We think it’s always better to find a good manufacturing partner who can provide you with consistent quality, communication, and lead-time expectations.
You don’t need an instant quote!
You need a reliable machine shop staffed by knowledgeable people who are willing to work one-on-one with you to make excellent parts. Fortunately, you’re in the right place for that. Jax Precision is staffed by engineers and machinists who understand the entire process from design to manufacturing, and are ready to help get your parts made.