A 5-MINUTE STORY
One unasked question: the line between your shop and a qualified bid.
You are often one unasked question from a qualified bid.
Your website and documents already answer most of what a solicitation asks. The deciding line is often a material, process or spec nobody thought to mention. A cited record shows which line is blank, and knows which question to ask. Pick the work you want, then scroll.
INTELLIGENCE, THROUGH THE BLUEPRINT
FOR AEROSPACE, DEFENSE AND PRECISION MACHINE SHOPS
SCROLL TO READ THE NOTICE ↓
AS SAID · THE NOTICE
A notice, read as a note list.
A public NASA solicitation calls for Invar 36 parts for a lunar laser retroreflector. Laid out like a drawing, a notice is a note list: quality system, export control, inspection, materials. Every note needs an answer, and every answer has to come from evidence.
PUBLIC · CLOSED · A TEST, NEVER A BID · INK: ANSWERED FROM YOUR RECORD · BLUR: NOT YET
NEXT: THE READ ↓THE READ · NOTE BY NOTE
Most notes ink in from evidence.
We read each note against your record, and an answer only counts with a source. AS9100D, ITAR, NDT and nickel alloys ink in from documents already on file. Two notes stay dashed, one conversation away. Two are marked transactional: terms you settle at bid time.
5 OF 10 NOTES ANSWERED FROM EVIDENCE · S1 TO S5 ARE THE SOURCES · ILLUSTRATION
NEXT: THE COST ↓THE COST · THE LINE NOBODY WROTE DOWN
One note won't ink.
MATL: INVAR 36. Your record says nothing, yes or no, and it's the deciding line. Invar is the nickel-iron alloy engineers pick when a part can't grow with temperature, and a reflector on the moon sees wide swings. A buyer screening suppliers can't credit a material she can't find. You never hear that you were close.
SCREEN · INVAR 36 NOT SHOWN · NOT SHORTLISTED · ILLUSTRATION
THE SCREEN IS DRAMATIZED
NEXT: AS BUILT ↓AS BUILT · YOUR FLOOR
Nobody had ever asked.
You machine Inconel and Hastelloy. Invar machines in a similar way: gummy, quick to work-harden, and it wants a stress relief before finishing if the part has to stay stable. But Invar was on no page, no quote and no capability list, because nobody had ever asked.
HOW A METAL MACHINES IS A RULE OF THUMB · YOUR PROGRAMMER HAS THE LAST WORD
NEXT: THE QUESTION ↓THE CHANGE
A cited record knows which question to ask.
This works through the Buyers Blueprint's Question Round. IKE, our Industrial Knowledge Engine, knows what shops that run nickel alloys tend to run beside them, so it flags Invar as a question for you to answer. The Question Round asks it in one line:
“Have you machined Invar 36, and on what parts?”
BLUEPRINT · PAID ONBOARDING · FIRST STEP OF EVERY PROGRAM · SCOPED ON THE REVIEW CALL AFTER THE FREE AUDIT
IKE FLAGS QUESTIONS. IT NEVER WRITES A CLAIM FOR YOU.
NEXT: RELEASED ↓RELEASED
The note is inked, yes or no.
Your answer goes on the record with its source, and the note is inked. If it's yes, the deciding line is on your pages before the next notice opens. If it's no, you know exactly what stands between you and the bid.
YOUR FLOOR'S ANSWER
NOTE 05 · INVAR 36 · ANSWERED YES · ON YOUR PAGES BEFORE THE NEXT NOTICE · ILLUSTRATION
Illustration. A complete note list gets you read. Price, lead time and your team still win the order.
NEXT: YOUR TURN ↓NOTES YOUR RECORD ANSWERS, WITH A SOURCE · ILLUSTRATION
| Note | The notice asks | After the read | After the Question Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Quality system: AS9100D | Answered: yes, certificate on file (S1) | Answered |
| 02 | Export control: ITAR | Answered: yes, registered (S2) | Answered |
| 03 | Inspection: NDT | Answered: yes, penetrant, T-24-118 (S3) | Answered |
| 04 | Materials: nickel alloys | Answered: yes, Inconel 718, Hastelloy X (S4) | Answered |
| 05 | MATL: Invar 36 | Nothing on record, yes or no | Answered yes: layup tooling plates (Question Round) |
| 06 | Machining to print tolerances | Answered: yes, capabilities page (S5) | Answered |
| 07 | Stress relief before finish | One conversation away | One conversation away |
| 08 | Precision cleaning and packaging | One conversation away | One conversation away |
| 09 | Delivery schedule | Transactional, settled at bid time | Transactional, settled at bid time |
| 10 | Price and terms | Transactional, settled at bid time | Transactional, settled at bid time |
| Habit or record | Inconel 718 | Hastelloy X | Invar 36 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gummy, stringy chips | Yes | Yes | Similar |
| Work-hardens if the tool dwells | Yes | Yes | Similar |
| Stress relief before finish | Yes | Yes | Similar |
| On a page | Yes | Yes | None |
| In a quote | Yes | Yes | None |
| On the capability list | Yes | Yes | None |
Ask the floor.
AS BUILT · DRAWN FOR AEROSPACE WORK · NOTE 05 ANSWERED, YES
Every program starts with a Blueprint. Its Question Round asks only the questions that change a decision, and IKE helps find them in what your trade runs together. Tell us the work you want, and we'll show you where your blank lines are.
DRAWN FOR AEROSPACE WORK · SAID 06 OF 10 · 2 AT BID TIME · ILLUSTRATION
| NOTE | STATUS | SOURCE |
|---|---|---|
| 05 · MATL: INVAR 36 | ANSWERED, YES | QUESTION ROUND · YOUR ANSWER, DATED |
General notes
- The companies, people, websites and figures in this story are invented to show a pattern we see often.
- The aerospace notice is modeled on a real, closed, public NASA solicitation, paraphrased for this story.
Check your own
Three yes-or-no checks you can run on your own website on Monday morning.
01 · EVERY ALLOY?
Does your site list every alloy you've machined?
Every alloy you've run, beyond the common ones, and the part it went into.
02 · DOES SOMEONE ASK THE FLOOR?
When a notice names a material you've never listed, does anyone check with your machinists before you pass?
03 · IS THE LIST CURRENT?
Is your capability list current?
Dated, and updated whenever the floor learns something new.
ANSWER ALL THREE · YOUR ANSWERS STAY ON THIS PAGE
Find your unasked question.
BLUEPRINT · PAID ONBOARDING · FIRST STEP OF EVERY PROGRAM · SCOPED ON THE REVIEW CALL AFTER THE FREE AUDIT
The Blueprint is paid onboarding and the first step of every program.
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