100 Questions for Your Next Sheet Metal Fabricator Site Visit

One of the many things we do to ensure great customer service is to invest 2 weeks and $2000 in every salesperson regardless of their experience. Before they work with our customers or future customers, we make sure they can address 100 typical questions that a customer might ask.  Seems to me that this list might be helpful to you next time you visit your sheet metal fabricator.  Have more?  Let me know and I will add them to the list!

1. What is your typical tolerance for Sheet Metal parts? Laser tolerance? Punch tolerance?
2. What tolerances are better fit for machining?
3. What types of parts are best for punch?
4. What types of parts are best for laser?
5. Can you laser cut brass or copper?
6. Can you laser cut rigidized material?
7. What thickness steel does laser cut? Stainless? Al?
8. What thickness steel can you punch? Stainless? Al?
9. Do you offer water jet cutting?
10. Can you laser cut plastic?
11. What types of parts/geometry would be fit for combination laser/punch?
12. How is set-up time different between laser & punch?
13. How is run time different between laser & punch
14. What is nibbling? Is it better than laser cutting?
15. What is your punch tonnage?
16. What is the smallest radii you can form on your rolling machine?
17. Why not use the brake to bump the curved part?
18. What is the tonnage of press brakes?
19. What does “bending yourself into a corner” mean?
20. How long a part can you bend? Why does part thickness matter? Why does material matter?
21. Can you bend rigidized material? Mesh?
22. What are these marks on the part after the bend process? How do you get rid of them?
23. Do you offer part marking? What ways can that be done?
24. What is timesaving?
25. What kind of surface finishes can the timesaver produce?
26. Why should you have a wet timesaver instead of a dry timesaver?
27. Can you produce mirror finish parts?
28. Why do you add hardware in after the plating process?
29. Do you offer kitting?
30. Can you spot weld thick aluminum?
31. How do you get rid of the black circle on the part?
32. What is a weld nut and what is a PEM nut?
33. How do you assure perpendicularity alignment on a weld nut?
34. Do you offer TIG and MIG welding?
35. What are advantages & disadvantages of TIG?
36. What are advantages & disadvantages of MIG?
37. What is the difference between stitch welding versus seam welding?
38. Do you offer robotic welding?
39. When would there be a fixture charge?
40. How large a part can you weld?
41. Can you weld stainless steel? Thin aluminum? Brass or bronze?
42. Are your welders certified?
43. What kind of leak testing do you do?
44. How do you get rid of the black marks?
45. What surface texture can you grind to?
46. What is difference between “DA” and grinding?
47. What type of welding can produce pitting on the grounded seams? Can it be filled?
48. What is the difference between powder coat and wet paint?
49. What is the difference between hard black anodize and black anodize?
50. Which costs less – plating or powder-coating?
51. How do you make sure this stainless steel welded part does not rust in the future?
52. What is passivation? What is electro-polish?
53. Which is more scratch resistant – anodizing or powder-coating?
54. Do you offer chroming?
55. What base materials are zinc plated? Anodized?
56. Do you machine Inconel?
57. Do you machine Mic-6?
58. Can you machine a part 48” long?
59. What materials do you typically machine?
60. Do you have VMCs?
61. How many are 3 axis machines? 4 axis machines? 5 axis machines?
62. How much turning do you do?
63. Does your lathe have the ability to machine features?
64. Can you lathe handle 6 inch diameter parts?
65. How many people do you have in your machine shop?
66. Why is your machining lead time so short or long?
67. Have you machined Copper? Brass? ABS? Lexan?
68. What features would/could be machined versus laser cut?
69. What programming software do you use? What version?
70. What happens when there is rust on the steel sheet?
71. What happens when there are white “stains” on the aluminum?
72. How do you prevent metric and English hardware from being mixed up?
73. Do you offer assembly? Mechanical or electrical?
74. Have you ever provided final test? Burn in? Hi-pot testing?
75. Are you certified by UL? TUV? Others?
76. Can you ship on 4 way pallets?
77. Can you ship on international pallets?
78. Why do you use metal strapping on some shipments and plastic strapping on others?
79. When is your UPS cut-off time?
80. What freight company do you use?
81. What steps do you take to make sure you send us the right parts and the right quantities?
82. What paperwork gets sent with the packaging?
83. How do you assure traceability?
84. Do you provide material certs? Manufacturing certs?
85. Are you ISO registered? Certified? Compliant? Why not?
86. Do you offer stocking programs? What are they?
87. Can you stock consigned goods (customer supplied material)?
88. Do you offer JIT programs?
89. Do you offer Kan-ban programs?
90. Do you offer drawing detailing? CAD to inspection drawings?
91. Do you offer mechanical engineering? Modeling? Finite element analysis (FEA)?
92. Do you offer FMEA (failure modes analysis)?
93. Do you offer DFMA (Design for Manufacturing & Assembly)?
94. What is your warranty? What does that include? Not include?
95. How have you implemented lean?
96. What is your on-time delivery?
97. Is shipping included in your pricing?
98. What is your quality?
99. What is your most recurrent quality issue?
100. How would you describe your company’s culture?

from ETM Manufacturing http://etmmfg.com/3586