The Capability Data That Gets a Shop the Right Orders, and the Kind That Does Not

For Shops / 25 Sept 2026

Most shop registrations are written to impress. Ours should be written to filter.

Data that claims a wide range gets you offered orders across that range, including the ones you would not want, would quote badly, or would win at a margin that annoys you. Narrow, specific data produces fewer enquiries from our engineer and a much higher proportion you actually take, and it survives the audit visit, which a broad claim does not.

Here is what to write, field by field.

Machines, with numbers

Not “CNC milling and turning”. That tells us nothing and the audit will have to start from scratch.

3 x VMC, 1050 x 600 x 600, 12000 rpm, 30 tool ATC, through spindle coolant
2 x turning centre, 65 mm bar capacity, live tooling, Y axis
1 x sliding head, 20 mm, 7 axis, bar fed
1 x surface grinder, 600 x 300

Three things matter here beyond the size. Through spindle coolant decides whether deep hole work in stainless is realistic for you. Live tooling and Y axis decide whether a turned part with cross features is one operation or three. Bar fed and unattended capacity decides whether volume turned work is profitable for you or not.

Say which machines run unattended and for how long. A shop that runs lights out on a sliding head is the right place for a 2000 piece SUS303 job and nobody can tell that from a machine name.

Tolerance, as production reality

The single most valuable field, and the one most often filled in with a brochure number.

Write what you hold in production, with the qualifier:

Turned diameters: +/- 0.02 mm in production, h7 to 30 mm without grinding
Milled features: +/- 0.03 mm, flatness 0.02 mm over 200 mm with a second op
Ground: +/- 0.005 mm, Ra 0.4
Inspection: CMM in a 20 degC room, parts settled before measurement

That paragraph does more for you than any certification. It gets you the orders you will run cleanly and keeps you out of the ones that would have gone wrong at first article, which is the moment our engineer decides whether you see the next job.

Shops worry that honest limits cost them orders. They cost you the orders you should not have had.

Grades, split by frequency

Do not give a list. Give three tiers:

Weekly: SUS303, SUS304, SUS316L
Monthly: SUS430, SUS420J2
Occasionally, with a lead time: SUS630, SUS440C
Do not want: titanium, Inconel

The frequency is the information. A shop that cuts SUS316L weekly quotes it accurately and runs it without drama. A shop that cut it once last year will price it from a table and discover the insert consumption afterwards.

The “do not want” line is genuinely useful. It stops our engineer offering you work you would decline anyway.

JIS drawing literacy

For this network specifically, this is the field that decides who sees a job first:

Can you read a Japanese title block without a translator?
Do you know what the general tolerance class letter changes?
Have you worked to JIS B 0419 geometrical classes before?
Do you recognise legacy triangle finish marks?

Our engineer resolves the title block with the buyer before the package reaches you, but a shop that can read it as well catches the things that slip through, and that is the shop that gets placed first.

If the answer is “yes with the notes translated”, say exactly that. It is a good answer and it is accurate, and the notes arrive translated anyway.

Outside processes, and whose queue they are in

In house: deburring, bead blasting
Regular subcontract, 5 to 7 days: passivation ASTM A967 citric, heat treatment
Arranged, 2 to 3 weeks: electropolishing
Not available: plating, anodising

Lead time is the information, not the capability. Our engineer can plan around “passivation adds a week”. Nobody can plan around “we do passivation” that turns into three weeks because you had no processor relationship and had to find one, and the buyer has already been told the date.

Inspection, with models

CMM: Mitutoyo Crysta-Apex S574, in a temperature controlled room
Surface roughness: Mitutoyo SJ-210
Thread gauges: M2 to M20, go and no-go
Height gauge, profile projector, hardness tester
First article reports issued with measured values

Model numbers are checkable, which is why they carry weight, and the audit visit checks them. “CMM” is a word.

If inspection is subcontracted, say so and give the turnaround. It is not disqualifying, it is a lead time fact.

Quantity band you want

Not what you can do. What you want.

Sweet spot: 50 to 500 pieces
Will take: 10 to 50 at a setup premium
Will take: 500 to 5000 on the sliding heads
Not interested: single prototypes unless the production follows

This is the field that most improves the fit of what you are offered. Most shops are capable across a wide band and profitable across a narrow one. Say which is which.

What to leave out

Aspirational capability. A machine on order is not a machine, and the audit will not find it
Certifications in progress described as though held
Customer names you are not free to name. A redacted first article report proves more anyway
Superlatives. “High precision” and “world class” are discounted by every reader
Capabilities you can technically do but do not want. They generate offers you have to decline

Keeping it current

Data written once and never touched places work with the shop you used to be. Tell our engineer when:

You add or retire a machine
You gain or lose an inspection capability
You want to change the quantity band
Your outside process relationships change
A grade moves between your tiers

A shop that updates its data twice a year gets noticeably better fitting orders than one that filled the form in and stopped.

The underlying trade

Broad data feels like more opportunity and produces offers you decline. Specific data produces fewer offers with a much higher take rate, and the orders fit work you already do well, which is where your margin actually is and where the dates get held.

The shops that do best in the network are specific to the point of sounding narrow.

If that describes your shop, join the network. Registration costs nothing, there is no exclusivity, and the first order after the audit is a paid trial job of ours rather than a customer’s.

Questions shops ask

Will narrowing my capability data lose me orders?

It loses you the wrong ones. Data that says everything gets you offered jobs you do not want, which wastes your time and ours. Precision gets you fewer enquiries from our engineer and a much higher proportion you take.

Should I list the maximum my machine is rated for?

List what you hold in production. Rated accuracy is a machine specification measured under conditions your shop floor does not reproduce. Quoting from it is how shops end up grinding parts they priced as turned.

What if my capability changes?

Tell our engineer. Data that is a year old places work with the shop you used to be. Machine added, process dropped, a grade you no longer want: all of it changes what you should be offered.

Do certifications matter?

They matter for the orders that require them and are close to neutral otherwise. List the ones you hold and do not list ones in progress as though they were held. The audit visit will find the difference.

Cut stainless to JIS grades?

Join the network and the orders come from us: a purchase order from SUS CNC, a drawing that has already been read, payment on written terms. No listing fee, no exclusivity.

Join the network