Most bad first orders are not caused by bad luck. They are caused by skipping a short list of questions that a real manufacturer can answer without hesitation.
Here is the checklist we would use if we were buying from someone else.
1. Is it a factory or a trading company?
There is nothing wrong with a trading company — as long as they admit it. The problem is paying factory prices for a reseller’s margin, or being told a part is “custom tooled” when it is a catalogue item with a sticker.
Concrete questions: Who owns the tooling? Can we see the production floor? Who performs final inspection, and can we have their name?
2. Tooling ownership and amortisation
- Who pays for the tooling, and who owns it after the order?
- Is tooling cost amortised, billed once, or refundable against volume?
- If the relationship ends, does the tool ship with you or stay behind?
Get this in writing before paying a deposit. “Tooling included” means nothing without an ownership sentence.
3. Tolerances and QC documentation
Ask for the actual inspection report from a real production run — not a spec sheet. A serious supplier can send you measurement reports, material certificates, and photos of the parts at inspection stage.
4. Material certificates
For metal parts, demand the mill certificate for the alloy actually used. “Aluminium” is not a specification. 6061-T6, 7075-T6, and a random casting behave very differently on a car.
5. Sample and pre-production approval
Before mass production, insist on a pre-production sample signed off by your side. This is your only real leverage. Approve a physical part, not a rendering.
6. MOQ, lead time, and freight terms
- What is the true MOQ per part number, and does it change for mixed orders?
- Is the quoted lead time production time or production plus handling?
- Who books freight, and under which Incoterm? FOB is not DDP — know who pays duty.
7. Packaging and labelling
Oversized parts get destroyed in transit. Ask how bumpers, hoods, and body kits are crated, and whether your SKUs, labels, and retail packaging requirements are handled.
8. Warranty and after-sales process
What happens when a part arrives wrong? Who pays return freight? What is the claim window, and what evidence do they ask for? A supplier who cannot describe a claims process in three sentences does not have one.
Red flags worth walking away from
- Price far below everyone else with no explanation of how.
- Refusal to do a pre-production sample.
- “We can make anything” — depth beats breadth in a real factory.
- Photos that are clearly stock images or copied from another supplier’s catalogue.
- No payment terms other than full prepayment by untraceable method.
Why buyers stay with us
We manufacture, we inspect, and we quote feasibility honestly — including telling you when a part is not worth tooling. Our RFQ process asks for the drawing, the vehicle platform, annual volume, material and finish, and target lead time, so the first quote is a real number rather than a range.
Submit an RFQ or read more about our ODM and custom manufacturing service.