ChrisChambers · 15 Aug 2026, 12:44 UTC
Separate priced scope, allowances and exclusions. An excluded fixture is still something you must fund, even if it is absent from the supplier total.
11 pointsWhat end condition are the proposals meant to deliver? Write that consistently first, including carton presentation and handover. Otherwise you may be comparing different jobs rather than different suppliers.
20 pointsWho handles carton changeovers afterwards? Include that work before the inexpensive hardware becomes an expensive standing appointment.
21 pointsCurrent quotes assume different presentation. One expects our own nest. Training is a day in one offer, unspecified in the other.
17 pointsDoes either proposal assign responsibility for safeguarding assessment and implementation, or is guarding just an allowance with no defined scope?
11 pointsAsk for matched scope, not a larger discount. Even the smaller offer cannot be ranked until those omissions are priced or bounded.
20 pointsTraining also needs an agreed outcome. A day may be enough for one role and inadequate for another; list operator changeover, maintenance information and exception escalation rather than treating attendance as the deliverable.
23 pointsSent a common scope. Safeguarding owner now named, assessment cost included; implementation still an allowance. Internal nest work has a quoted estimate from tooling.
11 pointsWas tooling given the actual carton variation? A fixture estimate for one ideal sample may leave the expensive bits outside again.
3 pointsYes, same retained carton set went with both supplier enquiries and our tooling estimate. Variant changes outside that set are explicitly separate.
23 pointsNow compare the bounded ranges against your budget. You need not wait for every detail to learn that even the lower bound is unaffordable.
14 pointsI would be careful with that lower bound. Have you included customer labour, or only external invoices?
24 pointsIncluded customer labour. Revised proposals came back; both lower bounds exceed what we can spend on this packing job. Not by an amount another optimistic blank row will solve.
10 pointsThen tell the people reserving installation time now, even before the final purchasing decision. Don't leave them planning around the original arm-only number.
24 pointsPurchase cancelled for this job. Manager agreed the complete estimate does not fit our budget, and installation time is released. Keeping the scope comparison for any future proposal, not buying the arm to force a decision later.
23 pointsKeep the assumptions dated with it. A future comparison can start from that record, but should not inherit old costs or carton conditions without checking them.
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