The robot quote was only half our packing estimate

That's what happened in my spreadsheet. Empty price cells summed as zero, and the cheaper proposal had more of them.

Classic bargain. All the work is elsewhere.

I've changed those to unpriced with an owner column. The overall comparison now says incomplete. Less satisfying, more accurate.

Get a price range where someone has enough information to give one, and say what it's based on. Don't invent a range just to fill the coloured cell either.

Does by customer include your time commissioning it, or just buying the missing kit?

Both, depending on the line. One supplier expects us to teach the product variants. I hadn't included staff time for that.

Ask them which variants and what support they provide. Teaching one prepared sample and owning every changeover afterwards are rather different jobs.

Our fixture quote looked decent until I asked who was making the spare nests. Me, apparently. In the time left over from all the other things I was supposedly doing for free.

Toolroom time is an actual cost. Amazing how often the spreadsheet disagrees.

List spare nests and wear parts by quantity. A vague spares allowance won't tell stores what should arrive.

One says a day on site. The other lists operator and maintenance sessions but no duration. I've asked both for the content, attendees and follow-up support.

And who covers the attendees' normal jobs while they're learning?

Added staff cover. We now have estimates for internal fixture work and a list of questions on training. Still waiting for a complete guarding proposal.

That last one could change the layout, so avoid treating it as a bolt-on price. Have whoever owns the cell design settle how it's meant to work with loading and access.

And cleaning. We had to get a trolley through a gap the first drawing filled with a cabinet, which was a pain to discover after everyone liked the layout.

Use the same layout revision for both revised quotes. Otherwise a low price may just be for the older, smaller job.

Are you getting somewhere with it now, or still collecting exclusions?

Somewhere, finally. We can compare the priced items and see exactly what remains open. I haven't ranked the totals yet; the two suppliers are now quoting the same training and layout scope.