This is the checklist you run on yourself, before any factory sees the project. It scores one thing: how much of the eventual quote would rest on your decisions versus the factory's assumptions. The more the factory has to assume, the worse your number — the strongest position you can quote from is a package with nothing left to guess.
Why this matters
A factory cannot price what it has to guess. Every unscored item below becomes either padding in the quote or a delay while they ask — and you pay for both.
Self-auditing first is also the cheap way to find your real gaps: the items you can't check off are precisely the parts of the product that aren't decided yet. Better to learn that from a checklist today than from a padded quote in three weeks.
Score yourself before a factory does
Every RFQ gets scored by the factory's triage whether you like it or not: how complete is the package, how likely is the order, how much work is the quote. The self-audit simply runs that scoring early, while the gaps are still cheap to close and private to you.
The nine inputs, in the order factories find them missing
Motor duty first — it is the most-missed input and the one that moves a motorized product's price most. Then target price, volume, timeline, a readable spec, tolerances, target markets, a plain statement of function, and your open questions. The checklist below scores all nine.
How to score honestly
'Decided and written down' scores a point. 'In my head' does not. 'We'll figure it out with the factory' is a gap, not an answer — the factory will indeed figure it out, as padding. Score against what a stranger could read in your package today.
Reading your score
Nine of nine: send the RFQ. Seven or eight: close the gaps first — they are usually days of work, not weeks. Below seven, the cheapest next step is not five hopeful RFQs; it is a feasibility/readiness review of the items that failed, because the quotes would price assumptions, not your product.
Decision rule: Seven or more of the nine checked: send the RFQ. Below seven: do not ask for a production quote yet; ask for a feasibility/readiness review first.
The nine-point quote-readiness self-audit
- Motor duty, power, torque, and RPM written down — or explicitly flagged as assumed
- Target price or cost ceiling stated as a number
- First-run volume and rough annual volume stated
- Timeline with a real launch window
- A drawing or CAD a stranger could read unaided
- Tolerances and quality bar specified
- Target markets and required certifications named
- One-paragraph product function a non-engineer could repeat back
- Open questions listed instead of hidden
Common mistakes
- Scoring 'in my head' as decided.
- Sending five RFQs at five-of-nine and treating five padded quotes as market truth.
- Closing gaps in the order they're easy instead of the order they move the price — the motor moves it most.
- Running the audit only after the first quote disappoints.
This guide is educational. It is not a manufacturing quote, certification review, legal advice, or a guarantee that a product can be built. If you want this applied to your specific product, request a human-reviewed Motor Readiness Scorecard.
Want this applied to your product?
Request a Motor Readiness Scorecard for a human-reviewed read, or start with a short, no-cost quote-readiness screen.