Guides / Cost
Twelve questions that tell you whether a machine shop suits your aircraft
July 16, 2026
Most bad supplier relationships were predictable at the quoting stage. The information was there, in what the shop asked and did not ask.
Here are the questions worth asking, and what the answers tell you.
Capability
1. Which of these processes do you run in house, and which do you place? A straight answer with a clear line between the two is good. A shop that implies everything is in house and later has parts anodised three towns away is telling you how the rest of the relationship will go.
2. What is your normal envelope and your normal part size? A shop that mostly makes large steel fabrications will treat a 40 gram bracket as an oddity. Find someone whose ordinary day looks like your part.
3. How many setups will my part need, and why? This tests whether they have looked at the model. A shop that can say which features need a fifth axis and which do not has read the part.
Quality and evidence
4. What do you measure, with what, and who signs it? In house CMM and comparator with a report signed by someone other than the operator is a solid answer for commercial UAV work.
5. What travels with a lot? First article report, mill certificate, process certificates. See first article inspection on UAV parts.
6. What happens when a lot is out of tolerance? The right answer starts with hold the lot and tell the customer. Any answer that starts with we sort it out ourselves means you will not hear about the marginal ones.
7. What do you not claim? A shop that is straight about which certifications it does not hold is easier to trust on the ones it does. Ours are on the quality page.
Commercial and communication
8. What is your lead time, and separately, your expedited lead time? You want both numbers before you need them.
9. Who answers my technical questions, and in what language and time zone? On a drawing question, a day of turnaround is the difference between a revision being cheap and expensive.
10. What are your terms, currency and Incoterm? EXW in USD is common from Asia. Know whether your quote includes shipping before you compare two numbers.
Capacity and continuity
11. What happens to my fixture and my programme? They should be kept, identified and available for the next release. Ask where they live.
12. What is your minimum order, and will you take a repeat of 20 pieces in eight months? Many shops quote a first order happily and then price repeat small lots out of interest. A programme lives on repeats.
Signals in how they quote
The quote itself is evidence.
Good signs:
- They ask about the end use of the aircraft. Any serious supplier screens what they take on.
- They ask which features are critical rather than tolerancing everything.
- They flag a fit that cannot work, or a finish that will change a dimension.
- They price fixture cost separately so you can see it.
- They give prices at several quantities.
Signs to be careful about:
- A quote that arrives in an hour with no questions on a drawing that has ambiguities.
- A price far below everyone else with no explanation of why.
- Claimed certifications with no certificate number or expiry.
- Photographs of parts that look like somebody else’s marketing.
- No willingness to say what they cannot do.
The one test that works
Give a candidate one real part. Not a simple block, a part with a fit, a finish and two features that matter. Then watch:
- What did they ask before quoting.
- Did the first article report tell you something you did not know.
- Did they hold the lot when something was marginal, or did it just arrive.
- How long did a question take to come back.
That is four weeks and the cost of one small lot, and it tells you more than any audit form.
A note on price
The cheapest quote on a first order is a weak signal. The number that matters is the landed cost per good part over a year, which includes rejects, replacements, expedited freight and your own engineering time answering the same question three times.
A shop that costs ten percent more and never sends you a surprise is cheaper. That is not a marketing line, it is arithmetic.
If you want to test us
Send one real part with its drawing through the RFQ page. We reply within 24 business hours with price, lead time and the questions we have, and we will tell you plainly if the part belongs somewhere else. What we run in house and what we place is listed on the capabilities page.
See also: certificates drone makers ask a parts supplier for.
Frequently asked questions
Should I pick a supplier with aerospace certification for commercial drone parts?
Only if your programme actually needs it. A certificate proves a management system, and it costs money that ends up in the part price. For most commercial UAV hardware, measured evidence against your drawing matters more than the certificate on the wall.
Is it better to use one supplier or several?
Several for the programme, one per part. Splitting one part across two shops gives you two setups, two first articles and two slightly different parts. Spreading different parts across suppliers gives you real resilience.
How do I test a new supplier without risking a programme?
Give them one real part with a proper drawing, not a simple one. A simple test part tells you nothing. Watch what they ask before quoting, because the questions are the signal.
Need this part quoted?
Send the model and the quantity. Price and lead time come back within 24 business hours.