A manufacturing sale is a long chain of approvals, not a single decision. Track RFQs, quotations, samples and POs with exit criteria that hold. From ₹899/user/month.
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Quick answer
Enquiries arrive by email, at exhibitions and through an existing customer's new plant. They get quoted from a spreadsheet, a sample goes out, and after that the trail depends on whichever engineer remembers to ask.
The cost is invisible because it is slow. A sample sitting unapproved for two months is not recorded as a loss anywhere, yet it is the single most common way a manufacturing enquiry ends.
A manufacturing sale is not one decision. Engineering assesses feasibility, costing prices it, quality approves a sample, procurement registers the vendor and finance releases the PO. Seven stages hold that chain: RFQ received, feasibility, quotation issued, sample dispatched, sample approved, commercial agreed, PO received.
Keep development enquiries separate from repeat and rate contract business. One runs in quarters and the other in weeks, and averaging them produces a cycle time that describes nothing the team actually experiences.
Feasibility ends when the drawing and tolerances are on file and the works has confirmed it can make the part. Quotation issued ends with a numbered quotation acknowledged by the buyer, including quantity and lead time.
Sample approved is the one to police hardest. Written approval only, because a verbal nod from an engineer has no standing when procurement later asks why an unapproved part is in the system. No document, no stage change.
The times below suit engineered components and job work. Standard product lines will run faster, and a first order into a large OEM will run considerably slower.
| Stage | What it means | Exit criteria (evidence) | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFQ received | Enquiry with a requirement | Drawing or specification on file | 1 to 5 days |
| Feasibility | Works confirms it can be made | Process route and tooling view recorded | 3 days to 2 weeks |
| Quotation issued | Costed offer with lead time | Numbered quotation acknowledged | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Sample dispatched | Part sent for evaluation | Challan and dispatch date on the deal | 2 to 8 weeks |
| Sample approved | Quality clears the part | Written approval received | 2 to 12 weeks |
| PO received | Order placed and scheduled | PO number and delivery schedule | Closed |
Four filtered lists: samples unapproved beyond the expected window, quotations with no response, incomplete vendor registrations, and deals with a PO month inside the next quarter. Each gets a name and a date, or it gets closed.
Read the losses too. Sample rejected, lead time and incumbent supplier are engineering and capacity messages, not sales excuses, and the works needs to hear them while there is still time to respond.
RFQ to PO conversion by product family, which shows where the plant is genuinely competitive. Sample ageing, the most expensive silence in the business. And pipeline by expected PO month against capacity, so planning and sales argue from one set of numbers.
A pipeline records discipline, it does not manufacture it. If nobody records a sample dispatch date, no report can tell you the sample is late. Start with sample tracking alone, because it has the clearest money attached and the shortest list of rules.
This is not an ERP, a production planning system or a quality module, and it does not manage inventory or dispatch. It covers the months between an RFQ and a purchase order, then hands the order details over to whatever runs the plant.
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Samples go out and nothing happens, and three months later the customer has approved somebody else's part.
Sample dispatched is a stage with an ageing clock and a named owner, so an unapproved sample becomes a chased conversation rather than a silent loss.Sample ageing alerts
Quotations sit in an email folder, and when the customer calls about a price given in March nobody can find what was offered.
Quotations and their revisions live on the enquiry with dates and values, so the commercial history is one click away during any negotiation.Quotation revision history
The forecast is a list of large numbers with no dates, so production planning and working capital decisions are guesswork.
Every deal carries an expected PO month and an evidence-based stage, so the plan can be read by month instead of as one hopeful total.PO month forecasting
A technically cleared customer never places an order because vendor registration was never completed by anyone in particular.
Vendor registration is tracked as its own step with an owner and documents, so approval paperwork is finished before the first order is expected.Vendor registration tracking
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