Why Your Capability List Is Costing You Requests

September 25, 2026 by The Alu CNC Parts editorial desk / how this is checked

Most shop profiles are written to impress and end up being useless for routing work. “Precision CNC machining, quality guaranteed, competitive prices, on time delivery” describes every shop that has ever existed and tells a buyer nothing.

What routes a request to you is specificity.

The five facts that decide whether a request reaches you

Envelope. The largest part you can actually machine, in millimetres, on each axis. This is the first filter anyone applies. A shop that never states it gets skipped on anything large, including jobs it could have taken.

Materials you run weekly. Not everything you have ever cut. If 6061 and 7075 are routine and titanium was once in 2019, say aluminum. Requests you can do well are worth more than requests you technically can do.

Batch sizes you want. A shop set up for 200 to 2000 is a poor fit for a one off, and being sent one offs wastes everybody’s time. Say the range where you are competitive, and say it honestly even if it is narrow.

Tightest tolerance you hold in production. In production, not on a good day on one piece. The distinction matters, and buyers can tell when a shop has overstated it.

Finishing you can arrange, and what it adds. Most shops subcontract anodizing and plating. That is completely normal. What is useful is saying which finishes you manage and roughly how many days they add, because lead time is where buyers get burned.

What to leave out

Adjectives. “High precision”, “state of the art”, “customer focused” and “quality guaranteed” are noise. They appear on every profile in the industry, so they carry no information, and a buyer reading twenty profiles filters them out automatically.

Certifications you do not hold. Implying ISO 9001 because you “work to ISO standards” is the kind of thing that ends a relationship when the certificate is requested.

Capabilities you broker out without saying so. If the five axis work goes to someone else, that may be fine, but the buyer needs to know because it changes lead time and accountability.

A profile that works

Machines   4 x Brother Speedio S700 (3-axis, 700x400x300)
           2 x Haas VF-4SS (4-axis, 1270x508x635)
           1 x Doosan Puma 2600 (turning, O400 x 650)
Envelope   1270 x 508 x 635 mm milling
Materials  6061, 6082, 7075 weekly. 5083 and MIC-6 regularly.
           Stainless occasionally, no titanium.
Batches    10 to 500. Competitive from 25 up.
Tolerance  ±0.02 mm on bores in production, ±0.05 mm general.
Finishing  Type II and Type III anodize, chem film, bead blast,
           all subcontracted locally. Adds 4 to 6 working days.
Inspection CMM, dimensional reports on request, FAI available.
Certs      None yet.
Lead time  3 to 4 weeks typical including coating.

Nothing in that is boastful and every line is a filter that either routes a request to this shop or correctly routes it elsewhere. That is the job a profile has to do.

Why the honest version gets you more work, not less

A profile that overstates gets sent requests the shop cannot win. Those cost estimating hours, produce no orders, and eventually the shop concludes that matching services do not work.

A profile that understates gets sent the right requests and wins a higher share of them. The shops that do best out of any referral arrangement are the ones whose profile is narrow enough that when a request arrives, it is already a good fit.

If you run aluminum in small to mid batches and you want that work routed to you, the partner page sets out the terms, including what a lead costs and what happens when one turns out to be wrong.

Sources

Figures in this guide are checked against the following. Published values are typical ranges for test material, not a guarantee for your part.

Frequently asked questions

Should I list every machine I own?

List model and count for the machines that do the work, plus the largest envelope and the tightest tolerance you hold in production. A wall of model numbers with no envelope or batch context is harder to route than a short honest list.

Is it better to look like a generalist or a specialist?

Specialist, almost always. A shop that says it does everything for everyone gets sent nothing in particular. A shop that says it runs 6061 and 7075 in batches of 10 to 500 with in house anodizing management gets sent exactly that, which is work it can win.

What if I do not have certifications?

Say so. 'None yet' is a perfectly acceptable answer and it is better than implying something you cannot evidence. Plenty of work does not require certification, and a buyer who needs AS9100 will ask for the certificate anyway.

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