Request for quotation: clarify supplier offers before comparing prices

A request for quotation (RFQ) asks suppliers for prices and terms against a specified requirement. The supplier's quote is the response. For a manufacturing buyer, the useful comparison starts when the offers cover the same part, quantity and delivery requirement.

A low unit price can still refer to an old drawing or leave transport unpriced. Keep that offer pending, ask a precise question and retain the supplier's answer. This guide follows one hypothetical private industrial purchase from the original quotes to a documented comparison. It is not a public-procurement procedure.

Give suppliers the same requirement

Identify the controlled request and the files that govern it. Fictiv's manufacturing RFQ guide emphasizes current design files and explicit questions about shipping, tooling and timing.

For your request, make these points clear:

• Part, drawing revision, material, finish and required inspection or documentation.
• Quantity and unit of measure for this order; request separate prices for other quantity breaks.
• Delivery location and milestone: dispatch, arrival or availability after required receiving checks.
• Unit-price currency, separately stated tooling or other charges, payment terms and exclusions.
• Response deadline, how long the offer remains valid and how the supplier should identify deviations.

Ask suppliers to reference the request version and identify any different assumption. If the design or solution is still undecided, resolve that work before treating the prices as equivalent. A price table cannot approve technical equivalence.

Read the original quotes before ranking them

Hypothetical example. RFQ081 revision 2 is issued on November 2, 2026. It asks for 1,000 housings (unit of measure: each), to drawing RH14 revision C, arriving at Plant M, receiving dock 2, by November 30 at 16:00. Replies are due November 3 at 16:00. All times use Plant M's local time.

Assume the required technical qualification for this exact revision is already approved for all three suppliers. Material, finish, inspection and packaging requirements are common. Supplier registration alone would not prove those checks in real purchasing. Arrival at the dock also does not prove inspection release or production availability.

All three replies arrive on the morning of November 3. Prices below are invented, in EUR, for the same 1,000 each. The comparison excludes tax; payment terms are the same. It does not model currency conversion, imports, financing, inventory cost or lifetime total cost of ownership.

An empty transport field is not zero. B's lower price is not a price for drawing RH14 revision C. Check the request actually sent and the reply received before deciding why they differ; the mismatch alone does not establish who caused it.

Keep an alternative part or revision in a separate evaluation. Engineering or quality must approve its suitability through your process before the buyer treats it as equivalent.

Resolve the question and preserve the new version

Give each missing term an owner, a response deadline and a completion condition. Ask for a supplier-issued clarification or replacement quote, rather than altering the original to make it appear compliant.

In the example, purchasing obtains these written responses on November 4:

Retain the respondent, timestamp, linked quote, responsible buyer and any open condition. Microsoft's RFQ overview illustrates amendments, new reply iterations and comparison of prices and receipt dates within Dynamics 365. Your own record may be a worksheet or another procurement system.

Here the buyer's requirement has not changed. If you change the quantity, drawing or delivery basis, issue the controlled amendment to the affected suppliers and recheck their offers against that same version. Do not quietly change one comparison row while leaving the others on an old requirement.

Compare the confirmed amounts within a stated rule

For this example, all required nonprice conditions have been checked and are assumed equal or met. The buyer's illustrative selection rule is the lowest quoted one-order amount excluding tax among the eligible offers. Real purchases use their own approved criteria; this rule does not prove best lifetime value or lowest risk.

The current written offers confirm the common scope and no charges beyond those listed. All remain valid through November 6 at 16:00, Plant M local time. The comparison and proposed decision take place November 5.

C has the lowest amount within this defined comparison: €180 below A and €190 below B. These are arithmetic differences in an invented example, not realized savings or Cartograph results. The zero means no additional tooling charge for this scope; it says nothing by itself about tooling ownership or repeat-order pricing.

If a charge or required condition remains unresolved, retain that status and the next action. Do not replace uncertainty with zero, a guessed allowance or a score that looks precise. A different order quantity also needs its own quoted basis; the MOQ and EOQ guide handles the separate lot-size and stock-cost decision.

Carry the recommendation through the approved order process

The authorized buyer can recommend C under the example's rule, with the current quote and clarification evidence attached. Record who approves the selection and any conditions. If approval or ordering happens after the offer expires, obtain current terms before proceeding. A November 5 comparison does not establish validity for a later order.

Transfer the approved requirement, price basis, charges, destination and dates into the order through your normal process. Then check the supplier's response against it; purchase order acknowledgement covers that later confirmation. Do not turn a quoted arrival into proof that goods have arrived or become usable.

In Cartograph, Inbox & Tasks keeps an owner, plan, linked records and communication history together. Use configured communication permissions and approval rules for supplier outreach. Your purchasing process still owns quote comparison, technical approval and the award decision.

Questions teams ask

What is the difference between an RFQ and a quotation?

The RFQ is the buyer's request for prices and terms against a requirement. The quotation is a supplier's response. Keep the request version and the supplier's quote version identifiable; one does not prove that the other was accepted unchanged.

Can an unstated transport charge be entered as zero?

No. Mark it pending and obtain the supplier's written basis. An explicitly confirmed zero or included charge is different from an empty field. Retain that evidence beside the comparison.

Does the lowest unit price decide which supplier wins?

Only after the required scope and eligibility checks can a price comparison inform the approved selection criteria. The example compares stated one-order amounts and assumes the other required conditions are met. It does not establish a universal award rule.

Are the reply deadline, offer validity and arrival date the same date?

They serve different decisions: when the supplier must respond, how long its offer can be used, and when the goods must reach the specified location. Record each with its applicable time basis and recheck validity when the order is actually approved or placed.