Hello everyone,
I am glad to have found this forum as it has already been a wealth of information and I can’t seem to help finding myself sucked into almost every discussion I come across. (Nice to find somewhere with an interest I can relate to.)
But let me get to the reason I made it here in the first place.
I currently am employed at a decently sized manufacturing facility (100 plus CNCs) as a Product Engineer. I was hired as a “product engineer” under the pretense that I would be designing a product line for the company. (which currently operates as build to print house)
This never happened, we continue as a BTP house and my job has fallen more as a production engineer.
About a year ago we had a customer that approached us about doing some design/engineering work for a product they were looking to have us manufacture. This is something that we do not do, and I was approached by my manager and asked if I would be interested in taking on this work on the side as a freelance gig on my own. I agreed.
The project started with a napkin sketch I was provided by the customer. From there I developed a product concept presented a few design ideas and we moved forward to a final design. I took care of all the material selections, coatings, finishes, tolerances, conditions, fitments into the assembly. (the part was a speaclized AR-15 bolt carrier for any of you who may be firearms guys/gals) After the final solidworks model was approved I created engineering drawings and submitted a final technical data package to him that was production ready. He was very happy and we ended up producing the product for him and it turned out great.
Fast forward to current. I have just wrapped up the TDP for the third product after the initial work I did with him, all of which have successfully gone to production, all outside of our manufacturing facility. The projects have grown quite a bit in complexity. This package will have 8 deliverable designed components, and additional 5 sourced components, totaling a 13 PN assembly with all components modeled and engineering drawings for all designed components as well as part drawings for all standard components with sourcing ect. This TDP also includes 3 extrusion profile designs with models and fully toleranced engineering drawings that components will be machined from. This also includes photo renderings of assemblies and all material selections, coatings, fitments, tolerancing, fitments and all the applicable needs.
I’m now branching out and looking to get involved with some other customers and I am wondering how you guys are handling pricing a job like this. Up to this point I have been tracking my hours and billing at a hourly rate. It has worked fine for this customer but I am not sure this is the best solution, and I am unsure of the rate. I have also been working with no contract.
So how do you guys handle your pricing? What kind of hourly rate is reasonable for this type of work? Would anyone be kind enough to supply a sample of a contract that you are using?
I really appreciate any feedback that you guys might have and I look forward to hearing from you!
My apologies for being so long winded.