Request for quotation (RFQ)
A request for quotation (RFQ) is a document sent to suppliers asking them to price a requirement that is already fully defined, so that the prices returned can be compared line for line rather than interpreted.
A request for quotation (RFQ) is a document sent to suppliers asking them to price a requirement that is already fully defined. Because every supplier receives the same specification, quantity and delivery date, the prices that come back can be compared line for line rather than interpreted.
Three neighboring documents do different jobs. A request for information asks what a supplier can do and how, before anything is priced. A request for proposal asks suppliers to propose an approach as well as a price, and suits requirements where the method is part of what is being bought. An invitation to tender (ITT) is the formal version used on construction and public sector work, issued with a full set of contract documents and returned by a fixed deadline. An RFQ sits at the transactional end: the requirement is settled, and the only open questions are price, lead time and availability.
What an RFQ must state to get comparable prices
A vague RFQ produces prices that cannot be set against each other, which costs more time than it saves. At a minimum, state:
- The exact specification: manufacturer part numbers, drawings or a written specification, and which version of it.
- Quantity, plus any break quantities you want priced separately.
- Delivery address and the date the goods are needed on site, not the date you would like to order.
- Packing, labeling and delivery requirements, including anything about vehicle access or timed slots.
- Your payment terms, so the price you compare is the price you will pay.
- The closing date for responses and how long the quoted price must remain open.
- One named contact for questions, with every answer copied to every supplier asked.
That last point is what keeps the exercise honest. A clarification given to one supplier and not the others changes what they are pricing, and the comparison stops meaning anything.
Everyone prices the same document
Send one specification, in one version, to every supplier, and reissue it to all of them if it changes. If two suppliers are quoting different revisions, the cheaper price is not information, it is an artifact of the paperwork.
Where the RFQ sits in the chain
An RFQ and a purchase order are consecutive steps rather than alternatives. The RFQ goes out before a supplier has been chosen; the purchase order goes to the winner once the decision is made, and converts the accepted quotation into a committed order. For a distributor or an integrator there is usually a third document in the middle: the price quotation you send your own customer, built from the supplier prices the RFQ brought back. Keeping the three separate is what lets you show, months later, which prices were available, why a supplier was chosen and what was agreed.
Zigaflow sends an RFQ to several suppliers at once from the job, compares the responses side by side and turns the winning one into a purchase order.