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Contract Manufacturing Numbers: The Quote, the Long-Term Agreements and the Customer Mix

By PlainSight — Insightful Actions · Updated October 2026 · ~8 min read

A manufacturer that makes for several industries — a machine shop, a fabricator, a molder, an electronics assembler making parts to other companies' drawings — runs on a few numbers its customers set for it: what came in by customer, by industry and by process; how much of the year ships on long-term agreements, and when each was last priced; which customers are each a tenth of the year or more; and whether the quote behind a job matches what the job took. This guide names them, says what good looks like, and shows the arithmetic on an example book.

Where your numbers live

Your accounting or ERP system exports one row per invoice line: the date, the customer, the amount, and, if you record them, the customer's industry, the process the work ran through (machining, fabrication, welding and assembly, outside finishing) and the kind of order (a blanket release, a spot order, a prototype or first article, engineering and tooling). That is the whole file PlainSight needs. No drawings, part numbers or controlled technical data — the customer's name is enough, and the file never leaves your browser.

The numbers that tell you the shop is priced for the year it's in

1. Money by customer, and the 10% line
What good looks like: no customer you couldn't lose, and every one at 10% or more known by name.
Divide each customer's invoicing by the year's total and read every share at 10% or more. Ten percent is the line at which a public company has to name a customer in its accounts (FASB ASC 280), and the first thing a buyer, a bank or a big customer's supplier review asks a shop. In the example book, one aerospace customer is about 24% of the year, and three customers are each 10% or more — together about half.
An example, to show the arithmetic (not a benchmark)
CustomerIndustryShare of the yearHow it buys
The largestAerospace & defenseAbout 24%A long-term agreement, never repriced
The secondIndustrial equipmentAbout 14%A long-term agreement, never repriced
The thirdSemiconductor equipmentAbout 12%A long-term agreement, repriced each year
2. Money by industry
What good looks like: the next industry grown before the next customer.
Add each industry's share of the year, then do it for the year before. An industry is a second kind of concentration: aerospace, energy and automotive each have their own cycles, and a shop that is half one industry rides that industry's year. In the example, aerospace & defense is about 30% of the year, and medical devices grew about 28% a year to about 16% of it.
3. Long-term agreements, and the date each was priced
What good looks like: every agreement with a material clause or a yearly price review, and none still at its signing prices three years on.
List every long-term agreement (blanket orders released month by month at set part prices) with the date its prices were set and what can move them. In the example, agreements are about 59% of the year, and five of seven still ship at the prices set when they were signed, three years ago: about 43% of the year. A 5% review on those five is worth about $130,000 a year. Since April 6, 2026, Section 232 duties on steel, aluminum and copper are charged on an imported part's full customs value, and they were refined again on June 8; an agreement with no way to move its price absorbs every change.
4. The quote against the job
What good looks like: every job's actual hours and material compared with its quote when it ships.
Cost every quote from its routing: machine hours at a shop rate that covers the machine, the operator and the overhead, plus material at today's price, outside processing, inspection and scrap. Keep the quote with the job, and when it ships, compare. The jobs that lost money all have something in common, and it is usually setups, scrap or material.
5. Prototypes and first articles that become production
What good looks like: most first articles turning into production orders within a year.
Count prototype and first-article jobs by customer, and the customers whose production orders followed. A first article inspection (AS9102 in aerospace) is the proof a part can be made to print; a shop that does many and wins few production orders is doing a customer's engineering for free.
6. Engineering, programming and tooling, billed on their own lines
What good looks like: fixtures, programs and tooling invoiced once, apart from the part price.
If engineering and tooling never appear as their own lines, they are buried in the first order's part price and given away on every order after it. In the example, engineering and tooling are about 4% of the year, on their own lines.
7. OEE on the bottleneck machine
What good looks like: measured for a month before the next machine is bought.
Overall equipment effectiveness is availability × performance × quality. 85% is the figure usually called world-class (90% availability, 95% performance, 99% quality, from Seiichi Nakajima's work on TPM); most manufacturers run nearer 60%. The gap on a bottleneck is usually setups and waiting, and closing it is cheaper than a machine.
8. What each industry asks of you before the first order
What good looks like: the certificate, the registration and the cyber score in place before the quote.
ISO 9001 is the base; aerospace asks for AS9100 (its next revision is being renumbered IA9100), medical devices for ISO 13485, which FDA's Quality Management System Regulation has written in since February 2, 2026, and automotive for IATF 16949. A shop that makes defense articles must register with the State Department's DDTC (ITAR, 22 CFR 122.1), and defense work carries NIST SP 800-171 and an SPRS score: CMMC's Phase 2 third-party assessments were suspended on July 13, 2026, but Phase 1 self-assessments still apply.

Warning signs worth acting on

Make it a monthly rhythm

Export the month's invoices and read them three ways — by customer, by industry and by kind of order — each against the same month last year. Pick the one gap worth closing this month: an agreement to review, a quote to re-cost, a customer to lean on less. Then check it next month.

Let PlainSight read your invoices

Upload an invoice export and PlainSight breaks the year down by customer, industry, process and kind of order, finds every customer past the 10% line, and writes the specific next step in plain English.

See it on a live example →

Running or starting a contract shop? Read the free handbook for running a manufacturer that makes for several industries — the market, the stages a shop moves through, how each line pays, and what to do first. No account needed.

Frequently asked questions

What file does PlainSight need from a manufacturer?
An invoice or sales export with a date, the customer and the amount. Industry, process and order-type columns add those cuts. No drawings, part numbers or controlled technical data are needed, and the file is read in your browser.
Does it fit a job shop with no long-term agreements?
Yes. The customer and industry mix, the 10% line and the quote against the job matter just as much to a shop that only quotes spot orders; the agreements section simply has nothing to count yet.
Is my data safe if I use PlainSight?
Yes. Files are processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Optional AI features send only anonymized summary totals, never names or raw rows.
How much history do I need?
One month shows invoicing by customer and industry. Twelve months shows each customer's share of a year, and two years shows each month against its own last year.
Is this export-control, customs or legal advice?
No. ITAR and the EAR, DFARS and CMMC, FDA's rules for medical devices and the tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper apply to some parts and not others; confirm each with the customer's flow-down clauses, a licensed customs broker and counsel. This is general information, not legal/tax advice.

Sources

This guide is general information for people who run or work in a contract manufacturing business, not financial, legal, export-control or customs advice. Certification, export-control, cybersecurity and tariff rules depend on each part, each customer and each contract. This is general information, not legal/tax advice.