FOR AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE
Aerospace and defence work pays for precision and paperwork, and punishes anything that goes wrong. Batches are small, material is expensive, and a quote has to carry inspection, first article and documentation as well as machining. Kojo handles quoting, production tracking, inventory and payments, and sits alongside the quality system you already run.
HOW THE WORK IS PRICED
Material and machine time dominate, and both are expensive. Aerospace alloys such as 7075 and 6061 aluminium, 17-4 PH stainless, titanium Grade 5 and nickel alloys are bought to a specification with mill test certificates, often only from approved sources. Machined structural parts have a high buy-to-fly ratio: you buy a large block and turn most of it into chips. Titanium and nickel alloys cut slowly and wear tools fast, five-axis hours carry a high rate, and batches are tens of parts rather than thousands, so programming, fixtures and setup weigh heavily on the unit price.
The costs that get missed are inspection and paperwork. CMM time, first article inspection in AS9102 format, dimensional reports, special processes such as anodising, passivation, heat treatment and NDT through approved and often Nadcap-accredited processors, and the certificate of conformity pack all take hours. In India, defence and PSU orders often come through tenders decided on L1 price, with fixed delivery schedules, liquidated damages for delay, and payment only after inspection and acceptance at the customer's end. Overseas primes and tier-1 suppliers tend to work on long-term agreements with periodic price reviews. A shop that leaves inspection, special processes and the payment cycle out of the price is working for free on its hardest parts.
THE HEADACHES
FAI, CMM time and documentation packs are easy to forget at the quote stage. The shop wins on price and loses money on the job.
One wrong assumption on cycle time or material in a tender can lock you into a loss-making order for a year or more.
A part scrapped after its last five-axis operation carries the full cost of certified material and machine time. Rejects need to be seen by shift, not at month end.
Defence and PSU payments wait on inspection, acceptance and bill processing. Without a clear ageing view, nobody chases the right bill at the right time.
THE WORKFLOW
Drawings, quantities, material specification and quality requirements (first article, special processes, certificates) arrive from a prime, tier-1 supplier or defence PSU.
Check tolerances and material availability from approved sources, plan operations and fixtures, then cost material, machining, special processes, inspection and documentation.
Submit the quote or tender, and follow up through technical clarifications and price negotiation.
Buy certified material with mill test certificates, program and prove out the part, and get the first article approved before running the batch.
Machine the batch, send it out for special processes, inspect in-process and final, and build the documentation pack.
Dispatch with the certificate of conformity, wait for the customer's inspection and acceptance, then invoice and follow up for payment.
WHERE KOJO FITS
COMMERCIAL
LIVECaptures how your senior estimator thinks about multi-axis, small-batch work: cycle time per operation, machine hour rates and setup allowances. It applies them the same way on every RFQ and tender, so a bid never rests on one person's mood that day.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
LIVEKojo fills in material at today's price from your raw-material price master, plus machining, setup, overhead and margin. Inspection, first article, documentation and special processes are added from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTOperators log production, rejects, downtime and material for each shift on a tablet. A scrapped titanium or 7075 part shows up the same day, not in the month-end report.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTTracks expensive bar, plate and consumables against real usage and warns at the reorder point, rounded up to the supplier's minimum order quantity, so long-lead certified material is ordered in time.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
ROLLING OUTReminds customers before and after each due date on email, WhatsApp and SMS, and shows who owes what and for how long, so slow acceptance cycles don't turn into forgotten bills.
Explore module →INTELLIGENCE
ROLLING OUTLive work in progress, machine utilisation and order status on one screen, with a daily report to the owner's phone, so delivery dates with penalty clauses are watched every day.
Explore module →STARTER TO ENTERPRISE
Start with quoting, add production, inventory and payments, then scale across plants with integrations and a dedicated support team.
STARTER
Start with quoting, so every RFQ and tender is costed from the same cycle times, rates and inspection allowances, whoever prepares it.
GROWTH
Add shop-floor logging, inventory and payment reminders as batch orders build up, so rejects, certified material and receivables are visible every day.
ENTERPRISE
For suppliers with more than one plant, or separate machining and assembly sites: multi-site roll-up reporting, an open API to your accounting or ERP system, a dedicated support team and an uptime SLA.
NUMBERS TO WATCH
QUOTED AGAINST ACTUAL CYCLE TIME ON NEW PARTS
Shows whether your estimates for new part numbers hold up once the part is proven out and running.SCRAP AND REWORK COST PER MONTH
With aerospace material and five-axis hours in every part, a few rejects can wipe out a batch's margin.FIVE-AXIS MACHINE UTILISATION
Your most expensive machines should be cutting, not waiting for programs, fixtures or inspection.DAYS TO PAYMENT ON DEFENCE AND PSU ORDERS
Long acceptance and payment cycles decide how much working capital the next order will need.COMMON MATERIALS
Each material page has properties, equivalent grades and a free weight and machining cost calculator.
QUESTIONS
No. Kojo handles quoting, production tracking, inventory and payments. First article reports, inspection records, traceability and certificates of conformity stay in the quality system you already run.
Yes. Machining is built from your cycle times and machine hour rates. Inspection, first article, documentation and outside processes like anodising or heat treatment are added from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding.
A tender price is only as good as its cycle time and material assumptions. Kojo applies your estimator's cycle times, machine hour rates and setup allowances the same way on every bid, with material at today's price from your price master, so you can see exactly what the number is built from before you submit.
Book a free 30-minute visit. We'll run one of your real jobs through Kojo on the spot. Outside India? We'll do it on a video call.
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