A single all-in price hides where the money goes and makes every later change an argument. Splitting the quotation is a small honesty with large consequences.
It is tempting to bury engineering and tooling inside the unit price. It makes the quotation look competitive and it defers a conversation nobody enjoys. It also guarantees that the first volume change turns into a renegotiation, because the recovery assumptions were never visible.
We quote non-recurring engineering, tooling, test equipment, setup, materials, conversion and logistics as separate lines. Each answers a different question. NRE says what it costs to make the product manufacturable. Tooling says what physical assets exist and who owns them. Conversion says what it costs to build one unit once everything is in place.
Ownership belongs next to tooling. A fixture paid for by the customer is the customer's fixture, and saying so in the quotation prevents an awkward discussion if the program later moves. The same applies to test equipment developed for a specific product.
The practical benefit shows up at every change. A revision that affects only the fixture is quoted against the fixture. A volume change moves the unit price without reopening the engineering. And a program that ends does so with a clear picture of what was paid for and what remains — which is how relationships survive their endings.
— GANI Contract Manufacturing engineering team