Job Dream

Inhabit

Much to my surprise, a much younger me has landed a job at some kind of custom engineering firm. My first project is to generate a bid to make about 30 bicycle Z-brackets. On a normal bicycle these would be called headstock bearings, but there must be something special about these bearings, otherwise why would the client be asking us to make them? Normally you would go to someone who has experience making these things, like a bicycle manufacturer or one of their suppliers. But the client has asked my employer, and my employer has dumped it in my lap.
     My immediate reaction is to figure out how to get it done as cheaply as possible, but after talking to my boss, and a very brief conversation with his boss (hi, how's things, bye), I come to realize that price is probably not the issue here. The immediate goal is to put together a bid that will cover our costs of getting the part designed and built, and don't worry too much about the price. They are only asking for 30 units, so there are not going to be any economies of scale. And we don't want to spend a great deal of time putting this bid together as I have no idea what the client is expecting. If they balk at the price, well, then we can negotiate.