RFQ (request for quotation)
An RFQ is a formal request a buyer sends to one or more suppliers asking for a price (and lead time, terms, and capacity) on a specific part, quantity, and spec. It is the document that turns "we need this part made" into a comparable set of quotes from suppliers who can actually do it.
Part of the Procurement Glossary
How it works in practice
A typical production-buyer RFQ goes out by email to two or three suppliers on the existing approved-vendor list. The package is usually a drawing (or a STEP file), a target quantity, and a needed-by date. The buyer asks for a price per unit, the lead time on the first article and on production quantities, the MOQ, and any commercial terms (payment, freight, tooling charges). Responses come back over the next one to three weeks, the buyer compares, and a PO follows on the chosen supplier.
This is very different from how enterprise content describes RFQs. Procurement-platform articles assume a multi-vendor sourcing event run inside SAP Ariba or Coupa with formal scoring. The reality at most mid-size manufacturers is a 2-to-3 supplier email blast against an existing vendor list, often on tight turnaround, often for a part that needs to be in production within the quarter.
A senior buyer treats the RFQ as both a price discovery and a relationship test. A supplier who turns around a thoughtful quote in two days is signalling something different from one who takes three weeks and asks for the spec sheet again. Both data points matter for sourcing.
Why it matters
The RFQ is where most of the commercial decisions on a part are locked in: price, lead time, MOQ, who tools the part. Mistakes at this stage (an under-specified quote, a wrong target quantity, an unclear delivery expectation) carry forward through every PO that follows. A good RFQ saves cost and friction on every order for the life of the part.
RFQs also carry a hidden process risk: the unanswered quote. A supplier who goes silent on an RFQ is the same kind of silence as a supplier who goes silent on an open PO, but it is often noticed later because there is no PO yet to flag the loop. Quotes that drift for weeks unanswered are a common source of sourcing slips.
Tips
Send the same package to every supplier
Same drawing, same quantity, same needed-by date, same questions. Comparable quotes need comparable inputs. Sending a different spec to each supplier turns the comparison into guesswork.
Set a clear response deadline
Give the supplier a specific date you need the quote back by. "ASAP" produces three-week turnarounds. "By Friday COB" produces Friday turnarounds.
Treat a missed quote deadline as data
A supplier who misses the quote deadline without communication is showing you what their PO acknowledgment cadence will look like. It is a sourcing signal, not just a logistics one.
How PO-Relay helps
PO-Relay's Email Intelligence catches supplier responses to outbound emails (including RFQ replies and the conspicuous silences) and flags threads that have gone quiet past the response window. The same monitoring layer that surfaces unacknowledged POs surfaces unanswered quote requests, so an RFQ that is sitting in a supplier's inbox for two weeks does not just disappear into your sent folder.
PO-Relay does not track RFQs as a first-class object the way it tracks open POs. Quote comparisons, sourcing decisions, and the RFQ document itself live in your sourcing tools or your email. PO-Relay's contribution is making sure the supplier-response side of the RFQ stays visible and the silent ones get a follow-up draft when they need one.