Capacity is not a machine count or a floor area. In a mixed-work shop the binding constraint moves between operations, and changeovers consume the time that nameplate figures assume is productive.
A small order is not delayed because it is small. It waits because it fits the schedule badly: the material, tooling, drawing release and setup window rarely line up at once, and a planner sorts by fit rather than by arrival date.
A quotation is a response to information. The drawing, acceptance criteria, material, volume and service conditions that turn a guess into a price that holds.
Casting is a tooling based route, and it rewards complexity, volume and stability. Four conditions that turn a casting programme into an expensive way to make a shape.
A drawing that says no porosity cannot be met or measured. Zoning by function, naming the acceptance method and stating sampling is what makes it enforceable.
Stock has to cover cast tolerance, skin depth and distortion, and no single figure does that across a whole part. How to specify it surface by surface.
