What an export-ready capability sheet actually contains

This one is for the shops, not the buyers.

We receive capability sheets constantly, and we forward very few of them unchanged. Not because the shops are weak — most are genuinely capable — but because the document answers questions nobody asked and skips the ones that decide the order.

Here is what an overseas EDC buyer is actually reading for.

What most sheets contain, and why it underperforms

The typical sheet: a company founding date, a photo of the building, a list of machines by model number, a line about quality, and a closing sentence about competitive pricing.

The buyer’s reaction to each:

• Founding date — mildly reassuring, not decisive
• Building photo — every shop has one, it proves nothing
• Machine model numbers — meaningless unless they already know that a Brother S700X1 is a good small-part machine
• “We ensure high quality” — the same sentence appears on every sheet they have received
• “Competitive pricing” — they will find out from the quote

None of it answers the question they are actually asking, which is: has this shop done work like mine, and will it be a problem to work with?

The eight things that do convert

1. Batch sizes you actually run, with a real distribution.

Not “1 to 100,000 pieces”. Something like: “Most jobs are 30 to 500 pieces. Smallest recent production run: 20. Largest: 8,000.” That single line tells an EDC buyer with a 50-piece order more than the whole machine list.

2. Materials run weekly, separated from materials possible.

“Weekly: 6061, 7075, 304, 316L, Ti Grade 5, brass C360. Occasionally: PEEK, D2 with outsourced heat treat. Not currently: Inconel.”

The “not currently” line builds more trust than any claim. A shop willing to say what it does not do is a shop whose yes means something.

3. Tolerance you hold in production, and how it is verified.

“±0.02 mm routine, verified on CMM for marked features. ±0.01 mm achievable on small parts with in-process check.” Add what inspection equipment exists and whether there is a temperature-controlled area.

See first-article inspection for what buyers will ask you for.

4. Finishing: what you control versus what you subcontract.

Be explicit. “In-house: deburr, tumble, bead-blast. Subcontracted to a finisher we have used 6 years: Type II and III anodize, PVD. Managed by us, 7 to 10 days added.”

Buyers are not put off by subcontracting. They are put off by discovering it late. Naming the arrangement and the timeline is a strength.

5. Lead time from PO, honestly stated.

Quote turnaround, prototype time, production time, and what makes it longer. A shop that says “add 10 to 14 days if heat treatment is required” reads as experienced. See heat treatment.

6. Export evidence.

Countries shipped to, Incoterms you work on, whether you have handled air freight and customs paperwork yourself. “Regular shipments to US and Japan, EXW and FOB Ho Chi Minh, DHL and FedEx accounts in place.”

7. A named contact who answers in English.

A name, a role, an email, and a stated response time. Not info@. This is worth more than one more machine in the list — the most common reason an overseas enquiry dies is that nobody replied for four days.

8. One or two jobs described without naming the customer.

“Titanium Grade 5 handle components, 200 pieces per quarter for 2 years, stonewash, ±0.02 mm on the pivot bore.” No customer name, no photo, no NDA breach. It proves capability in a way a machine list cannot.

What to leave out

Photos of parts under NDA. This is the fastest way to lose a serious buyer. If you show them someone else’s unreleased design, they know exactly what will happen to theirs. See NDA, IP and tooling ownership.

Certification claims you cannot evidence. If you are ISO 9001 certified, give the certificate number and body. If you are not, say what you do instead — “documented first-article inspection and in-process checks; not ISO certified” — which is honest and often sufficient for EDC work.

Stock photos. Overseas buyers recognise them instantly and they cost you credibility.

Machine lists longer than one screen. Group them: “4 x 3-axis VMC, 2 x 5-axis, 3 x CNC lathe with live tooling, wire EDM, surface grinder.” The detail can be an appendix.

Format

Two to four pages of PDF. Not a 40-slide deck, not a web page only. Buyers forward PDFs internally and open them offline.

Name the file with your company name and a date: shopname-capability-2026-09.pdf. Update the date when anything changes.

The test

Give your sheet to someone who does not work in manufacturing and ask them what your shop is good at. If they cannot answer in one sentence, the sheet is a list rather than a case.

If you run precision CNC in Vietnam and small batches are work you want, apply to the network — send the sheet and we will tell you honestly what a buyer will read into it.

FAQ

Should I include prices? No. Prices in a capability sheet date badly and invite comparison before the buyer understands what they are comparing. Quote per job.

What if I have no export experience yet? Say so, and say what you do have — domestic customers with demanding specs, English-speaking staff, willingness to learn the paperwork. A first export customer is a real thing shops get. Pretending is not.

How long should it take to produce? A day, once. Then fifteen minutes to update every few months. It is the single highest-return document a shop that wants export work can own.

Is a website enough instead? A website helps buyers find you. A PDF is what gets forwarded to the person who approves the order. You want both, and the PDF matters more.

Should I list customers by name? Only with written permission. Describing the work without naming the customer is safer and nearly as persuasive.

What is the most common thing missing? Batch size distribution. Almost no sheet includes it, and for small-batch buyers it is the first thing they want to know.