Manufacturing network
FabVector runs its own machining facility in Dongguan, Guangdong, and works with a network of 200 partner factories in the surrounding Pearl River Delta cluster. You still deal with one company, one quote and one inspection standard.
Dongguan, Guangdong
Machinists, programmers, metrology and QA
Audited, tiered and scored monthly
3-axis to 5-axis, Swiss, EDM, grinding
Metals and engineering plastics
Why a network
Every machine shop quotes what its own spindles can hold. Ask for a Swiss-turned pin, a 5-axis impeller and a ground plate in one BOM and most shops will quietly sub out two of the three — or decline the line items that do not fit.
Three suppliers means three quotes to reconcile, three inspection formats, three shipments to clear and nobody who owns the assembly when two parts do not fit each other.
The shop that welcomes a 5-piece prototype is rarely priced for the 800-piece follow-on, and the production house that wants the 800 will not touch the prototype. Both jobs need the same drawing understood the same way.
How work is routed
The in-house plant is where a job goes when the tolerance stack is unforgiving, when a first article has to be right before a batch is released, or when a customer wants the same operator on a repeat order. Short loops between machining and the CMM matter more here than raw capacity.
200 plants inside one cluster means the machine class a part actually needs is usually a short drive away — a Swiss lathe for Ø6 mm pins, a large-envelope 5-axis for a housing that will not fit a standard table, a dedicated grinder for a flatness callout. Breadth is the point, not headcount.
Lead time is usually lost waiting for bar stock or plate, not cutting it. Sitting inside the cluster means 43 listed grades are sourced locally in days rather than ordered in from another province.
A distributed network only works if the buyer cannot tell the difference. Inspection scope is fixed at RFQ — dimensional report, CMM data, material certificate, CoC or FAI — and comes back in one format, so incoming QC does not have to re-learn a new document set per shipment.
Qualification
A large network is only worth anything if getting in is hard. These are the six steps, including what gets a plant removed.
Business licence, quality-system certification, equipment list and a capability matrix — maximum envelope, axis count and the tolerance grade the shop actually holds rather than the one it advertises. We also screen for conflicts: a plant already machining for one of our customers' direct competitors does not enter the pool for that customer's work.
A scored walk-through with knockout items. Machine condition and calibration records, the metrology room and whether its calibration is traceable, process control (work instructions, first-article and in-process records), material control down to heat or lot number, operator certification, housekeeping — and drawing handling, which is the one our customers care about most.
A representative test part for the capability class the plant claims, measured in our own metrology room. We do not accept the supplier's own inspection report as qualification evidence. This is the step that converts a claim into a measurement.
A low-risk live order, scored on four things: on-time delivery, first-pass yield, completeness of the paperwork that ships with the parts, and how fast they respond when something goes wrong. The fourth one predicts the others.
Qualified plants are graded A, B or C by tolerance capability and working envelope, and jobs are routed to the class the part needs. A brokerage sends the drawing to whoever bids lowest; that is the difference between a network and a middleman.
On-time delivery, defect PPM and documentation accuracy are scored monthly, with a full re-audit on an annual cycle. Two consecutive periods below threshold means a downgrade; a serious quality or confidentiality breach means removal. Sub-contracting your part onward without our written approval is grounds for removal on its own.
Accountability
A supplier network is only an advantage to the buyer if accountability does not get distributed along with the work.
CAD goes to FabVector, not to a factory. Geometry is analysed, an estimate range comes back in about 60 seconds, and an engineer reviews manufacturability before anything is binding.
Drawings are encrypted and stored privately from upload, under NDA. Partner plants receive what a job needs, not your whole BOM.
Dimensional checks, CMM reports, material certificates, CoC and FAI are specified at RFQ and delivered in the same format regardless of which plant cut the part.
You contract with FabVector. Partner factories are our supply chain to manage — not vendors you have to qualify, chase or pay.
Process coverage
Every process below can appear on the same BOM, in the same quote and in the same shipment.
| Process | Where it fits |
|---|---|
| CNC Machining | Milling, turning, 5-axis, Swiss-type, EDM and grinding under one roof — one upload, one accountable partner. |
| CNC Milling | 3- and 4-axis vertical machining for housings, brackets, manifolds and structural parts. |
| CNC Turning | Live-tooling lathes for shafts, pins, bushings and threaded fittings up to Ø406 mm. |
| 5-Axis Machining | Simultaneous 5-axis machining for impellers, freeform surfaces and compound-angle features. |
| Swiss-Type Machining | Sliding-headstock lathes for small, slender, high-precision turned parts from Ø1 mm. |
| Wire EDM | Electrical discharge wire cutting for hardened steels, sharp internal corners and zero-force profiles. |
| Surface Grinding | Abrasive finishing for flatness, parallelism and tight thickness control on hardened parts. |
| Micro Machining | High-speed spindles and Ø0.1 mm tooling for features below 1 mm and watch-scale parts. |
| Prototype Machining | Functional prototypes in production-grade materials, shipped in days with DFM feedback included. |
| Production Machining | Dedicated fixturing, in-process CMM and SPC documentation for repeatable volume runs. |
Next step
Upload a STEP/STL and get a price range in about 60 seconds, reviewed by an engineer before anything is binding.
