Order Review and Subcontract Management: A Checklist

By P-Soft Expert Team October 15, 2026 10 min read

Order review (contract review) means that before you say “yes” to a customer, engineering, pricing, planning, subcontracting and production each confirm from their own angle that the order can be delivered, and management then gives the final approval. Managing subcontracted production is the continuation of the same work: a part sent to a subcontractor must leave with complete specifications and a return date, and be inspected when it comes back.

Most of the trouble in a job shop starts at the moment an order is accepted, not on the shop floor: a tolerance nobody read, a price quoted without counting the heat treatment, or a delivery date that did not fit the current machine load. This article gives you a practical checklist for each stage of order review and a working method for controlling production subcontractors.

What Is Contract Review and Why Do It Before Accepting an Order?

Order review, often called contract review, is the process of checking customer requirements before the factory commits. Quality management standards such as ISO 9001 also ask an organization to make sure, before accepting a commitment, that it can meet the customer’s requirements. Standards aside, the logic is simple: fixing a mistake on paper costs almost nothing, while the same mistake in the middle of production means scrap, rework and delay.

Effective review has three features. It is written: each department’s opinion is recorded, not just spoken. It has clear ownership: one person answers for each stage. And it has deadlines, because the customer is waiting for an answer and review must not become a sales bottleneck.

A Six-Stage Order Review Checklist

1. Technical review

Are the drawing and specifications complete and the latest revision?
Can the tolerances and surface finish be achieved with the machines and tools on hand?
Is the material specified, and can it be sourced?
Has any special test or certificate been requested?

2. Price review

Has the material been costed at current prices?
Are all operations, including outside work, included in the price?
Have packaging, transport and any special inspection been costed?
Do the customer’s payment terms fit the factory’s cash flow?

3. Planning review

Given the current machine load, is the customer’s requested date realistic?
Is the raw material lead time included in the schedule?
If the date is not feasible, what alternative date can be offered?

4. Subcontracting review

Which operations are not done in-house and must go outside?
Is a suitable subcontractor available with capacity?
Has the part’s round trip been included in the schedule?

5. Production review

Are the sequence of operations, tooling and fixtures defined?
Is an operator with the necessary skills available for this job?
Have in-process inspection points been defined?

6. Final management approval

Management sees every department’s view in one place and makes one of three decisions: accept; accept with conditions or amendments (a new date or price, for example); or decline the order. The result should be communicated to the customer in writing in the same form. If the customer later changes the drawing or quantity, the order is reviewed again, at least in the stages the change affects.

Hypothetical Example: When Order Review Saves a Job

A hypothetical machine shop receives an order for a batch of shafts. Sales has quoted an initial price based on a similar earlier order. Technical review reveals that the new drawing calls for surface hardening, which the shop cannot do in-house. Subcontracting review names a hardening subcontractor and states the round-trip time; price review adds the cost of that stage; and planning concludes that the delivery date must move back a little. Management accepts the order at the amended price and date. Without that review, the shop would either have lost money or delivered late.

Subcontract Management: Keeping Outsourced Parts in Sight

Sending part of the work to a production subcontractor, such as heat treatment, plating, painting or special machining, is unavoidable for many factories. The problem starts when a part disappears from everyone’s view once it leaves the gate. A few decisions to make before outsourcing:

Why outside? Lack of technical capability, lack of capacity or cost; know the reason so you can revisit the decision later.
To whom? Choose subcontractors based on past quality, on-time performance and cost, and keep a record for each one.
With what specification? A subcontract order should be as precise as a purchase order.

What Should Travel with a Part Sent to a Subcontractor?

Information	Why it matters
Customer order number and subcontract order number	The part stays linked to the original order file at every moment
Quantity and identification of the parts sent	Shortages or mix-ups on return show up immediately
Drawing or operation instruction and technical specification	The subcontractor knows exactly what to deliver
Acceptance criteria and inspection method	Quality disputes are settled in advance
Committed return date	A delay is seen before it reaches the customer delivery

When the part returns, inspect it like purchased goods and record the result. If it is nonconforming, decide on disposition (scrap, use as is or rework) and note it in that subcontractor’s record. We explain inspection methods in our guide to production quality control.

Periodic Evaluation of Production Subcontractors

A subcontractor that does good work today may slip six months from now because of capacity shortages or staff changes. If every subcontract order is recorded, periodic evaluation is not hard. At the end of each period, say each quarter, review a few questions for every subcontractor:

What share of orders came back on the committed date?
How many times did nonconforming parts come back, and how were they dispositioned?
How flexible were they with urgent changes?
Did they return the accompanying documents and paperwork correctly?

Share the results with the subcontractor too. The goal of evaluation is not to find someone to blame; it is to build a dependable supply chain. For critical operations, it is wise to have at least two approved subcontractors so a customer order does not stall if one lacks capacity. The same logic applies to buying raw materials; we explain how to compare and choose suppliers in factory purchasing management.

Who Is Responsible for What in Order Review?

Stage	Typical owner	Output
Technical	Engineering or technical department	Feasibility confirmation, bill of materials and operations
Price	Sales with finance	Final price and payment terms
Planning	Production planner	A delivery date the factory can commit to
Subcontracting	Subcontract coordinator or purchasing	Subcontractor and round-trip time
Production	Production supervisor or manager	Sequence of operations and inspection points
Final approval	Managing director or plant manager	Accept, accept with conditions, or decline

Job titles vary from factory to factory; what matters is that one specific name is written against each row.

Common Mistakes in Order Review and Subcontracting

Verbal review in the corridor, without recording each department’s view
Quoting a price before technical review, especially for familiar customers
Forgetting the subcontractor round trip when setting the delivery date
Sending parts without a traveler and a valid drawing
Keeping no record of each subcontractor’s quality and timeliness
Not re-reviewing after the customer changes the drawing

Order Review and Subcontracting in Data Manufacturing ERP

These stages can run on forms and folders, but with dozens of orders in progress at once, it becomes hard to see which order is waiting on which department. In Data, P-Soft’s manufacturing ERP, the Pro plan covers the same six stages described above: an order passes in turn through engineering, the pricer, the planner, the person in charge of outside work and production, and management finalizes it. Each part’s materials, their cost and the sequence of operations also receive formal approval between departments before use; a “ready for subcontracting” list keeps outside work in front of the planner; and the list of subcontractors and the jobs given to each is recorded and tracked in the same place. Each user’s digital signature on documents is also available from this plan.

An integrated approvals inbox with a deadline for each item, and quality inspection with nonconformance disposition, are in all plans. The Elite plan adds automatic acceptance of in-tolerance inspection results for processes the quality manager chooses, plus a form builder for adding custom fields to forms. Data runs on the factory’s own server and its interface is in Persian. For the full order flow in a job shop, see our make-to-order ERP page, and for scheduling steps, read production planning for make-to-order.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the stages of order review?

Five department reviews (technical, price, planning, outside work, production) followed by management’s final decision: six stages in total.

How long should order review take?

There is no fixed figure; set a deadline for each stage so review does not delay your answer to the customer without reason.

What should we do after a customer changes the drawing?

Review and approve the order again, at least in the stages the change affects.

How do we check parts returning from a subcontractor?

Match them against the quantity and specification on the subcontract order, inspect them, and record the result in the subcontractor’s file.

Which Data plan includes order review and subcontracting?

Both are available from the Pro plan and are also included in Elite.

To see a real order from your factory go through review in Data, explore Data manufacturing ERP and request a demo.