FOBPROTO is a 4,200 m² precision CNC workshop in Ningbo, China. We machine custom parts for engineers and procurement teams in 47 countries. The name isn't an accident — "FOB" is the international trade term for port-loaded pricing, "Proto" is the word engineers use for prototype. We sit at the intersection.
When the founders started the company in 2016, we had all noticed the same problem. Engineers in the US, Europe, and Australia wanted to buy CNC parts from capable, modern Chinese workshops — the cost advantage is real, and the quality gap has closed for workshops with the right equipment. But they kept getting burned.
The friction wasn't about machining capability. It was about everything around the machining. Quotes that took a week. Drawings misread. Samples that fit on the first attempt but somehow didn't on the twentieth. Customs nightmares. Shipping surprises. Incoterms confusion. Invoices that didn't match POs. Language barriers turning a simple DFM question into a three-day email thread.
So the thesis was: be the workshop that speaks the customer's language — not just linguistically, but procedurally. Quote in 4 hours because procurement needs it. Price in Incoterms the customer prefers. Ship under their preferred carrier. Provide inspection reports in the format their QA team expects. Assign one engineer per project, not a round-robin sales rep.
Ten years in, the workshop has grown from 6 people and 4 machines to 58 people and 42 machines. We added 5-axis, Swiss turning, EDM, and in-house finishing because customers kept asking. We got ISO 9001, then AS9100D, then ISO 13485 because the industries we serve required it.
What stayed is the founding thesis: an engineer, not a salesperson, reads every RFQ. Every quote includes DFM feedback. Every order has an assigned engineer from RFQ to delivery. Every shipment carries inspection documentation matching the customer's internal format. The goal was never to be the cheapest workshop in China — it was to be the one that actually closes the gap between "Chinese manufacturing is cheap" and "Chinese manufacturing is painful to buy from."
FOB = "Free On Board," the Incoterms term for goods handed over to the shipper at the port of origin. Procurement teams see it on every international invoice. Proto = prototype, the word every design engineer uses. The two words bridge the two people who have to agree before an order ships: the engineer who designs the part, and the buyer who pays for it.
Most Chinese CNC shops are optimized for one of two things: very high volume at low cost (for the domestic OEM supply chain) or very low volume at moderate cost (for design studios). We're optimized for low-to-medium volume at production quality — the awkward middle zone where Western customers typically need to work, where prototypes blur into pilot production into real production, where every order needs a proper QA paper trail.
Operationally this means: two shifts, six days a week; in-house finishing and inspection so parts don't leave the building unchecked; a quality system built to satisfy AS9100 auditors; project managers assigned to repeat customers; and a deliberate cap on total shop capacity so nothing in-flight gets squeezed by incoming big orders.
Our customer base skews toward R&D teams at established companies (medical device, aerospace, robotics, semiconductor) and funded hardware startups (EV components, drones, scientific instruments, consumer hardware). Geographically: ~45% North America, ~30% Europe, ~15% Asia-Pacific (Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore), ~10% rest of world.
The common thread isn't industry — it's urgency and precision. Our customers need parts that work, they need them quickly, and they need a supplier who won't disappear after the first order.
Every quote goes through an engineer before pricing — not a salesperson. If your geometry has a manufacturability issue, we catch it before you commit, not after.
From RFQ to delivery, one engineer owns your project. No handoffs, no lost context. Their phone/email is on the PO.
If we can't hold your tolerance, we say so in the quote. If lead time is slipping, we tell you the day we notice. No surprises at the 11th hour.
Every order ships with dimensional report, material cert, and CoC as standard — not upcharges. FAI, PPAP, and heat-lot traceability on request.
We'd rather do 20 years of orders at reasonable margin than a one-shot at maximum margin. Our oldest customers have been with us since 2017. That's the target.
If your part is better made by a local shop, a different shop, or a different process — we'll say so. Every time we send a customer to a competitor, we earn their next ten orders.
Ningbo is a 2.5-hour high-speed train from Shanghai. If you're in the region and want to see the workshop in operation, we'll arrange a tour, a factory-floor lunch, and introductions to the engineers who'd work on your projects. Email [email protected] with your schedule.