What is the minimum order quantity for obsolete and discontinued industrial parts?
Confidence 4/5 Established practice
Minimum order quantity for obsolete and discontinued industrial parts from China:
One piece. A single replacement part to restart a production line is a legitimate order and is quoted as one.
Sources
- Industrial aftermarket sourcing practice — Industry practice; part availability varies by category
- Machinery and mechanical appliance classification — World Customs Organization HS nomenclature
What goes wrong with obsolete and discontinued industrial parts
- Supplying a part number without the machine make and model; the same number exists across manufacturers.
- Accepting an "equivalent" for a safety-critical application without documented equivalence.
- Not asking whether the source is the original manufacturer, a licensed maker or an aftermarket copy — all three exist and differ in price and risk.
- Ordering one unit of a part whose failure mode is fatigue, then having it fail again.
- Reverse-engineering without verifying the material, only the geometry.
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