Agree it before starting
Most rework is not a technical failure. It is a failure to align at the start. "Smooth surface" on a drawing means mirror polish to the customer and deburred to the shop floor. Neither is wrong, and the part is scrap.
So we finish the conversation at quotation: which dimensions we can hold, which wait for first article, what is standard process and what needs separate scheduling. It makes the quote half a day slower. It is much faster than reworking afterwards.
Bad news the same day
A slipping date, a first article out of tolerance, a colour difference between material batches — every day these are withheld is a day of options the customer loses. Our rule: notify the day we find out, and bring two things with it — the cause, and what we intend to do.
Nobody enjoys bad news. Everybody dislikes late bad news more.
Publish only what we can repeat
Published capability has to be what we can deliver repeatedly, not the best single result from a trial. A number we cannot hold gets exposed on the first order, and manufacturing customers talk to each other.
Where data has not been verified, we would rather write "subject to drawing review" than fill in something that reads well.
Drawings belong to the customer
A customer's 3D files, process parameters and supplier information cost them money and time. We keep them in private storage, grant access per project, log every download, and purge on the agreed schedule. An NDA can be signed first.
This is not for the sake of looking compliant. A supplier who is careless with someone else's drawings will eventually be careless with yours.
Take the craft seriously
Whether a chamfer is cleanly finished may not be visible to the customer. The person assembling it feels it, and the person using it lives with it. We want parts that hold up in the hand, not just against an inspection sheet.