How do I compare quoted hours to actual hours on a job?

Close the same scope you quoted

Freeze the quote revision and quantity before comparing. Record which operations were actually performed, the start and stop times, operator or machine, scrap, rework, outside invoices and any customer changes. If the buyer added a hole or split delivery, mark it as scope change rather than estimator error. If setup included workholding made for another part, note whether it is reusable.

Use minutes that mean the same thing on both sides. “Setup” should include loading stock, workholding, tool offsets and first-piece prove-out if that is how your standard is written. “Run” should include load/unload and in-process checks if those are part of the rate. A clean definition makes the variance actionable.

Explain the variance before changing the standard

A setup overrun can come from new workholding, a missing tool, a difficult datum decision or an operator learning curve. A run overrun can come from a conservative feed, more deburr than planned, a tool change or a bad cycle-time assumption. Ask the person who ran the job and inspect the traveler. Do not simply divide every overrun across future quotes; one broken tool is not a permanent standard.

In the example, if the extra setup was a one-time workholding repair, exclude it from the next standard and record it as maintenance. If every piece needed an extra 3 minutes of deburr, add 60 minutes to the run standard for 20 pieces or, better, write a separate deburr operation.

• Break setup into repeatable minutes

Use the result in the next quote

Update the routing only after deciding what was ordinary. If five similar jobs average 2.4 setup hours against a 2.0-hour standard, revise the standard to 2.4 or change the workholding plan. If two jobs were 1.6 and one was 4.0 because of a customer revision, keep the standard and add a change-control note. Track quoted and actual quantities together because setup allocation changes sharply at one, ten and one hundred pieces.

Keep price and cost separate in the review. A job can have a favorable cost variance and still lose its margin when the price was discounted; it can also have an unfavorable time variance and remain profitable if the buyer paid for a difficult schedule.

• Relate actual cost to the margin target

What to do next

Make closeout a short required step: attach the traveler, enter actual minutes and classify each variance as standard, scope, supplier or abnormal event. Review a small set every month, then change one routing assumption at a time. A history that nobody can interpret is just a pile of timestamps; a categorized history becomes your shop’s evidence.