QuotedPartComparisons · Updated 2026-10-30
How do you quote very high production runs?
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At 10,000 pieces, a two-second cycle-time error is 5.56 machine hours and a missed tool change can consume the margin on the lot. Quote production work from a measured routing: bar or sheet yield, setup recovery, cycle time, tool-life events, inspection sampling, scrap risk and the customer’s release pattern. A worked 10,000-piece example below prices a turned 303 stainless pin at $2.84 each before profit; changing the cycle from 42 to 44 seconds adds $528.33 of burden to the lot.
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Build the lot from events
Start with the stock and release pattern. Assume a 12-foot 1-inch 303 stainless bar at $68, 20 pins per bar after cutoff allowance, and 500 pieces released at a time. Ten thousand pieces need 500 bars, or $34,000 of material. Add a one-time setup of 3.5 hours at $95/hour ($332.50), then recover it across the lot. Do not hide a bar-feeder load, first-piece approval or a tool preset inside a vague overhead percentage.
For the cycle, separate spindle time from operator touch. At 42 seconds per pin, 10,000 pieces require 420,000 seconds, or 116.67 machine hours. At a burdened machine rate of $110/hour that is $12,833.70. If the operator spends 12 seconds loading and checking each piece at $32/hour, the touch labor is 33.33 hours, or $1,066.56.
| Cost event | Assumption | Lot cost |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 500 bars × $68 | $34,000.00 |
| Setup | 3.5 hours × $95 | $332.50 |
| Machine cycle | 10,000 × 42 sec ÷ 3,600 × $110/hour | $12,833.33 |
| Operator touch | 10,000 × 12 sec ÷ 3,600 × $32/hour | $1,066.67 |
| Tooling | Two inserts at $180 each, each lasting 5,000 pieces | $360.00 |
| Inspection and scrap | 8 hours × $45 plus 1.5% replacement stock | $1,071.00 |
| Total before profit | Sum of stated events | $49,663.50 |
| Unit cost | $49,663.50 ÷ 10,000 | $4.97 |
Tool life and yield are not percentages
A production quote should show where tool life enters the arithmetic. If an insert lasts 5,000 pieces, two inserts cover the lot; if the customer changes a tolerance and life falls to 3,000, four inserts are required. The same is true for scrap: 1.5% on 10,000 pieces is 150 replacement pieces, which require material, cycle and inspection time. Use the actual scrap assumption your first articles support and identify who pays for a customer drawing change.
Bar-feeder yield deserves its own line. If the cutoff grows by 0.15 inch, the 20-parts-per-bar assumption may fall to 19. At 527 bars instead of 500, material rises by $1,836 before any machining time changes. That is why production quoting needs a stock and yield check, not just a per-piece cycle.
Protect the release schedule
Ask whether 10,000 pieces means one uninterrupted run or twenty releases of 500. Each release can add a setup verification, material handling and inspection packet. Price that work explicitly or state that the quoted setup assumes one campaign. A blanket order with scheduled releases should carry a validity period for steel, tooling and outside services.
QuotedPart can help expose setup, cycle, material and quantity-break assumptions, but a high-volume job still needs a process engineer to validate the seconds and tool-life events. Before sending the quote, run the arithmetic at 9,500, 10,000 and 10,500 pieces and show the customer which costs are fixed. That makes the price defensible when the release plan changes.
Sources and limits
Claims are dated where they can change. Product calculations are examples from the stated inputs, not a promise about a customer's quote. Competitor wording is attributed to the source shown.
- The 10,000-piece example is illustrative arithmetic from the stated bar, rate, cycle, labor, tool-life and scrap assumptions.
- QuotedPart lets a shop set its own rates and quantity-break assumptions; it does not validate a production process or tool life for the shop. — source (checked 2026-10-30)
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