Interactive Tool
Assembly cost estimator
Build a quick bill of materials, set your production assumptions, and get a fully-loaded per-unit cost — piece parts, assembly labor, amortized tooling, scrap, and overhead — plus a suggested selling price. Everything updates as you type.
Production assumptions
Drives tooling amortization & laborBill of materials
| Part / component | Process | Qty | Piece price | Tooling / NRE | Assy time (s) | Ext. cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-unit piece-part total | $0.00 | $0 | 0 s | $0.00 | |||
How the estimate is built
This is an order-of-magnitude model intended for early concept and design-for-manufacturing trade studies — not a quote. It walks the cost up in the same order a factory does:
Piece-part cost = sum of (quantity × piece price) for every line. Assembly labor = total assembly time per unit × labor rate. Those two form the direct cost, to which scrap is added as a percentage. Tooling / NRE is summed across all lines and amortized per unit over annual volume × program length. Direct + scrap + amortized tooling gives factory cost; applying overhead & SG&A yields the unit COGS. The suggested price back-solves from your target gross margin: price = COGS ÷ (1 − margin).
Real piece prices depend on geometry, material, cavitation, region, and quantity breaks; tooling depends on tool class and complexity. Use this to compare design options and pressure-test a target cost — then bring in a detailed costing exercise for sourcing decisions.
Want a real cost-down on your assembly?
I run detailed should-cost and DFM teardowns — finding the part-count reductions, process changes, and tooling strategies that take real money out of your bill of materials.
Schedule a consultation