Quantity break calculator
Setup is charged once. Cycle time is charged every part. That one difference is why the same part can be $151 or $59 depending on nothing but how many the customer orders — and why quoting one and multiplying loses you the big jobs.
Price per part as the lot grows
Only the setup share changes. Material and cycle time stay put.
| Qty | Relative price | Setup per part | Cost per part | Price per part | vs. one-off | Lot total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $71.25 | $112 | $151 | — | $151 | |
| 2 | $35.63 | $76.13 | $103 | -32% | $206 | |
| 5 | $14.25 | $54.75 | $73.91 | -51% | $370 | |
| 10 | $7.13 | $47.63 | $64.29 | -57% | $643 | |
| 25 | $2.85 | $43.35 | $58.52 | -61% | $1,463 | |
| 50 | $1.43 | $41.93 | $56.60 | -62% | $2,830 | |
| 100 | $0.71 | $41.21 | $55.64 | -63% | $5,564 | |
| 250 | $0.29 | $40.79 | $55.06 | -64% | $13,765 |
If the same part appears more than once in an assembly, multiply first: two per unit and twenty units is a lot of forty, not twenty. Why that matters.
The error that leaves no trace
Quoting a lot of fifty by pricing one part and multiplying adds a full setup to every one of those fifty parts. On a job with forty-five minutes of setup at $95 an hour, that is about $70 a part too expensive on an order where the winner was a couple of dollars over cost.
You will never find out why you lost it. The job simply goes somewhere else, and nothing in your records says the arithmetic was the reason. That is what makes it the most expensive quoting mistake there is.
Common questions
- How does quantity affect the price of a machined part?
- Setup is paid once per lot, so it gets divided by the number of parts. Cycle time and material are paid per part and do not change. That means the price per part falls quickly at low quantities and then flattens out — by the time setup is spread over a hundred parts it is close to invisible.
- Why did my price barely change when the customer doubled the order?
- Because setup was already spread thin. Going from one part to ten cuts the setup share by 90%. Going from a hundred to two hundred cuts it by half of something that was already pennies. If your price does not move much, your job is mostly cycle time and material, and that is honest information to give the customer.
- Should I requote if the customer reduces the quantity?
- Yes, and it is not being difficult. If you quoted fifty parts and they order five, the setup that was spread over fifty is now spread over five. On a job with real setup content that can double the cost per part.
- What about the same part appearing several times in one assembly?
- Multiply first. Two identical shafts per gearbox and an order for five gearboxes is ten shafts through the lathe in one setup, not two. Nearly every quoting tool aimed at small shops prices one part at a time, so this correction has to be made by hand — and usually is not.
Where the numbers come from
This tool takes your setup, cycle and rate as given. If you are not sure of any of them, work them out first — then come back.