Injection molded products manufacturing cost estimating

To find out the injection molded products' true manufacturing cost, I factor all the following in:

• Part weight
• Number of impressions
• Runner weight (if applicable)
• Material cost include masterbatch etc.
• Cycle time.
• Machine set/shakedown time
• Full time or part time machine minder
• Assembly/printing/trimming
• Injection molding machine cost/hour
• Floor space cost/hour
• Packaging
• Delivery charges.

Profit then comes from how much you want to mark up the final cost. I don't mark up any raw materials, packaging etc along the way as you will get compounding of the markups.

Some of these criteria are factual (part weight, m/c cost etc), cycle time has to be guesstimated. I believe there are many IT things to help you with this but still believe it comes down to the experience of the estimator. Easy to forget that reliable output only comes from accurate input.

For injection mold tooling quoting, I have yet to find a programme that could be used by a complete novice, you will always need some knowledge of injection mold tooling. I tend to use historical data, judgment etc. I do try to estimate the size of the injection mold and get an accurate figure for the materials (a much larger percentage of the injection mold cost than it used to be years ago). My injection mold tooling suppliers response time to inquiries is usually quite rapid so they take care of that issue most times.

A very useful tool is the computer program called "CalcMaster" for estimating injection mold cost, molding cost, including packaging and transportation and labor. Also you can get an estimated cycle time.