Should-cost

In practice

SSG's part builder gives an instant budgetary estimate for early planning. Firm pricing comes from principal quotes.

Related terms

Cost-down

A cost-down is a project to lower a part's price without lowering its function, through design changes, material substitution, process changes, more cavities, or moving production. Many OEMs ask suppliers for annual cost-downs. The best targets are high-volume parts designed before their current volume was known.

Landed cost

Landed cost is the total cost of a part delivered to the buyer's dock, including piece price, tooling amortization, packaging, freight, insurance, duties, tariffs, brokerage, and inventory carrying cost. Comparing offshore and domestic quotes on piece price alone understates the cost of the offshore part.

Cycle time

Cycle time is the time needed to complete one full production cycle, such as one mold shot, one press stroke, or one machined part. It sets machine hours per part, so it is a primary input to piece price. In injection molding, cooling usually takes most of the cycle.