Estimating Engineer Tasks

The estimating process is just that, it’s an estimate or an educated guess. Companies often add a process step called “Engineering” to the beginning of a quote. Engineering can mean many things, including:

• CNC Programming

• Design Work

• Creating Solid Models

• Creating Prototypes

During the estimating process, it is key to include these costs into your quote. Things to consider is whether a charge can be amortized into the unit costs or designated as a separate cost. The nice thing about amortizing the costs into the piece price is that, in a repeat job, your profit will go up because this task has already been completed. However, a separate charge has the advantage of lowering the price to the customer for future job orders, which may give you a pricing advantage in the long run.

Hourly cost for these engineering tasks need to be taken into consideration based on the cost of the employee completing these tasks. Finally, a key consideration if you do a lot of engineering work is partnering with MIE Solutions and MIE Trak Pro ERP software, which gives you a head up on your competitors.