FOR FORGING UNITS
A forging sells by the piece or by the kilo, but you pay for the billet that went into the furnace, the flash that came off, the die that wears with every blow and the power to heat it all. Kojo builds your quote from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding, and carries the job through machining, dispatch and payment.
HOW THE WORK IS PRICED
Cost starts with input weight, not finished weight. The billet has to cover the net forging plus flash, scale lost in heating and saw or shear loss, and the yield between input and net weight decides most of the material cost. Steel is bought by grade and bar size and its price moves, so many buyers agree a raw material price revised against an index while the conversion cost stays fixed. On top of material sit heating (power or fuel per kilo), hammer or press time, trimming, heat treatment, shot blasting and crack testing. Flash and end bits are sold as scrap, and some customers expect that credited.
Dies are the other big number. A die set means die steel, sinking and finishing, then resinking as it wears. Buyers often pay for the first set as tooling and expect the rest to be absorbed in the piece price, so die life belongs in the costing. Buyers compare a price per piece or per kilo, usually with raw material and conversion shown separately. The traps: an optimistic flash allowance, die life assumed longer than the shop actually gets, small batches carrying a full die setup and furnace start, and machining quoted on a forging whose size drifts as the die wears.
THE HEADACHES
If the flash, scale and cut loss in the quote are lower than on the floor, every piece is under-priced. It only shows when steel runs out sooner than planned.
The part price follows an agreed raw material revision on a fixed period. Until it is revised you carry the difference, and if nobody tracks it the claim is late.
Resinking and replacement dies are a real cost per forging. When die life is assumed rather than tracked, it quietly eats the conversion margin.
Many forging units also machine their own forgings, but the two shops keep separate records. The full cost of a finished part is never seen in one place.
THE WORKFLOW
Review the forging or finished-part drawing, steel grade and annual volume. Confirm whether the customer wants rough forgings, proof-machined or fully machined parts.
Work out input weight, steel, heating, forging, trimming, heat treatment and any machining, plus die cost and how it will be recovered. Quote per piece or per kilo.
Design and sink the die, forge samples and check dimensions, hardness and grain flow as required. Get the customer's approval.
Buy steel by grade and bar size against the schedule and cut billets. Plan hammer or press time around die changes and furnace loads.
Heat, forge, trim, heat treat, shot blast and crack test, then machine if ordered. Log output, rejects and downtime each shift.
Dispatch with material and heat treatment certificates, and invoice. Follow the due date until the payment is in.
WHERE KOJO FITS
COMMERCIAL
LIVEPick the customer and part, and Kojo fills material from today's steel price in your raw-material price master, with conversion, setup, overhead and margin from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding. A professional PDF quote follows in minutes.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
LIVEFor units that machine their own forgings, it applies your cycle times per operation, machine hour rates and setup allowances the same way on every part.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTDefine each part's bill of materials once, from steel to finished part, and see its true cost at today's material price. Consumption variance against standard shows when steel use creeps up.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTTracks steel by grade and bar size, plus consumables, against real usage. It warns at the reorder point, rounded up to the mill's or stockist's minimum order quantity.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTOperators log production, rejects, downtime and raw material each shift on a tablet with big buttons. It works offline and syncs, so a patchy connection near the forge line is not a problem.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
ROLLING OUTReminders go out before and after each due date on WhatsApp, email and SMS. Receivables ageing shows who owes what and for how long.
Explore module →STARTER TO ENTERPRISE
Start with quoting, add production, inventory and payments, then scale across plants with integrations and a dedicated support team.
STARTER
A forging unit with a few hammers or presses, quoting new parts by hand. Start with the quote engine and the steel price master, so every quote uses the same rates and costing rules.
GROWTH
A unit running shifts across forging, heat treatment and machining. Add shop-floor logging, inventory for steel and BOM costing, so steel use and output are measured against standard.
ENTERPRISE
Separate forge and machining plants, or several forging units. Multi-site roll-up reporting, an open API for your accounting or ERP system, and a dedicated support team with an uptime SLA.
NUMBERS TO WATCH
MATERIAL YIELD
Net forging weight as a share of input weight, where a small slip in flash or scale changes the cost of every piece.DIE LIFE PER SET
Forgings produced before resinking or replacement decide how much die cost each piece has to carry.REJECTION RATE
Laps, cracks, underfill and mismatch waste steel, heating and press time that cannot be recovered.HAMMER AND PRESS UTILISATION
Furnaces, dies and crews are fixed costs, so output per shift decides whether the conversion rate holds.QUESTIONS
Yes, through your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding. Kojo has no built-in forging calculator; Kiviro sets up the way you cost forgings, and the quote engine applies it the same way on every part.
Yes. The machining estimator handles the machining side with your cycle times and machine hour rates, and BOM costing shows the true cost of the finished part at today's material price. Shop-floor logging works the same in the forge and the machine shop.
With a free 30-minute visit in India or a remote demo. Kiviro then configures your machines, rates, margins and quote templates, brings in your Excel data and trains the team, and quoting goes live in about three weeks.
Book a free 30-minute visit. We'll run one of your real jobs through Kojo on the spot. Outside India? We'll do it on a video call.
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