FOR PRECISION TURNED COMPONENTS
A turned part may sell for a few rupees or a few cents, so two seconds of cycle time or a forgotten bar end can be the whole margin. Kojo prices each part from today's bar price, your cycle times and your machine rates, then tracks bar stock and shift output against the same numbers.
HOW THE WORK IS PRICED
Material usually leads. Cost per piece starts with the bar consumed: finished length plus parting-off width and facing allowance, times the weight per metre of that bar size, plus a share of the bar end left in the collet or guide bush. A sliding-head machine leaves a longer remnant than a fixed-head lathe with a bar feeder, and on short parts that remnant adds up. Brass and copper move with the metal market, so many buyers agree a base price with a metal price adjustment, and turnings are sold as scrap, which some shops credit back into the price.
Next is cycle time, counted in seconds and multiplied by the machine hour rate. On a schedule of 100,000 pieces a year, two seconds per piece is more than 55 machine hours. Changeovers on a sliding head take real time (tool layout, guide bush, prove-out), so a batch of 2,000 costs more per piece than a run of 50,000. Secondary operations like thread rolling, centreless grinding, plating, heat treatment and 100% sorting are often outsourced and easy to under-price. Buyers compare price per piece or per thousand across suppliers; the traps are a year-long schedule quoted at today's metal rate with no adjustment, and a cycle time taken from the drawing before the part has run on the machine.
THE HEADACHES
Brass and copper rates can shift between the quote and the schedule. If the quote is not tied to a material rate, the margin moves with the market.
Quoting on finished part weight instead of the bar actually consumed under-prices every piece. On small parts the gap is large.
The quoted cycle time comes from experience, the real one from the machine. Without a record of output per shift, nobody knows which part numbers are losing money.
A sliding head standing idle for want of one bar diameter is lost output. Bar comes in bundles or minimum order quantities, so a late reorder costs twice.
THE WORKFLOW
Check bar grade and diameter, length, tolerances, threads, finish and annual volume. Decide whether the part suits a sliding head or a fixed-head lathe with a bar feeder.
Work out bar consumed per piece, cycle time in seconds, changeover time and any secondary operations. Price per piece or per thousand.
Send the quote and, once accepted, make samples with a dimensional report for approval. Automotive buyers may ask for a PPAP submission.
Receive the order or monthly schedule and buy bar by grade and size. Load parts onto machines so that changeovers stay few.
Run the batch and log output, rejects and downtime each shift. Send parts out for plating or heat treatment, then inspect or sort before packing.
Dispatch against the schedule 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 the bar price in your raw-material price master, then machining, setup, overhead and margin from your rates. When brass moves, update the master and requote.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
LIVEHolds the rules your estimator uses: cycle time per operation, hour rates for sliding-head versus fixed-head machines, changeover allowances. A part quoted on Monday and on Friday gets the same logic.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTDefine each part's material and components once and see its true cost at today's material price. Consumption variance against standard shows when bar use creeps up over a run.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTTracks bar stock by grade and size against real usage. It warns at the reorder point, rounded up to the supplier's minimum order quantity.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTOperators log production, rejects, downtime and bar used each shift on a tablet with big buttons. Actual output is recorded, not remembered.
Explore module →INTELLIGENCE
ROLLING OUTMachine utilisation, work in progress and order status on one screen, plus a daily report to the owner's phone with how the shifts went.
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 shop with a few CNC turning machines quoting many small parts. Start with the quote engine and your bar price master, so every quote uses the same rates.
GROWTH
A unit running two or three shifts across sliding-head and fixed-head machines on monthly schedules. Add shop-floor logging, inventory for bar stock and BOM costing, so material use and output are measured against standard.
ENTERPRISE
Several plants, or a separate unit for secondary operations. 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
CYCLE TIME, QUOTED VERSUS ACTUAL
On high-volume parts a few seconds per piece decides whether the order makes money.MATERIAL YIELD PER BAR
It shows how much of each bar becomes parts rather than bar ends and turnings.MACHINE UTILISATION
Turned parts are priced on machine time, so idle and changeover hours come straight out of the margin.REJECTION RATE
Small parts are often sorted 100%, and rejects found late have already used bar, machine time and sorting labour.COMMON MATERIALS
Each material page has properties, equivalent grades and a free weight and machining cost calculator.
QUESTIONS
Material prices live in Kojo's raw-material price master. Update the rate there and new quotes use it. BOM costing also shows each part's true cost at today's price.
No. It works offline on a tablet and syncs when it reconnects. Operators log production, rejects, downtime and raw material for each shift.
Yes. Your data belongs to you and you can export it. Hosting and backups are part of Kojo Core in every plan.
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.
Book a factory visit