FOR SHEET METAL FABRICATORS
A fabrication job moves through laser or punch, press brake, welding, finishing and powder coating, and each step has its own cost. Kojo builds the quote from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding, then tracks sheet stock, shift output and payments against the same job.
HOW THE WORK IS PRICED
Sheet is usually the biggest cost, and what counts is the sheet consumed, not the area of the part. Parts are nested on standard sheets, and the skeleton and offcuts are paid for whether they are reused or sold as scrap. Laser cost depends on cutting length, the number of pierces, material and thickness, and assist gas: nitrogen for clean stainless and aluminium edges costs more than oxygen on mild steel. Punching goes by hits and tool changes. Bending goes by the number of bends, with setup for each tooling change and extra hands for large parts. Welding, grinding and fit-up are mostly labour minutes, and powder coating goes by surface area, with pre-treatment, masking and colour changes on top.
Buyers send a 3D model or flat pattern and compare a per-part or per-assembly price across several fabricators, often at low quantities with frequent revisions. The traps are familiar: pricing by finished weight when the real cost is sheet usage and handling, missing pierce time on parts full of holes, quoting a short run without spreading bending and coating setups, forgetting hardware inserts and packing, and shipping revision B at revision A's price because nobody re-checked the drawing.
THE HEADACHES
Cutting, bending, welding, coating and assembly each have their own rates. Adding them up by hand for every enquiry is slow and easy to get wrong.
Customers move holes, change flanges or switch finish after pricing. Without a clear record of what was quoted, the new revision often goes out at the old price.
Nesting yield on the floor is rarely what the estimate assumed. If sheet issued is not tracked against jobs, material loss stays hidden.
Laser output often outruns the press brakes or the paint line. Work queues at the slowest station and promised dates slip.
THE WORKFLOW
A STEP file, flat pattern or PDF drawing arrives. Check material, thickness, bend radii, weld and finish callouts, hardware and quantity.
Nest to estimate sheet usage, then add cutting, bending, welding, coating, hardware and packing. Send a per-part or per-assembly price.
On order, confirm the latest revision and make the first piece or sample. Get sign-off on fit and finish before the batch.
Issue sheet from stock or buy by grade and thickness. Plan the job through laser, press brake, welding and the paint line.
Cut, bend, weld, grind, pre-treat and powder coat. Log output and rejects each shift at every station.
Pack to protect the finish and dispatch with the invoice. Follow the due date until the money is in.
WHERE KOJO FITS
COMMERCIAL
LIVEPick the customer and part, and Kojo fills material from your sheet prices, then process costs, setup, overhead and margin from your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding. The result is a professional PDF quote in minutes.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
ROLLING OUTFabrication buyers usually compare several shops. Every quote gets a follow-up schedule by email and WhatsApp, so none go quiet after the first send.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTTracks sheet by grade and thickness, plus consumables like welding wire, gas and powder, against real usage. It warns at the reorder point, rounded up to the supplier's minimum order quantity.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTOperators at the laser, press brakes and welding bays log output, rejects, downtime and material each shift on a tablet. It works offline and syncs.
Explore module →OPERATIONS
ROLLING OUTDrag jobs onto the laser, punch and press brakes on a visual plan. Clashes show up before a queue forms at one machine.
Explore module →COMMERCIAL
ROLLING OUTCustomers get reminders 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 job shop with a laser or punch, a couple of press brakes and a welding bay. Start with quoting from your own rates, so every enquiry is priced the same way whoever does it.
GROWTH
A fabricator with an in-house paint line, several shifts and repeat customers. Add shop-floor logging and inventory for sheet and consumables, so output, rejects and stock are measured every shift.
ENTERPRISE
Separate cutting, fabrication and coating units, or several plants. 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
QUOTE TURNAROUND TIME
Fabrication enquiries often go to several shops at once, and a slow price is usually a lost order.SHEET UTILISATION
Every point of each sheet lost to skeleton and offcuts comes straight off the margin.WORK IN PROGRESS BY STATION
It shows whether the press brakes, welding or the paint line is the real bottleneck.REWORK AND REJECT RATE
Bends out of tolerance, weld distortion and coating defects cost material, labour and a second trip through the paint line.COMMON MATERIALS
Each material page has properties, equivalent grades and a free weight and machining cost calculator.
QUESTIONS
Yes, through your own rates and costing rules, set up during onboarding. Kojo does not include a built-in calculator for each process; Kiviro configures how you price them, and the quote engine applies that the same way on every quote.
Yes, keep it. Kojo does not nest sheets or plan cutting paths. Take the cutting time and sheet usage from your nesting software, and Kojo prices the job with your own rates and costing rules.
Quoting goes live in about three weeks. Kiviro sets up your machines, rates, margins and quote templates, brings in your Excel data and trains the team. A free 30-minute visit in India, or a remote demo, is the starting point.
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