Skip to main content

Entering production operations costs

Calculate production operation costs in Katana based on resources and time.

Dayvid Lorbiecke avatar
Written by Dayvid Lorbiecke
Updated this week

Katana helps you calculate the cost of each production operation based on resource hourly rates and operation time. This guide walks you through how Katana determines operation costs, how to configure them, and how different operation types affect those calculations.


How operation costs are calculated

The total production operations cost for a product is the sum of all operation steps defined in the Production operations tab.

Each operation step uses the following formula: Cost = Cost per Hour × Time


What is “Cost per hour”?

Cost per Hour is the average hourly cost of performing an operation and may include:

  • Labor (e.g. salary)

  • Maintenance costs

  • Electricity or overhead use for workstations

Note: Material costs are not included here.

When you assign a resource to an operation, the default hourly cost of that resource will auto-fill.

You can:

  • Set and edit this default value under Settings > Resources

  • Change the value for each operation step if needed


What is “Time”?

Time is the duration it takes to complete the operation for one unit of the product. You can:

  • Define this on the product’s Production operations tab

  • Adjust the actual time later on the manufacturing order if needed


Important notes

  • You cannot manually enter the total operation cost. It is always calculated.

  • To add a fixed cost without multiple steps, create a single operation step, set:

    • Cost per Hour = your total estimated cost

    • Time = 1 hour


Operation cost behavior by type

If you're using the Advanced Manufacturing add-on, Katana supports four operation types, each with unique cost/time calculations:

Time calculation by operation type

Operation type

How time is calculated

Process

Time per unit × product quantity

Setup

Fixed time per setup (not dependent on quantity)

Per unit

Time per unit × product quantity

Fixed cost

Fixed time (quantity doesn’t matter)

Operation types are only available with the Advanced Manufacturing add-on.


Your feedback is always appreciated. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything else in Katana that you'd like to see improved: [email protected]

Did this answer your question?