A rush price should cover what the rush costs you: overtime premiums, faster freight and express charges from subcontractors, plus the cost of pushing other work back in the queue. An economy price can be lower when a longer lead time lets you fill idle capacity, but it should never fall below the job’s direct cost. Express both as options with a stated number of working days, and check each surcharge against the real extra cost.
Key points
- Standard lead time is queue time plus processing, finishing and shipping. A rush shortens the queue, not the physics.
- The rush cost has two parts: extra cash cost (overtime, freight, express finishing) and displacement of other work.
- Displacement costs more when the schedule is full, because a full queue has no slack.
- Economy discounts pay only when they fill hours that would otherwise be idle.
- State working days, the start of the clock, and whether the date is ship or delivery.
What makes up a lead time?
| Part of the lead time | What decides it | Can a rush shorten it? |
|---|---|---|
| Order processing | File checks, approval, material order | A little, with priority |
| Queue | How much work is ahead of the job | Yes, by jumping the queue |
| Processing | Set-up and cycle time | Only with more machines or shifts |
| Outside processing | The subcontractor’s own queue | Sometimes, at their express price |
| Inspection and packing | Labour | A little |
| Shipping | Carrier and service | Yes, with faster freight |
In most job shops the queue is the largest part of the lead time. The part might need three hours of machining but wait eight working days for a slot. A rush therefore buys a better position in the queue. Someone else’s job moves back, or the work is done in hours you would not otherwise open.
What a rush costs
Overtime. Hours beyond the normal shift usually cost a premium on the basic wage, set by law, contract or custom where you are. Work out the premium on the labour hours the rush needs, not on the whole job.
Faster freight. The difference between your standard carrier and a courier or next-day service.
Express outside processing. Anodisers, platers and heat treaters often have an express service at a surcharge, or a minimum charge for a lot run out of sequence.
Expedited material. Next-day delivery from a stockist, or buying a non-standard size because the standard one is not in stock.
Displacement. The jobs pushed back by the rush may need overtime themselves to stay on time, or may be late. One way to price it is the contribution those machine hours would earn on other work: what you sell an hour for, less the variable cost of running it. Your machine-hour rate and margin give you both figures.
Worked example: the floor for a rush surcharge
A job with a standard price of €1,000 on a 10-working-day lead time. The buyer wants it in two. All figures are examples.
Worked example: extra cost of a two-day rush on a €1,000 job
| Line | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime premium | 8 labour h × €28/h × 50% premium | €112.00 |
| Courier instead of standard freight | €65 − €15 | €50.00 |
| Express anodising surcharge | subcontractor’s express charge | €80.00 |
| Extra cash cost | €242.00 | |
| Displacement | 6 machine h × €35/h contribution | €210.00 |
| Minimum rush surcharge | €242.00 + €210.00 | €452.00 |
| As a share of the standard price | €452 ÷ €1,000 | 45.2% |
A rush option at +25% would lose money on this job; one at +60% covers the cost with some margin left for the disruption and the risk of something going wrong at speed. The exact figure is yours to choose, but it should start from this floor, not from what competitors seem to charge.
The displacement line is the one that moves. When the schedule has gaps, the rush slots into one and displaces almost nothing. When every machine is booked for two weeks, the same rush pushes several jobs back. Queueing theory explains why: as utilisation approaches its limit, waiting time rises steeply rather than in proportion, so the last few percent of load are the ones that make every rush disruptive.
Setting up lead-time options
Most shops offer two to four options. An illustrative set, with the effect on a €1,000 standard price:
| Option | Working days | Price effect | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | 15 | −8% | €920 |
| Standard | 10 | none | €1,000 |
| Express | 5 | +25% | €1,250 |
| Rush | 2 | +60% | €1,600 |
These percentages are an example, not a recommendation. Set yours from the costs above and from how full your schedule usually runs. Points to decide:
- Multiplier or fixed amount? A percentage scales with the job; a fixed expedite fee suits small orders where a percentage would not cover the courier. Some shops use the greater of the two.
- Which costs does the surcharge apply to? Applying it to the whole price, material included, overcharges material-heavy jobs whose rush cost is mostly labour.
- Quantity limits. A rush on 5 parts is plausible; on 5,000 it may be physically impossible. Cap the quantity per option, and send larger rush requests to review.
- Extra days for options. A finish, an unusual material or a manual review adds days. Add them to the option’s lead time rather than leaving the buyer to discover them.
The parts of a rush you do not control
A rush is only as fast as its slowest outside step. If the anodiser needs three days and the buyer wants the parts in two, no surcharge makes the promise true. Before offering a rush option on parts that go out for finishing, heat treatment or inspection, confirm what your subcontractors can actually turn round, and limit the option to the finishes that can meet it. The same applies to material: a rush on stock you hold is a scheduling question; a rush on material you have to order is a supplier question.
Economy lead times
An economy option trades a lower price for a later date. It works when it changes your schedule: the job can wait for a gap, run on a night shift, or share a set-up or a build with similar work. The discount comes out of the slack it lets you use.
It does not work when your machines are full every week anyway; then an economy option only discounts work you would have won at the standard price. Two checks keep it safe: the economy price must still cover the job’s direct cost, and the discount must come off the margin knowingly, as margin vs markup explains. Economy also combines well with batching: grouping several economy orders into one set-up saves real cost, as shown in quantity pricing and batch discounts.
Capacity, not calendar
The best lead-time price depends on how full the shop is when the order arrives. A simple version is a weekly check: if the next two weeks are more than a set share booked, raise the rush surcharge or withdraw the rush option; if they are light, offer economy more generously. A fuller version ties each option to the hours actually free on each machine group, which is a capacity planning question as much as a pricing one.
Saying it clearly on the quote
- Working days or calendar days. Most shops quote working days; say so.
- When the clock starts. Usually at order confirmation with approved files, not at the quote date.
- Ship date or delivery date. Freight is outside your control; a ship date is the safer promise.
- Cut-off time. An order confirmed after the daily cut-off starts the next working day.
- Validity. A rush price depends on today’s schedule, so it may carry a shorter quote validity than the standard price.
Lead time is one of the inputs the RFQ process should capture at the start, and one of the lines that sits on top of the cost build-up in how to quote a manufactured part.
In Quotometry, lead-time options are part of the shop’s configuration, each with its working days and a price effect as a multiplier, percentage or fixed amount (negative for economy), and the shop’s working calendar, holidays and cut-off turn them into a ship-by date. A capacity check against booked machine hours is not built yet. The pricing engine page shows where lead time is applied.
Questions people ask
How much should I charge for a rush order?
At least the extra cost the rush causes: overtime premiums, faster freight, express charges from subcontractors, and the cost of delaying the work it displaces. Work that out for a typical job, then set the rush surcharge above it. Many shops express it as a percentage or multiplier per lead-time option, with a check that it never falls below the real extra cost.
Should I offer a discount for a longer lead time?
It can pay, if a longer lead time lets you fill hours that would otherwise sit idle or level a lumpy schedule. The discount should come from that gain, and the price should still cover the job's direct cost. If your machines are already full every week, an economy option only lowers prices on work you would have won anyway.
When does the lead time start?
Say so on the quote. Most shops count from order confirmation with approved files and payment terms in place, not from the quote date, and count working days, not calendar days. State whether the date is a ship date or a delivery date, because freight adds its own time and risk.
Why does a queue grow so fast when the shop is busy?
Because waiting time rises steeply as utilisation approaches its limit. A shop at moderate load absorbs a rush order with little disruption; a shop near full load has no slack, so each rush pushes several other jobs back. That is why the cost of a rush depends on how full the schedule is, not only on the job itself.
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