How to Calculate Total Manufacturing Cost for Your Business

Determining manufacturing costs is important; it helps manufacturers price their products in such a way that they’re competitive but also ensures high net profits for the company. Knowing the manufacturing cost gives manufacturers the ability to meet goals and make sure their production process is at the https://www.bookstime.com/ right level of productivity. Manufacturing cost is an important concept for businesses to understand because it can help them make better pricing, production, and profitability decisions. For example, if a business knows its manufacturing cost, it can set a price to cover its costs and make a profit.

Your total manufacturing cost will not include general and administrative expenses such as office rent, administrative wages, office equipment, and executive salaries. Rent, business equipment, advertising costs, and other expenses that do not change as production increases or decreases are examples of fixed costs. So, manufacturing companies include fixed costs in their production costs. This also enables them to calculate the total cost of production per item and set the wholesale price per item. Both of these figures are used by manufacturers to evaluate the total costs of running their business. In order for the company to be profitable, the revenue it makes must be more than the total expenses for its manufacturing costs and production costs combined.

Reduce The Number Of Steps Required- Manufacturing cost

Yet another advantage is that the cost analysis might uncover unusually large amounts of inventory obsolescence or scrap write-offs. If so, management might delve into the purchasing process, to see if inventory can be acquired and stored in smaller volumes. It might also push management in the direction of outsourcing some production activities that are generating excessively high scrap levels in-house. Either approach total manufacturing cost formula has the added benefit of reducing inventory storage costs, which reduces factory overhead charges. Total manufacturing cost should not be confused with cost of goods manufactured (COGM) or cost of goods sold (COGS), which are slightly different terminologies. Also, COGM is a formula that only takes into account the costs of items that have completed the manufacturing process and have become sellable products.

To get the monthly manufacturing overhead, identify the manufacturing overhead costs then add them up. Now you can determine the manufacturing overhead rate — this is the percentage of your monthly revenue that goes towards paying for overheads each month. To do this, divide the monthly manufacturing overhead by the value of your monthly sales, multiplying that by 100. As an indirect cost, manufacturing overhead it is challenging to assign overhead costs to each of the units produced.

Figuring out Your Total Manufacturing Cost

Determining manufacturing overhead expenses also helps with budgets for manufacturing overhead. Knowing your manufacturing overhead costs means you can budget the money needed to cover these costs. Producing too much stock in advance means you are spending a lot more on direct material costs. Equally, you will also incur the costs of holding excess inventory stock or risk being left with stock you cannot sell. Direct materials are the inventory stock items used to create a finished product.

These expenses constitute indirect costs, at least from the perspective of the manufacturing process, and are allocated as overheads. As mentioned above, the three primary components of total manufacturing cost are direct materials, direct labour, and manufacturing overheads. Another advantage is that having a better understanding of total manufacturing cost allows a business to budget better for these costs in the future. Doing so allows for greater transparency concerning where the company makes money, and what can be done to improve the situation. In situations where costs are unusually high, this analysis might even lead management to terminate some products and develop new ones with larger gross margins.