Re-pricing a 24-Door Order After the Estimate Went Wrong

Cutting geometry first. A 2800 x 2070 mm panel gives 5.796 m2. A door is 2.2 x 0.6 = 1.32 m2. Area alone suggests 5.796 / 1.32 = 4.4 doors per panel, and 15% waste on area gives 24 x 1.32 x 1.15 = 36.4 m2, or 6.3 panels, rounded to 7.

That is wrong, because you cannot nest on area. With 2200 mm along the 2800 mm length you get one door per length run; across the 2070 mm width, 3 x 600 = 1800 mm fits, leaving a 270 mm offcut strip. So the real yield is 3 doors per panel, and 24 doors need 8 panels with zero allowance for defects. A veneer defect on any panel costs a whole door, so buy 9 panels - one spare, a 12.5% allowance rather than 15% of an area figure that no saw can follow. Under-buying also risks a second veneer batch with a different colour, which is a quality failure as well as a cost one.

Cost per door:

• Panels: 9 x 96.00 = 864.00, divided by 24 = 36.00
• Lipping: 2 x 2.2 m = 4.4 m at 1.10 = 4.84
• Labour: 75 minutes = 1.25 h x 18.00 = 22.50
• Finishing materials: 8.00
• Direct cost = 71.34
• Overhead 12% = 8.56; cost = 79.90
• Rework allowance: 8% of 24 = 2 doors x 45 min = 1.5 h x 18.00 = 27.00, or 1.13 per door
• Packaging and delivery: 120 / 24 = 5.00
• True cost = 86.03 per door

At 112.00 the margin is 25.97, or 23.2% of price - not the 25% assumed, and roughly nine points of that gap is the one extra panel the area-based waste factor concealed.

The discount alone. 7% off 112.00 gives 104.16 per door, so margin falls to 18.13, or 17.4% of price. That is below the level at which this workshop should be taking veneered work - the rework allowance already absorbs most of a bad day, and one extra panel (96.00, or 4.00 per door) wipes out a fifth of what is left.

The programme alone. Ten days against fifteen means compressing five days. Assume 3 hours of overtime per day for six days at 1.5 x 18.00 = 27.00 per hour: 18 h x 27.00 = 486.00, or 20.25 per door.

The two together. 104.16 - 86.03 - 20.25 = -2.12 per door, a loss on every unit. Even at list price, 10-day delivery leaves 112.00 - 86.03 - 20.25 = 5.72 per door, about 5% - and the reject rate will rise on a rushed veneer and spray sequence, not fall.

Decision. Do not accept the discount and the short lead together at any price this workshop can afford. Offer the client a choice:

1. List price with the 15-day lead, which is the only combination that carries a sane margin; or
2. A 3% discount (108.64) with a 20-day lead, which is affordable because there is no overtime and the extra days allow proper conditioning and cure time; or
3. 10-day delivery at a 10% expediting premium, not a discount.

If the client insists on both, decline. A 24-door order at a loss also occupies the spray bay that other work needs, and the real cost of a failed veneer batch is a client who will not come back.

One thing to fix either way. Requote from the cutting sheet, not from area percentages, and build the 8% first-pass rework into every veneered quote as a line item rather than burying it.

With 24 pieces going to one client, the first inspection decision is that sampling buys nothing. Acceptance sampling is economic when the batch is large and a defective unit is cheap to find later; here every door is a visible, handled item and a rejection at the site means a revisit. Inspect 100% visually.

Incoming. Check the veneered panels on delivery: face colour against the approved sample, no splits, no lifting at the edges, no sand-through, and all 9 panels from one batch where possible. Record the batch.

First-off approval. Machine, lip, sand and finish one complete door and have it signed off by the client or the supervisor before any of the other 23 are run. This is the single control that prevents 24 identical errors.

In-process checks.

• After cutting: dimensions 2200 +/- 1 mm and 600 +/- 1 mm, squareness by diagonal difference within 1.5 mm, lipping flush within 0.2 mm.
• Before finishing: flatness within 1.5 mm under a 1 m straightedge, veneer joint gaps no more than 0.3 mm, no glue squeeze-out on the face.
• During finishing: film thickness 90-120 micrometre dry, measured with a comb gauge on a spare offcut from the same batch; one cross-hatch adhesion test per spray batch.

Final inspection. All 24, under raking light at eye level, both faces and all four edges: coverage, no runs, no dust nibs, no orange peel, lipping colour match, hardware positions if pre-drilled. Record on a single sheet with pass, rework or reject, the defect code and the time spent.

Rework loop. Any door failing goes back with a defect code; if the same code appears three times, stop the batch and fix the cause. Track the first-pass yield - the estimate is built on 8%, so if it comes in at 15% the next quote has to use 15%, which is exactly the number the workshop needs to know before it prices the following job.

Final pack. Number each door, protect the faces, and photograph the batch before it leaves. There is no sampling scheme that substitutes for that record when the client calls.