Which parts are actually losing you money?
Most die casters cannot answer that with confidence, and the ones who can are usually wrong. We rebuild costing from the routing up, on the floor and in the ERP, until the number on the quote matches what the part really costs.
Book a Free Consultation →Standard cost drifts, and nobody notices.
A cost master is set once and then quietly rots. Every symptom below is one we have found in a real foundry.
A corrupted cost master
We have opened a standard-cost table carrying rates roughly a thousand times the real figure across dozens of parts. It had been feeding quotes and inventory valuation for months. Nothing in the ERP flagged it.
Labour and burden that never moved
Rates set years ago against a different headcount, a different shift pattern, and different energy prices. The math still runs; it just describes a plant that no longer exists.
Scrap and remelt priced as free
Runs that scrap heavily still cost metal, machine time, and labour. If the yield assumption is optimistic, the parts that hurt you most look like your best margins.
Die changes nobody has timed
Setup and changeover are real cost. When they are absorbed into a blanket burden rate, short runs subsidise long ones and you cannot see it.
Revision parts and dead SKUs
Superseded part numbers still carrying cost and inventory. Small dollars individually, and a reconciliation that never quite ties.
Quotes built on the old number
The most expensive symptom. You win the work you should have walked away from, and lose the work you should have won.
Costing rebuilt from the record, not from the last spreadsheet.
We work from routings, BOMs, time studies and the actual ledger - then hand you a model you can defend to a customer.
Per-part true cost
Metal, labour, burden, setup, scrap and yield, built bottom-up per part number and reconciled back to the general ledger.
Standard cost audit
Every rate in the cost master checked against a real source. Where a rate cannot be substantiated, we say so rather than carrying it forward.
Margin by part and customer
Which parts lose money, which customers lose money, and how much. Usually the uncomfortable part of the engagement.
Pricing support
A cost you can quote from, and the arithmetic behind it, so a price increase is a conversation about numbers rather than a negotiation about feelings.
Odyssey ERP
We already run accounting inside B&L Odyssey - AP, AR, GL, inventory and reporting - and have built secure connectors into it. That is uncommon, and it means no learning curve on your system.
The rote work automated
AP capture, reconciliation, and month-end close handled, so your controller is doing costing rather than typing invoices.
Most accountants have never seen a die cast.
Cost accounting for metalcasting is not general accounting with different words. It needs someone who understands why a cavity count changes the per-part number, why a die change is not overhead, and why remelt is not free. We work in real foundries, on real routings, and we have found real money - including a costing programme covering over $8 million of annual revenue where the loss-making lines were identified line by line. We do not name clients, and we will not name you either.
We serve several metalcasters, safely.
That is a fair question to ask, and the answer is structural rather than a promise. Sumz is led by a CPA who also holds the CISSP, the senior credential in information security. Engagements are separated, access is scoped to the least that does the job, and every automated action is logged and reviewable. Your costing is your competitive position and it is treated that way.
Bring us one part number.
Thirty minutes, no charge. Pick a part you suspect is underwater and we will walk the cost with you.
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