Why Product Costing Takes So Long (And How to Speed It Up)

Ask any cost engineer about their biggest frustration, and the answer often comes down to time. A single Bill of Materials that should take minutes can stretch into hours or even days of work. While manufacturers in 2025 face tighter margins, rising costs, and accelerated decision cycles, their costing processes often lag behind these demands. What was once merely inconvenient has become a critical bottleneck that delays launches, weakens negotiations, and limits opportunities for cost optimization. This post breaks down why product costing takes so long and explores what modern solutions can do to speed it up without sacrificing accuracy. 

The Real Reasons Product Costing Is So Slow 

Fragmented Data Across Multiple Systems 

The reality for most cost engineers is that the data they need lives scattered across countless locations. Material prices might exist in a spreadsheet someone created last quarter, while supplier quotes arrive buried in email threads, and wage rates sit locked in ERP systems. This fragmentation becomes even more problematic when engineering, procurement, finance, and sustainability teams look at the same product using completely different data sources, resulting in dozens or even hundreds of spreadsheets that attempt to say the same thing in slightly different ways. 

Manual, Repetitive Work 

When cost engineers lack reusable templates or standardized modules, they're forced to build calculations from scratch for every new part or assembly. This means copying and pasting data between systems, cross-referencing supplier quotes against internal databases, and manually validating numbers before they can be trusted. Version control becomes a nightmare when multiple people work on similar analyses, and the manual nature of this work introduces a higher risk of errors that can throw off entire estimates. 

Lack of Standardized Methodologies 

The challenge deepens when different teams apply different calculation logic to the same parts. One department might include transportation costs in their analysis while another leaves them out entirely, and assumptions about production volumes differ based on who's running the numbers. Instead of analyzing cost drivers or identifying savings opportunities, cost engineers end up spending valuable time reconciling these methodological differences while decision-makers struggle to trust the numbers they receive. 

Missing Expertise or Reference Data 

Even experienced cost engineers encounter processes or materials outside their core expertise, such as when a machining specialist faces a project requiring deep knowledge of injection molding or die casting. Access to reliable industry benchmarks or current market data can be limited, particularly for newer technologies or less common manufacturing processes. When these knowledge gaps appear, engineers must either rely on potentially outdated assumptions, make educated guesses that introduce uncertainty, or invest additional time researching unfamiliar territory. 

What Happens When Costing Takes Too Long 

The consequences of slow product costing extend far beyond the cost engineering department: 

• Delayed product launches because decisions wait on cost data that takes too long to generate 

• Late-stage design changes that are expensive and difficult to implement, since cost engineers get involved only after key decisions are already locked in 

• Weaker supplier negotiations when procurement teams lack the detailed breakdowns they need to push back on inflated quotes or identify savings opportunities 

• Uninformed design decisions as engineers make critical choices without full visibility into manufacturing cost implications 

• Missed optimization opportunities because when costing takes days instead of minutes, teams can only analyze a fraction of their parts or variants 

Perhaps most frustratingly, potential cost savings slip through the cracks simply because there isn't enough time to examine everything. The rest go unchecked, and opportunities that could have improved margins or competitiveness remain undiscovered. However, these bottlenecks don't have to be permanent features of the costing process. 

How to Speed Up Product Costing Without Sacrificing Accuracy 

Centralize Your Data in One Place 

• Before: Cost engineers spend hours hunting for material prices in outdated spreadsheets, supplier quotes buried in email threads, and wage rates locked in disconnected ERP systems. Each department maintains its own version of the truth. 
• After: All cost-related information exists in one centralized platform with automated updates. Material prices, wage rates, process parameters, and supplier data become instantly accessible to everyone who needs them. 

This centralization transforms how teams work together. Instead of emailing spreadsheets back and forth or searching through multiple systems to find conflicting versions of the same data, everyone accesses the same live information. Tset's cloud-native platform and multidimensional database provide exactly this kind of foundation, bringing together materials, machines, processes, and CO₂ data into one structured source of truth that serves the entire organization. 

Use Semi-Automated, Reusable Cost Modules 

• Before: Every calculation gets built from scratch. Cost engineers recreate the same logic for similar parts, spending hours on repetitive work instead of analysis. 
• After: Reusable templates deploy in seconds, applying proven methodologies consistently across all projects. Calculations that once took days now take minutes. 

Tset's approach to semi-automated cost modules addresses this need directly. The software applies built-in calculation logic consistently to every analysis, thereby improving both traceability and comparability across different projects and departments. Because the system generates cost and carbon footprint outputs together by default, decision-makers get the complete picture they need for both profitability and sustainability considerations. 

Leverage Automation Where It Makes Sense 

• Before: Cost engineers spend their expertise on data entry, manual validation, and searching for similar parts instead of actual cost analysis and strategic decision-making. 
• After: Automation handles repetitive tasks like data entry, scenario modeling, and cost breakdowns while transparent, auditable logic remains under human control. 

Modern tools use automation strategically to classify parts, search through databases, flag potential issues, and surface insights that might otherwise be missed. These capabilities free cost engineers from busywork, allowing them to focus their expertise on analysis and decision-making rather than data wrangling. The crucial distinction is that AI and automation assist with discovery and explanation while expert judgment and editable calculation models stay firmly in control of the actual costing logic. 

Conclusion 

Organizations that solve the speed problem in cost engineering gain advantages that extend well beyond the costing department itself. When calculations happen faster, cost engineers get involved earlier in product development, precisely when their insights have the most impact on design decisions. Better data strengthens procurement negotiations and transforms cost engineering from a reactive function into a strategic capability that actively shapes decisions from the beginning. 

Modern manufacturers don't need to choose between speed and accuracy. With centralized data eliminating search time, reusable modules capturing proven methodologies, and targeted automation handling repetitive work, both become achievable. The question is whether your organization is ready to remove the obstacles that have been slowing it down.