Quick Estimates of Production Costs

Estimates of production costs are often required in cases where there is not time enough to make a detailed evaluation or where the available data are too sketchy to justify a detailed evaluation. We have developed a quick method for making a rough estimate of the cash costs is such cases. The cash cost is the sum of raw materials and processing costs.

We have correlated data for processing costs from 200 plants as a function of plant capacity. Four separate correlations were prepared for batch and continuous plants, and for chemical and polymer processes.

The accuracy and limitations of the method are discussed, and examples are presented.