Diogenes: what a part should cost, and why

A second example, a whole product

A battery work light: a die-cast housing, a moulded bezel, lens and two knobs, a bent steel stand and an LED board, plus bought battery cells and screws.

Diogenes costs each made part from its own 3D file, the board from its parts list, then the assembly and the packing. The clip is its product page opening the light into those parts.

The cheapest factory gate is not the cheapest dock.

Made in Mexico, this work light costs $1.28 more to make than in China, and $1.62 less once it reaches the US.

At 20,000 lights a year, that is $32,400 a year on one product, from a short haul and no Section 301 duty. Diogenes moves every made part and the assembly to each country and prices it again on that country's wages, machine rates and energy.

Per light, landed in the US, US dollars, at the duty in force on the estimate date. Mexico enters duty-free under USMCA, assuming the light meets its rules of origin. Batteries and fasteners held at their bought price.

Mexico$12.28 + $0.54$12.82

India$10.06 + $3.04$13.10

Vietnam$10.00 + $3.28$13.28

Thailand$10.52 + $3.37$13.89

Malaysia$10.94 + $3.16$14.10

China$11.00 + $3.44$14.44

United States$21.80 + $0.08$21.88

Germany$22.81 + $2.96$25.77

Made, assembled and packedFreight and US duty

It builds the price from how the part is made.

Not from a table of past prices, and not from a percentage off last year's quote. From the shape of the part, the process that makes it, and what that costs where it is made.

Open the part
Load the 3D file (STEP or STL), or a whole folder of them for a product. For a circuit board, its parts list. No 3D file? Describe the part with a few specs.
It plans the making
It checks which processes can make the part, picks a real machine, and plans the setups, the cuts or the mould.
It prices it in that country
Labour, machine rates, energy and overhead where it is made, then supplier margin, freight and US duty.
You question every line
Click a number to see its formula, inputs and source. Change the volume, country, material or process and the whole price moves.

The whole route, not one machine.

A part is rarely finished in one step. This grey iron pump body is sand cast, then machined, painted and inspected, and Diogenes prices each step on its own line. At 2,000 a year, made in the US, it comes to $23.33.

You can add, remove or change any step. Diogenes offers heat treatment; paint, powder coat, plating and anodising; extra machining, grinding and gear cutting; deburring, deflashing and straightening; washing and cleanliness checks; marking; inspection, a launch layout of a new part, crack testing and lab tests; packing; freight and duty. For circuit boards it adds coating, potting and the electrical tests. Anything else can go in as a step of your own, with your own labour, machine time or price.

Each line is rounded to the cent; the total is the sum before rounding.

Step	Per part
Sand castinggreen-sand mould, one cold-box core, pour, clean; the $7,524 pattern spread over the run	$12.86
Machining119 cm² faced and bored after casting	$3.26
Paintprimer and topcoat on 1,078 cm², flange faces masked	$2.99
Inspection32 of each 223 parts gauged, by the sampling standard	$0.13
Launch layout of a new part$586 once, spread over the run	$0.10
Supplier SG&A and profit	$3.98
Pump body, per part	$23.33

A cut-away view, in the app. The pump body's sand mould, built from its CAD and cut open down the pouring channel: the sand is packed round the pattern, the core is set, the iron is poured and cools, and the casting is shaken out. Move the cut, explode the mould, hide any piece, or play it at real speed.

Answer the quote with the line, not with a feeling.

Each choice in Diogenes names its rule and shows its sum. Here are four, as the app states them for the housing above.

The machine

Haas VF-2, 11.2 kW continuous

The lowest capital cost of the 8 three-axis mills whose travel, rigidity and tool magazine fit a 110 × 80 × 32 mm part in 6061.

Robot or hand loading

Robot cell

With US operators at $37/hr, a $115,000 robot cell costs $3.12 a part less than hand loading by one operator shared across several machines. The cell runs other work too; this job carries its share of the cell, and pays that share back in 1.9 years.

The machine's own rate

$12.04/hr

$5.42/hr for the $65,000 mill (depreciation, interest, floor space, energy, maintenance) plus $6.62/hr for the robot cell. Two shifts give 4,000 hours a year; take out warm-up and clean-down, sell 82% of the rest, and the machine's year is spread over the 3,150 hours left.

The rate an efficient shop would quote

$41/hr

Everything the shop adds to the material, $10.77 a part with SG&A and profit, over the 15.9 minutes the part spends on machines, at the bench and in setup. The other $8.19 of the price is the material, inspection and packing, with SG&A and profit on them. Hold the rate against your supplier's.

Click a number and it opens.

This is the $41/hr from the card above, as the app shows it: what the rate is, how it differs from the cutting rate, the sum behind it, and what it leaves out. The other decisions open the same way, each marked measured, derived or assumed.

Which shop is quoting you?

Change how the shop staffs the machine and Diogenes prices the part again. Same part, same cuts, same material. The gap is the operator's time and the hours the machine is spread over.

The same housing, made by	Shop rate	Per part
A robot-loaded mill on two shiftsthe should-cost above; operator line $0.55	$41/hr	$18.96
One operator at each machine, two shiftsoperator line $9.87	$83/hr	$31.03
One operator at each machine, one shiftthe machine's cost spread over half the hours	$92/hr	$33.32

The quote-comparable rate in Diogenes, opened: what it is, how it differs from the cutting rate, the sum that gives the hourly rate, and what is left out — **Screenshot of the app.** The $41/hr above, clicked open.

If you already use a should-cost tool.

Ask me to show you these on the demo.

The cuts behind the cycle

The 13.92 min is the time of a planned toolpath: each cutter, each pass, each tool change. Not a rate per kilo or per cubic centimetre.

The page behind the number

Cutting data, cooling laws and programming times cite the handbook or paper and the page. Rates cite the public statistic and its date.

Every capable process, priced

The housing is priced 11 ways, from milling to die casting, and each process that can't make it says why.

Landed, at the duty in force

Freight by sea, road, rail or air, and US duty from the HTS line, with the tariff actions since 2025 by date: Section 301, Section 232, the reciprocal tariffs and what replaced them.

Rates come loaded

Wages, machine rates, energy, metal and resin prices for 22 countries come loaded, from public statistics, each with its date.

No upload, no server

Installed on your own computer. It goes online just for public rate updates and part-number price lookups. Drawings, spend files and prices stay on it, and every estimate exports to Excel and PDF.

Questions before a demo.

Does my drawing leave my computer?

No. Diogenes is installed software and the costing runs on your machine. It goes online to fetch public rate updates and, when you ask it to, to look up electronic component prices by part number. Your 3D files are never sent anywhere. The demo needs no file from you either.

Does it use AI?

No. Diogenes is a fully coded physics and economics engine. The same part with the same rates gives the same price every time. Every line shows its formula, its inputs and its source, so anyone can audit it. And it cannot hallucinate: no number is made up on the spot, and a line that rests on an assumption says so.

Your data never trains any AI. Your drawings and estimates stay on your computer, and nothing about them is sent back to me.

To cut your workload, you can use your own AI tool, and it is purely optional. Diogenes writes the prompt, you give it to your AI with the drawing, and you paste the reply back. That way your AI can read a drawing and put the material, tolerances, surface finishes and heat treatment onto the part, price a bought part that has no catalogue price, or draft a manufacturing process that is not built into Diogenes. Diogenes never connects to an AI service itself, and you see every value your AI fills in and can change it.

How do I know the number is right?

You don't have to take it on trust. Each line shows its formula, its inputs and its source, and says whether it was measured, derived or assumed, so you can check the line that matters to you and change it if you know better. On the demo, describe a part whose price you already know.

Is it easy to use?

It is built for two kinds of user. Someone with little manufacturing knowledge can load a CAD file, or describe the part, and get a full cost: Diogenes chooses the process, the machine and every step itself. An expert can open any line and change what they need: the machine, the cycle, the rate, the material, the route.

Five quick-start tutorials in the app walk through real parts step by step, and the full manual is built in and searchable. Every license also comes with training time with me.

What does my IT team need to do?

Very little. Diogenes installs on each user's computer; there is no server to run and no account to create. Rates come loaded and update from public sources. Estimates export to Excel and PDF, so results move through the tools you already use.

How is it licensed?

Per seat, installed on each person's computer. I go through the price and the trial terms on the call; they are not on this site.

I'm the supplier. Why would I want this?

The same lines that let a buyer question your price let you defend it. Open the cycle, the setup and the rate, and show exactly where your shop differs from the should-cost.

It also makes quoting fast. Load the CAD file and the drawing, and Diogenes puts the tolerances and surface finishes on the faces they govern, so a tight bore or a fine finish brings in the grinding or other finishing it needs without you marking it up by hand. Every line of the quote shows how it was worked out, so you can stand behind it.

When material or energy prices move, the rates update from public sources and you re-price a part, or a whole bill of materials, in one step.

What does it not do?

It does not write a machine program, it does not sell parts and it does not tell you what to pay. It gives you a number and the reasons behind it. The negotiation stays yours.

Why is it called Diogenes?

Diogenes (say it dye-OJ-uh-neez) of Sinope was a Greek philosopher who walked through Athens in broad daylight carrying a lamp, saying he was looking for an honest man. Diogenes the software looks for an honest price, and the lamp in the logo is the light it shines on every decision behind that price.

He also famously lived in a barrel in the marketplace, but that part is less relevant.

See it cost a part like yours.

A 30-minute video call. Bring a drawing to show on screen, or describe the part in a few words. Nothing needs to be sent to me.

Book a 30-minute demo Sample should-cost export (PDF)

The sample is the housing from the home page, as the app exports it. Or write to me directly: [email protected]

A call. I cost a part like yours, live, from a few facts (material, size, volume, country) and open every line while you ask questions.
A trial on your computer. You install Diogenes and cost your own drawings. They stay on your machine.
Then you decide. Put Diogenes' prices next to what you pay your suppliers today, and decide whether it's worth a license.

Rather have it done for you?

I can tear down your product, cost every part in Diogenes and hand you the report: what each part should cost, how it is made, where its price comes from, and which suppliers are furthest from it. Then I help you build the negotiation plan: which parts to take up and in what order, what to ask each supplier, and the numbers to bring to the table.

Ask about a teardown and report

Know what a part should cost. And exactly why.