What Is Speed Worth? The Hidden Cost of Tooling and Inventory (Free Calculator)

After I shared my break-even calculator, I realized it only tells half the story. Piece price is the easy number to compare. What doesn't show up on a quote is everything else: weeks waiting on a mold, cash tied up in tooling and minimum orders, boxes of stock on a shelf, and parts you scrap when the design changes.

With HP Multi Jet Fusion you buy on demand. No tooling, no upfront cost, no warehouse. You order what you need, when you need it. So I built a second calculator to put a number on that.

What Is Speed Worth? Tooling vs On-Demand Calculator

Click any box and type in your own numbers. This one isn't about piece price. It shows what waiting on a mold, buying big batches and holding stock really cost you.

Your product

Parts you sell per month

Profit per product sold ($)

Design changes per year

Cost to hold inventory (% of value per year)

HP Multi Jet Fusion, on demand

Price per part ($)

Weeks to first parts

Parts per order (order as you need them)

Injection molding

Price per part ($)

Mold / tooling cost ($)

Weeks to first parts (incl. mold build)

Minimum order / batch size (parts)

Mold change cost per design change ($)

Head start with MJF–

Cash freed up on day one–

Stock sitting on the shelf–

Hidden costs MJF avoids (year 1)–speed + stock + scrap + mold changes

Year 1	MJF on demand	Injection molding

How it works: the head start is the profit on sales you can make in the weeks you'd otherwise be waiting for a mold (count it only if those sales would really be lost or late). Holding cost uses half a batch as average stock. Scrap risk assumes a design change leaves about half a batch on the shelf. Cash on day one is tooling plus your first order. It's a simple model, so get real quotes before deciding. Built by Tim Ruffner.

What it counts

• Head start: the profit you can make in the weeks you'd otherwise be waiting for a mold.
• Cash on day one: tooling plus your first minimum order, compared with printing only what you need.
• Holding stock: what it costs to keep inventory on the shelf (storage, handling, cash tied up).
• Design changes: stock you can't use anymore, plus the cost of reworking the mold.

Piece price still matters. If you want the straight cost comparison, try the MJF vs injection molding break-even calculator. Use both and you'll see the full picture.

Plug in a real program and tell me what speed was worth to you. I'd love to hear it.

Tim Ruffner has spent almost 20 years in additive manufacturing and works at 3D Parts Unlimited, which runs HP MJF in-house. Connect with him on LinkedIn.