Contract Manufacturing, Job Shop Quoting & Make-to-Order worked example

Quote Cycle Time at 18% clarification, review, and approval allowance: a worked example

This worked example runs the quote cycle time numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 18% clarification, review, and approval allowance instead of the typical 25%. Estimate hours needed to complete a quote from RFQ intake to customer response.

The inputs for this scenario

  • quote tasks to complete: 46 tasks (held at the documented default)
  • quote task completion pace: 3.4 tasks / hr (held at the documented default)
  • clarification, review, and approval allowance: 18 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 25)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: base quote cycle time = quote tasks to complete รท quote task completion pace.
  • required quote cycle time works out to 15.96 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • base quote cycle time works out to 13.53 hr at these inputs.
  • quote cycle allowance applied works out to 18 % at these inputs.
  • quote task completion pace works out to 3.4 tasks / hr at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where clarification, review, and approval allowance sits at 25% and the headline result is 16.91 hr, this scenario comes in 5.6% below the baseline at 15.96 hr.
  • Use it when setting quote turnaround SLAs, sizing estimating workload, or diagnosing why quotes take too long to go out. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • required quote cycle time: 15.96 hr (headline result)
  • base quote cycle time: 13.53 hr
  • quote cycle allowance applied: 18 %
  • quote task completion pace: 3.4 tasks / hr

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Quote Cycle Time calculator, set clarification, review, and approval allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.