How do you calculate project delay cost?

Multiply weeks of delay by cost per week by the risk-exposure percentage, then add fixed penalties and remobilization. With 6 weeks x $22,000 x 85% + $15,000 you get $127,200.

What goes into the cost per week of delay?

Standing crew and equipment costs, extended overheads, financing carry, lost production or revenue from late startup, and any rented assets sitting idle. It's the bleed rate of an idle project.

Why apply a risk-exposure percentage?

Because not every threatened week of delay is certain. An 85% exposure says you're highly confident the slip happens; weighting the variable cost avoids overstating a delay that might still be recovered.

What is the cost-per-unit figure telling me?

It's the total delay cost spread across the weeks of slip — $21,200 per week in the example. It's a quick way to compare against the weekly cost of an acceleration option.

Should remobilization always be a fixed cost?

Yes, treat it as a lump sum. Demobilizing and bringing crews or equipment back is a one-time hit that doesn't scale with the number of weeks, so it sits in the fixed adder, not the weekly burn.

How do I use this to justify expediting?

Compare the delay cost it avoids — $127,200 here — against the cost of overtime, air freight, or added shifts. If recovery costs less than the avoided delay, accelerating pays.

Manufacturing Project Portfolio & Capex calculator

Project Delay Cost Calculator

Project Delay Cost puts a dollar figure on a slipping schedule so a project manager can decide whether to spend money to recover time. It blends a probability-weighted variable cost — weeks of slip times weekly burn times how likely the delay actually is — with the fixed, lump-sum hits of liquidated-damages penalties and remobilizing crews or equipment. Plant project teams and capex sponsors use it to justify expediting, overtime, or air freight by comparing the recovery cost against the delay cost it avoids. It matters because schedule slips are often treated as soft until someone quantifies what they actually drain from the budget.

What this calculator does

Estimate the cost of a schedule slip on a manufacturing capex project, including penalties and remobilization.
A project manager quantifying the dollar exposure of a line-installation delay to justify recovery spend.
It computes the total cost of a delay as probability-weighted weekly burn plus fixed penalty and remobilization costs.

Formula used

Delay cost = weeks of delay x cost per week x schedule risk exposure + penalty & remobilization
Cost per week = total delay cost / weeks of delay

Inputs explained

Weeks of schedule slip:
Burn rate per week of delay:
Likelihood the delay materializes:
Fixed penalties & remobilization:

How to use the result

Use it when a milestone is at risk and you're weighing whether to pay to accelerate or absorb the slip.
Weekly burn and risk exposure are estimates — garbage inputs give a confident-looking but wrong number, so document your assumptions.

Common questions

How do you calculate project delay cost? Multiply weeks of delay by cost per week by the risk-exposure percentage, then add fixed penalties and remobilization. With 6 weeks x $22,000 x 85% + $15,000 you get $127,200.
What goes into the cost per week of delay? Standing crew and equipment costs, extended overheads, financing carry, lost production or revenue from late startup, and any rented assets sitting idle. It's the bleed rate of an idle project.
Why apply a risk-exposure percentage? Because not every threatened week of delay is certain. An 85% exposure says you're highly confident the slip happens; weighting the variable cost avoids overstating a delay that might still be recovered.
What is the cost-per-unit figure telling me? It's the total delay cost spread across the weeks of slip — $21,200 per week in the example. It's a quick way to compare against the weekly cost of an acceleration option.
Should remobilization always be a fixed cost? Yes, treat it as a lump sum. Demobilizing and bringing crews or equipment back is a one-time hit that doesn't scale with the number of weeks, so it sits in the fixed adder, not the weekly burn.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.