UAV & Drone Manufacturing worked example

Rework Cost at 69% share requiring full teardown rework: a worked example in uav & drone manufacturing

What does the result look like when share requiring full teardown rework reaches 69%? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. you want to quantify what a batch of flight-test failures will cost to tear down, repair, recalibrate, and retest.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Drones flagged at flight test: 85 units (unchanged)
  • Teardown and rebuild labor per unit: 140 $ / unit (unchanged)
  • Share requiring full teardown rework: 69 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 60)
  • Failure-analysis and retest setup cost: 1,200 $ (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Rework cost = drones flagged x teardown and rebuild labor per unit x share needing full rework + failure analysis and retest setup) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 9,411 $ for total rework cost, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 111 $ / piece for rework cost per unit.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 8,211 $ for variable rework cost.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,200 $ for fixed rework cost adder.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where share requiring full teardown rework sits at 60% and the headline result is 8,340 $, this scenario comes in 12.84% above the baseline at 9,411 $.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when share requiring full teardown rework is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. It captures direct labor and setup, not scrapped components, schedule slip, or the airframes that fail retest a second time.

Results at a glance

  • Total rework cost: 9,411 $ (headline result)
  • Rework cost per unit: 111 $ / piece
  • Variable rework cost: 8,211 $
  • Fixed rework cost adder: 1,200 $

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Rework Cost calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.