901 costing per image

We have a Ricoh 901 , my problem is calculating an image charge for single and duplex on a variety of stocks. I know what speed we run at, what stock costs,I have an hourly rate restructured back to a cost per image, but I feel we need an up / down load charge and break point in costing for quantities, 1 -125, 126 -250, 251 -500, 501 -1000, & 1000+ ? any help

 

There should be a "set up" charge, just like a offset press has a make ready charge. This should be on all jobs no matter how big the run.
You also need to figure in any overhead, such as electric, space, and time for maintaing the equipment, etc...
Then create a overhead rate per hour and base your rum costs on that

 

Hi Joe
Thanks, I have included a " set up " fee as a down / up load fee per A3 sheet (or A4 ) at a rate of .1 of an hour x by my hourly rate of the machine , just as you suggested in your reply. Then I add the machines contract "click rate " x the number of images + time basis to run the job x the hourly rate, + stock + margin. . The total then divided by the No. of sheets gives me a cost per sheet. This is the funny part, comparing oposition rates for similar type digital machines , my charge rate per sheet is well below , sometimes spot on and other times over. I feel I have used a calculation input to give me the costing as fair as I can, only to be insulted that I should be having a total click rate of 16 cents + stock which gives a price per sheet way too cheap? I hope this makes sense as I had no trouble with Offset quote on a 28 inch 6 color , 28 inch 2 color and 52 Gto. Are we dealing with a different culture of new digital printers who do not know what there real costs are ? what do you think ? what part of the world do you work ?
Thanks Rocklands

 

I just have a basic setup fee, if you want 1 sheet or 5000, you pay the same amount plus the cost of the job as I quoted. There is no set price to clicks - they vary with equipment type, lease terms, quantity run per month, years of lease, etc so you will see differnet numbers. I did a comparison cost to my jobs and used local printers, quick printers and the web to compare to mey estimates. Various counts, colors, stocks, etc... and found that almost always, one of the people quoting would be way differnet from the others, because they needed work to keep the shop open. The machine has more cost to you than just clicks, unless you have one of those Free to Run in your plant options!

 

As I mentioned the .1 X $160 /hour for set up would equate to $16.oo

So S/up $16.oo
2700 A3 images (would take 1 hour ) $160.oo
+ Machine click say 8 cents x 2700 images = $216.oo
+ Stock (Sra3 ) at 2.6 cents (150gsm matt art) x 2700 = $70.20

Total $312.20
+margin 100% $312.20

$624.20

therefore image rate would be $624.40 divided by 2700 = 23.32 cents

 

Sounds more than fair - I'll use my formula with your rate:
Mine would be:
Set up = $25.00
Machine click say 8 cents x 2700 images = $216.oo
Stock (Sra3 ) at 2.6 cents (150gsm matt art) x 2700 = $70.20
Operator fee(if they sit and watch machine for 1 hour) = $35.00
Overhead (would be determined at your location, but for this lets say $75/hr) =$75.00
TOTAL: $421.20
Margin: $210.60
Total $631.80