Insights · 2026-09-09

COGS talks fail without a shared cost stack

When teams argue about monoclonal antibody COGS, they are rarely arguing about the same object. One person means resin and media. Another means fully loaded plant. A third means contribution cost after batch-driven QA.

A usable BDS stack separates: materials by unit operation, hybrid labor (fixed vs per-cycle), utilities (WFI, cleanroom HVAC, power), batch-driven overhead, and pure overhead (compliance, QMS, SG&A).

Only then do levers mean anything: intensification, PAT/MES, procurement, or low-COL siting each hit different rows — and each has CapEx, lead time, and resource consequences.

We use that model inside assessments. The public COGS preview shows structure and sample output without handing you a full DIY solver — because the value is the path to a target $/g with tradeoffs made explicit.

Related: Line Balance Lab · COGS preview · Assessment