---
title: "Partimation — the route from raw stock to finished part, priced"
url: https://partimation.com/routing/
description: "RouteDFM builds the full manufacturing route for a part that needs more than one process — tooling, forming, degating, heat treatment, machining, and finishing, plus transfers between departments — ranked cheapest, quickest, and fewest-steps, with in-house or brokered steps priced. Start free."
product: "RouteDFM"
domain: routedfm.com
---

# The route from raw stock to finished part — is the job, not the first step.

*Full route, priced · cheapest/quickest/fewest steps · in-house or brokered · department transfers*

RouteDFM builds the full manufacturing route for a part that needs more than one process — tooling, forming, degating and fettling, heat treatment, machining, and finishing, plus the handling and queue time every move between departments actually costs. Routes are ranked cheapest, quickest, and fewest-steps, and every step is marked in-house or priced with your vendor's markup when your shop sends it out.

- **Every step, priced** — tooling, form, degate, heat treat, machine, finish, transfers
- **3 route rankings** — cheapest, quickest, fewest steps — real alternatives, not one answer
- **In-house or brokered** — vendor markup and queue days priced in when a step is outsourced
- **Proven cast-then-machine** — a formed blank routed straight into its own machining program

Free to start · no credit card · your files stay yours.

## A part rarely finishes in the process that formed it.

- **Two tools, two quotes, one part** — Forming and machining a part usually get quoted by two different tools and two different people — nobody prices the finished part as the single route it actually travels.
- **The in-between work is invisible** — Cutting sprues free, grinding parting flash, heat treating, moving a part between departments — real hours and real queue days that rarely make it onto an estimate built one process at a time.
- **Make-or-buy is a phone call** — Deciding whether a step runs in-house or goes to a vendor is usually judgment and a phone call, not a priced side-by-side with the markup and the added lead time visible up front.

## The whole route, priced end to end, with real alternatives.

- **Every step accounted for — Tooling to finish, nothing left off the estimate** — Tooling, forming, degating/fettling, heat treatment, machining, finishing, and the transfers between departments all price into one route — not just the process that forms the part.
- **Real alternatives — Cheapest, quickest, and fewest-steps — ranked, not guessed** — The same feasible route candidates get ranked three ways, so "which route" is a real comparison instead of the first one anyone thought of.
- **Make-or-buy, priced — In-house or brokered, with the markup and queue days shown** — Mark which steps your shop runs versus sends out, and a sourced step prices with your vendor's markup and added lead time named on the step, not buried in a phone call.
- **Cast-then-machine, proven — A formed blank, routed straight into its own machining program** — The route doesn't stop at "send it to machining" — a formed part's actual as-formed shape routes straight into the program that machines the real blank, not a generic billet.

## Four steps from a formed part to a priced, sequenced route.

1. **Start from an analyzed part** — The process family's already screened or picked — the route builds on top of it.
2. **See the full route** — Tooling, forming, degating, heat treat, machining, finishing, and transfers, sequenced and priced step by step.
3. **Compare alternatives** — Cheapest, quickest, and fewest-steps rankings over the same feasible candidates.
4. **Mark in-house or brokered** — Flag which steps your shop runs versus sources out, priced with the vendor's markup and lead time.

## Start free. Upgrade when it's winning you work.

Priced for a one-person shop routing its own jobs and a production shop coordinating vendors alike. Routing is unmetered — run as many parts as you like.

| Tier | Price (EUR / USD / GBP) | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | €0 / $0 / £0 | 10 parts a month; Full route build + rankings; Advisory analysis, draft resolution; No credit card |
| Pro | €199 /seat · mo / $199 /seat · mo / £169 /seat · mo | Unlimited parts, full resolution; In-house/brokered marking; Vendor markup pricing, exports; 30 simulation runs a month |
| Shop | €699 /mo · 5 seats / $699 /mo · 5 seats / £595 /mo · 5 seats | Everything in Pro; Your shop's accept-list & vendor rates; Quote calibration + API access; 150 pooled simulation runs a month |
| On-prem | €15k yr 1, then €10k renewal / $15k yr 1, then $10k renewal / £12.5k yr 1, then £8.5k renewal | Runs on your hardware; Unlimited simulation, no metering; Signed updates, never phones home; 10 seats · optional device lock |
| Enterprise | from €25k / from $25k / from £21k /yr | Multi-site licensing, custom vendor networks, a model tuned on your own routing history, and an SLA. |

EUR and GBP prices exclude VAT, added at checkout where it applies. Early adopters keep their price as the suite grows.

## In the cloud by default. Behind your firewall when it has to be.

- **Cloud — Nothing to install** — Sign in and route a part from any browser. We run the compute, ship the updates, and keep your data yours.
- **On-prem & air-gapped — For routes that can't leave the building** — Infrastructure and anyone under NDA can run the whole thing on their own hardware. Licenses and updates are signed files — it never phones home, so an air-gapped install stays air-gapped.

## One process family isn't always the whole job.

ProcessDFM answers which process family should even be in the running, and PlanDFM plans the operations inside one family. RouteDFM is the step after both — planning the handoff when a part needs more than one process family, department, or vendor to become the part you can hold. All three sit on top of the same DFM screening and should-cost engine as the rest of the suite.

**The planning cluster — Decide, plan, and sequence the work** — One part, three questions, in order:

- Process selection
- Process planning
- Routing (this page)

Priced by [CostDFM](https://partimation.com/costing/) — see the rest of the suite at [partimation.com/#modules](https://partimation.com/#modules).

## Frequently asked questions

#### What's actually in a manufacturing route, and what usually gets left off an estimate?

A route covers tooling, forming, degating and fettling, heat treatment, machining, finishing — and the handling and queue time every move between departments costs. Each step names the rule that priced it. The inter-department time is the part usually missing from an estimate built one process at a time, because no single-process tool ever owns the gap between two of them.

#### Does it give me one route or a choice?

The same set of feasible routes gets ranked three ways — cheapest, quickest, and fewest steps. Which route to run becomes a real comparison over one candidate set rather than the first sequence anyone thought of. When the cheapest route and the quickest route turn out to be different routes, you see that trade before you promise a date.

#### How do I compare running a step in-house against sending it out?

Every route step is marked in-house or priced with your accepted vendor's markup when the work goes out. The markup and the added queue days sit on the step itself, so heat treat sent outside reads as a price and a date rather than a phone call. Compare the two versions of the same route and the decision comes down to a number.

#### Can a cast or forged blank be routed straight into its own machining program?

A formed part's actual as-formed shape routes into the program that machines it, rather than a generic billet. Machining time is computed against the real blank, so the second half of a cast-then-machine job is priced on the stock the casting actually leaves behind — not on bar stock the part never started from.

## Related pages

- [PlanDFM](https://partimation.com/process-planning/)
- [ProcessDFM](https://partimation.com/process-selection/)
- [CostDFM](https://partimation.com/costing/)
- [SimDFM](https://partimation.com/simulation/)
- [In-house or send it out? Price the step instead of arguing about it](https://partimation.com/solutions/make-vs-buy/)
- [Quoted and actual keep diverging, and nothing learns | Partimation](https://partimation.com/solutions/quote-accuracy-drift/)
- [No defensible number behind the price — Partimation](https://partimation.com/solutions/should-cost-basis/)

## Price the whole route, not just the first step.

Route a real part free in your browser, or book a walkthrough set up for your shop's accept-list and vendors.

## Tell us about your shop.

We reply within one business day.

> RouteDFM is decision support, not a guarantee — every route step names the process, department, and rule that priced it, and lead times are working-day estimates from named tables. Validate against your shop's and your vendors' real practice before you commit a schedule.