Product Cost Drift Analyst
Finds the products you are quoting below the margin you think
- 8hard rules
- Things it must never do, enforced in every run
- 5handover rules
- Conditions where it stops and gives the work to a person
- 8output fields
- A structured result, not a paragraph you have to re-read
- ≤7steps per run
- Bounded work: at most 5 tool calls, enforced by the runtime
Read-only by design. This agent has no path to sending, spending, publishing or committing anything. Where that limit is the product, removing it would remove the reason to trust the output.
Overview
A manufactured product's cost is a bill of materials: components, quantities, scrap allowance, labour and overhead. It is built once, carefully, at introduction — then it becomes a stored number that quoting, pricing and margin reporting all rely on.
Component prices move constantly. The stored cost does not, because updating it is nobody's scheduled job and it means re-rolling every assembly the component appears in. The gap widens quietly, and the first sign is a margin below plan for reasons nobody can locate — because every report is computed from the same stale number and they all agree with each other.
Two things make this worse than a simple price lag. Multi-level assemblies mean one component's rise flows into a dozen finished products through sub-assemblies, and nobody traces it. And scrap allowances are set at introduction from an estimate; if actual scrap has run at three times that, every unit has been costed short since the first production run.
The most commercially serious output is not the drift itself. It is the list of products currently being quoted at a price that no longer clears the margin the business believes it is making.
This agent re-rolls the cost, traces the paths, and names those products. It changes no price and no bill of materials.
Benefits
Quotes that clear the margin you intend
Rather than one that was true two years ago.
The cause located
Which component, through which assembly, into which product.
Scrap costed honestly
Usually the largest single correction and never revisited.
What it does
Re-rolls cost against today's prices
The stored cost was true at introduction. Every quote and margin report since has used it.
Traces through sub-assemblies
One component's rise reaches a dozen finished products through levels nobody follows by hand.
Tests scrap allowance against actual scrap
Set from an estimate at introduction. If reality is three times that, every unit has been costed short since day one.
Names what is quoted below target
The commercially urgent output: products being sold today at a margin that no longer exists.
Ranks by volume, not by drift
A 2% drift on your highest-volume line beats a 30% drift on something you make twice a year.
Changes nothing
It updates no cost record, no bill of materials and no price. Those are decisions with consequences.
What this changes
What this changes about your week
- It takes over
- Re-rolling product costs against today's component prices and actual scrap.
- Done today by
- Built once at introduction and stored.
- How often
- Annually at best, usually as last year plus a percentage.
- Typical manual effort
- Every assembly the component appears in has to be re-rolled, through every level.
Why Manufacturing in particular. Quoting, pricing and margin reporting all read the same stale number, so they agree with each other and none of them is right. And scrap allowances set from an estimate are never checked against actual scrap.
Runs unattended
Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.
The same standard every time
The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.
It cannot act on its own
Product Cost Drift Analyst has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.
How it runs
This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.
- 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
- 2Modelclaude-opus-5 with automatic fallback
- 3Toolsextract_structured_data
- 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
- 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
- 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded
Demo
Demo dataIllustrative sample output, abridged.
Input
{
"asAtDate": "2026-09-02",
"currency": "USD",
"products": []
}Output
{
"escalate": true,
"disclaimer": "A re-roll of your own bills of materials against the prices supplied. No standard cost, bill of materials, inventory valuation or selling price has been changed or recommended, no component substitution is suggested, no supplier contacted, and products with missing price data are excluded rather than estimated.",
"couldNotRoll": [
"Six products contain components with no current price supplied. They are excluded rather than estimated."
],
"scrapFindings": [
"Actual scrap exceeds the allowance on 9 operations. Every unit made on those has been costed short since the day the standard was set, and it is a separate fix from the price drift with a different owner."
],
"driftByProduct": [
{
"drivers": [
"A machined housing, up 44% since the cost was rolled, reaching this product through sub-assembly SA-11 — two levels down, and nothing flagged it.",
"Scrap on the press operation is running at 7.1% against a 2% allowance set at introduction."
],
"product": "Assembly A-220",
"driftPercent": 36.4,
"priceDriftShare": 61,
"scrapDriftShare": 39
}
],
"escalationReason": "A product at 14,200 units a year is selling at 12.5% margin against a 35% target, and one component drives drift across more than half the portfolio.",
"belowTargetMargin": [
{
"product": "Assembly A-220",
"trueCost": 161,
"storedCost": 118,
"annualImpact": 610600,
"annualVolume": 14200,
"sellingPrice": 184,
"actualMarginPercent": 12.5,
"targetMarginPercent": 35
}
],
"portfolioComponents": [
"One connector appears in 34 of 61 products. It is up 22%, and no single product's drift looks alarming while the portfolio effect is the largest number in this report."
]
}Requirements
Integrations
No integrations required.
Before you start
- Bill of materials structure, including sub-assemblies
- Current component prices, and the prices in the stored cost
- Actual scrap or yield by operation, where recorded
- Volumes, selling prices and target margins
- Requires the All-Access plan or higher
Use cases
Before a quoting round
Which prices no longer clear target margin.
Margin came in below plan
Where the gap actually is, component by component.
After supplier price rises
Every product the increase reaches, including through sub-assemblies.
Annual standard cost roll
Done from evidence rather than from last year plus a percentage.
Pricing
All-Access
Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.
Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits
FAQ
Does it update our costs or prices?
No. Updating a standard cost changes inventory valuation and reported margin, and repricing is a commercial decision. It reports the true cost and the gap.
Does it need a full ERP integration?
No. It works from exports: the bill of materials structure, current component prices, and actual scrap by operation.
What if we do not record actual scrap?
It re-rolls on the allowance and says the scrap check was not performed. That is usually the largest single correction, so it says clearly that the result is likely understated.
Reviews
Reviews open once customers have run this agent.
Need this agent to work differently?
Tell us what to change and our team will scope a customised version for your business.
Customize this agent