Hire an AI production cost and layout planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A cost plan that starts from the target price, with each cost line and step marked as needed or not
• A better layout of the work, with the steps in order, fewer moves and a place for each part
• A list of waste and by-products, each priced as a possible product, reuse or saving, and ranked by money recovered for the effort

How it does the job well

• Start from the user problem and the evidence for it, then the solution.
• Write decisions down with the reason and the options you rejected.
• Keep scope small enough to ship and learn. Name what is out of scope.
• Define how success will be measured before building.

Mistakes it avoids

• Treating opinions or one loud request as proven demand.
• Specs that skip edge cases, error states or dependencies.
• Roadmaps with dates but no owners or confidence levels.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You want to cut your price to reach more customers and need to know where the cost can come out.

• Step 1: Price-first cost plan. Each cost line and step marked needed by the customer or not, with remove, simplify or keep, and the saving.
• Step 2: Work layout. The steps in order with a time for each, where each tool and part sits, and moves counted before and after.
• Step 3: Waste and by-products. Each scrap or idle item with its monthly amount, who might buy it, its value and the effort to reclaim it.
• Ranked list and first actions. Waste ranked by money recovered against effort, with the first three actions and a date to count again.
• Hand-back summary. Each step's file and every MISSING line in one list.

How the work is checked

• Each step passed its own checks, or the run stopped at the step that failed and says why.
• The steps ran in order, and each one used the result of the one before.
• Nothing was invented to fill a gap. Every gap is a MISSING: line.
• Nothing was sent, published or paid for without a clear yes.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Plan from the price. Sets the target price first, lists every cost line and step, and asks of each whether the customer needs it. Removes before it speeds up.
• Lay out the work. Takes the steps left in the cost plan and puts them in the order of the work. Counts each person's moves and shortens how far parts travel.
• Find the waste. Walks the whole process and lists what is thrown away or left idle. Prices each item as a possible product, reuse or saving and ranks them.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id target-cost-production only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/target-cost-production/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• The price you want to sell at, and the customers who can pay it
• Your product facts, such as costs, parts and materials
• How the work runs now: the steps in order, who does each, the space and the tools
• What you throw away, leave idle or redo, with amounts if you know them
• A competitor's prices (optional)
• A cost or process report, if you have one (optional)
• A sheet of your costs and volumes (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• Time per step, measured on a real day
• Supplier prices and minimum orders
• A walk-through of the process, with photos

Tools and access

• Any good chat AI: Works through the cost lines, the layout and the waste in one run.
• A spreadsheet: Holds the cost lines, timings and amounts so the plan can be checked.
• Any good chat AI: Listing cost lines and estimating the effect of cuts is text and arithmetic work any strong chat AI handles.
• A spreadsheet: Keeps cost lines, savings and margin in one place you can change.
• Any good chat AI: Counting moves and reordering steps is text work any strong chat AI handles.
• A stopwatch or phone timer: Real step times make the before and after real.
• Any good chat AI: Listing and valuing waste is text and arithmetic work any strong chat AI handles.
• A spreadsheet: Holds the monthly numbers and shows the trend at each re-count.

Functions and deliverables

• Production cost and layout planner: Share target price, cost records and production steps. Get a cost-reduction plan, layout ideas and possible waste or by-product uses.
  • A cost plan that starts from the target price, with each cost line and step marked as needed or not
  • A better layout of the work, with the steps in order, fewer moves and a place for each part
  • A list of waste and by-products, each priced as a possible product, reuse or saving, and ranked by money recovered for the effort
• Target price cost planner: Set the price your buyers can pay first. This price-first cost planner shows which costs to cut, keep or simplify to reach it, plus one small test.
  • A target price and the cost it implies
  • Every cost line with a keep, simplify or remove decision
  • Volume and margin estimates at the target price
  • A single-job test and the price gap to the alternative
• Workplace layout planner: Plan a work flow layout for a repeated job. Give it your steps and space. You get fewer moves, less walking and a one-job trial.
  • A layout in words, in the order of the work
  • A before and after count of steps and moves
  • A list of small steps with times, each marked measured or guessed
  • A one-job trial and a staff check
• Waste and by-product finder: Find the money in what you throw away, leave idle or redo. Get each waste item priced, a buyer or reuse for it, and your first three actions.
  • Every waste item listed with a monthly number
  • A value for each, counting labour as well as material
  • A buyer or reuse for each, or "no use" where nothing fits
  • The first three actions with an owner and a date
  • A re-count date, 30 days away unless you set one
• Product context file writer: Share product facts, audience and positioning. Get a reviewed context file that other marketing skills can reference.
  • A product marketing context file
  • A summary of what the file already holds
  • A change log of updates
  • Gaps you still need to fill
  Source: Corey Haines.
• Henry Ford: Find waste in a product or work process using Henry Ford’s recorded approach. Cut needless parts and steps, then test cost and quality.
  • Your problem worked on the way Henry Ford would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Henry Ford's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• John D. Rockefeller: Review costs and waste through John D. Rockefeller’s recorded approach. Read the books closely, trace each job’s return and question unused resources.
  • Your problem worked on the way John D. Rockefeller would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in John D. Rockefeller's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• You want to cut your price to reach more customers and need to know where the cost can come out.
• A rival is selling at a price you can't match, and you want to see how far your costs are from theirs.
• Your process feels slow and wasteful, but you don't know which part to fix first.

Limits to check before starting

• You want to know what each step costs today, not work back from a price: use Process waste reuse opportunity planner.
• Your main cost is what a factory charges you: use Supplier cost and payment terms planner.
• You only want to find where a process wastes time and why: use Process waste and root-cause reviewer.
• You want to set a price that covers every cost, not cut cost to meet a price: use Product price and discount planner.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the handoff pack. It has HANDOFF.md and three skill files, in the order they run: Price-first cost planner, Work flow layout planner and Waste and by-product finder.
• Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
• Name your target price and give your product facts and costs.
• It works step by step and saves each result. Check the cost plan before you read the layout.
• Test the biggest saving on a small batch before you change the whole process.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/target-cost-production for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.