Production speed: Standard vs. Expedited

Every quote on OpusFab runs at one of two production speeds: Standard or Expedited. The speed you pick controls how quickly your parts are prioritized in production, and it shows up in both the price and the lead time of your batch.

Where to set it

Production speed is set once per batch, in the totals bar at the bottom of the quote table. It is not a per-part setting. When you switch between Standard and Expedited, every part in the batch updates at once: unit prices, totals, and the batch lead time all recalculate immediately.

What Expedited changes

Expedited production moves your parts ahead of Standard work in the production queue. In practice that means:

• Shorter lead time. The batch lead time in the totals bar drops when you select Expedited. Each part’s lead time also updates in the order summary at checkout.
• Higher price. Prioritizing a job ahead of other work costs more, so Expedited parts carry a higher unit price than the same part at Standard speed.

Expedited is useful when a prototype is blocking assembly, a deadline is fixed, or a design iteration needs to come back fast so testing can continue.

What Expedited does not change

Expedited affects scheduling priority, not physics. Some parts of the timeline do not compress:

• Material availability. If a material needs to be sourced, expediting does not make stock appear faster.
• Finishing schedules. Processes like anodizing and powder coating are often batched. Expedited parts still go through the same finishing operations.
• Shipping time. Production speed ends when the parcel leaves. DHL transit time is the same either way. See Shipping and tracking.
• Quality or tolerances. An Expedited part is made and inspected to the same standard as a Standard part. Speed never trades off against accuracy.

If your deadline depends on any of these, plan buffer time separately rather than relying on Expedited alone. For the full picture of where lead time comes from, see Lead times.

Why it applies to the whole batch

A batch is produced and shipped as one order. Parts move through scheduling, production, and packing together, and they ship consolidated into one parcel where possible. If one part ran at Standard and another at Expedited, the faster part would still sit waiting for the slower one before the order could ship complete. Keeping one speed for the whole batch avoids that mismatch: every part is prioritized the same way, the batch lead time stays honest, and nothing waits on a slower sibling part.

If you genuinely need one part sooner than the rest, split the work into two orders: check out the urgent parts as their own Expedited batch, and leave the remainder at Standard.

Choosing a speed

• Pick Standard when you have schedule room. It is the lower-cost option and the default for most orders.
• Pick Expedited when a shorter production time is worth the price difference, and confirm the new batch lead time in the totals bar before checkout.

You can flip the toggle as often as you like while the quote is open. Prices and lead times update instantly, so you can compare both options before paying. For what happens next, see Checkout and payment.