What does it really cost to test cables by hand?

A Full Cable Test Try The Calculator How The Figures Work Out Common Questions

Most manufacturers know what a cable costs to make. Far fewer know what it costs to test.

Testing by hand with a meter and a wiring list looks cheap because the equipment is already on the bench, but the real cost is the operator’s time, and that cost is paid on every cable, every week, for as long as the method stays in place.

At 4 minutes a cable, testing 50 cables a week takes about 150 hours of an operator’s year. Once holidays, sick days and overheads are counted, that is about £3,400 a year, or £1.51 a cable, before anyone has found a fault. Bigger harnesses and higher volumes push the figure up quickly, because the number of checks in a full manual test grows much faster than the number of wires.

The calculator below shows what testing costs you now, what the same cables would cost on an automated CableEye tester, and how long a tester would take to pay for itself. Every formula is written out on this page, so you can check the working or take it to whoever signs off the purchase.

What a Full Cable Test Actually Involves

Take a common 25-way D-sub connector. A complete test means two separate checks per pin, and each pin has to be checked against every other pin in the connector, not only its neighbours.

  • 1. Continuity across ‘n’ pins
    • Confirming that each pin connects through to its correct partner: Pin 1 to Pin 1, Pin 2 to Pin 2, and onwards.
    • On a 25-way connector, that comes to 25 checks.

2. Isolation (Every Pair, Every Time):

(n × (n − 1)) ⁄ 2 actions
  • Testing each possible pairing of pins to prove that none are shorted to one another.
  • On a 25-way connector, that comes to 300 checks.
Full test: 25 continuity + 300 isolation = 325 checks per cable

Where Hand Testing Falls Short

On a working production line, nobody probes all 325 points on every cable. In practice, the operator checks the 25 continuity paths and spot-checks perhaps half a dozen isolation pairs.

  • What It Means: Fewer than one check in ten is actually carried out, and almost all of the 300 possible shorts are never looked at. If Pin 6 is shorted to Pin 22, that fault goes out of the door undetected, cable after cable.
  • Through a Lean Lens: This is waste that never shows up on a report. Testing a cable fully by hand takes so long that, in reality, it simply doesn’t happen to the standard a customer would expect.
  • The Automated Answer: A CableEye tester runs every one of the 325 checks in milliseconds. Nothing is spot-checked: the complete matrix is tested on every cable, and version control locks the test set-up so the parameters can’t creep over time.

For a professional supplier, partial testing isn’t a defensible position. Automated testing gives full coverage on every cable, and it doesn’t tire at the end of a shift the way an operator does.

Try it for yourself…

Manual Test Complexity Calculator

Quantifying the manual actions and labour costs required for 100% test certainty.

Total Manual Actions: 325
Total Labour Time: 0.9 Hours
Manual Cost to Test ONE Cable: £22.57
★ Engineer's Tip: Press Ctrl + D to bookmark this specific tool for the shop floor.

Calculated for 100% certainty (Continuity + Isolation Matrix).

Try the calculator

Put in your own volumes, test times and labour costs.

The starting values are illustrative, so replace each with a figure from your own business.

Leave the CableEye price blank if you don’t have a quotation yet; enter it to see the payback period.

Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.

Your figures
Cables testedi
Test time per cable, current method (sec)i
Test time per cable, CableEye (sec)i
Basic labour cost (GBP/hour)i
Employee overhead (GBP/hour)i
Working hours per weeki
Paid holiday days / yeari
Paid bank holidays / yeari
Average sick days / yeari
CableEye purchase price (GBP)i
Your results
Total cost of employment per hour
£22.71
Testing labour cost per year, current method
£3,401
Testing labour cost per year, CableEye
£213
Cost per cable, current method
£1.51
Cost per cable, CableEye
£0.09
Labour saved per year
£3,188
Hours saved per year
140.4 hrs (3.5 working weeks)
Payback period
Enter your quoted price
Cables tested to pay back the investment
Enter your quoted price
Summary copied!

Cost of Automated Cable Testing: Summary

" + rowsHtml + "
"); win.document.close(); win.print(); } calc.addEventListener("input", calculate); document.getElementById("cc-copy").addEventListener("click", copySummary); document.getElementById("cc-print").addEventListener("click", printSummary); calculate();

What each box means

Input What to enter Starting value
Cables testedNumber of cables tested across all jobs, per week, month, quarter or year50 per week
Test time, current methodAverage seconds per cable, including handling240 s
Test time, CableEyeAverage seconds per cable, including handling15 s
Basic labour costHourly wage rate (£/hour)£12.71
Employee overheadNational Insurance, benefits and a share of factory, admin, management and IT costs (£/hour). Your accounts department can supply this£8.00
Working hours per weekContracted hours40
Paid holiday days per yearDays of paid annual leave20
Paid bank holidays per yearBank holidays that are paid9
Sick days per yearAverage sick days for production staff6.4
CableEye purchase priceTotal price from your quotation, excluding VAT. Needed for the payback resultLeft blank

How the figures are worked out

The calculator starts from the real cost of an hour of labour, which is always higher than the wage rate, then multiplies it by the hours spent testing. There are nine steps.

From wage rate to true hourly cost

  1. Productive weeks per year = 52 − ((paid holiday days + paid bank holidays + sick days) ÷ 5)
  2. Productive hours per year = working hours per week × productive weeks
  3. Labour rate per productive hour = (basic hourly rate × working hours per week × 52) ÷ productive hours per year. This spreads the pay for holidays and sick days across the hours actually worked.
  4. Total cost of employment per hour = labour rate per productive hour + employee overhead per hour

From hourly cost to cost per cable

  1. Cables tested per year = cables per week × productive weeks (or × 12 for months, × 4 for quarters, as entered)
  2. Testing hours per year = cables per year ÷ cables tested per hour, where cables per hour = 3,600 ÷ seconds per cable
  3. Testing labour cost per year = testing hours per year × total cost of employment per hour, worked out once for the current method and once for CableEye
  4. Testing cost per cable = testing labour cost per year ÷ cables tested per year

Saving and payback

  1. Annual saving = current testing labour cost − CableEye testing labour cost. Payback period = purchase price ÷ annual saving. Cables to pay back = purchase price ÷ (current cost per cable − CableEye cost per cable).

The results also show the hours saved per year, and the same figure as working weeks.

What the calculator doesn’t count

The calculator counts testing labour only. For most users that understates the benefit of automated testing, because it leaves out:

  • Test records. An automated tester saves a result against each part and serial number. Tested by hand, that record is written out manually, or it doesn’t exist.
  • Escaped faults. A manual check that covers only some conductor pairs can pass a harness with a fault in it. The cost of a returned harness or a failed audit is not in the figures. Why 100% testing matters
  • Operator variation. Manual test times depend on the person, and a pass depends on the operator not misreading the meter.
  • Training and set-up time for new operators and for each new cable type.
  • Calibration and maintenance. Automated testers need periodic calibration, and so do the meters used for manual testing.
  • VAT, installation and fixtures. Connector boards and fixtures for your cable types may be needed as well as the tester itself.

The saving also assumes the operator spends the time saved on other productive work. At low volumes the saving is smaller, and subcontract cable testing may suit you better than buying a tester.

Worked example: 50 cables a week

This is the calculator’s starting position worked through by hand. The figures are illustrative, not a customer result.

Step Working Result
Productive weeks per year52 − ((20 + 9 + 6.4) ÷ 5)44.92 weeks
Productive hours per year40 × 44.921,796.8 hours
Labour rate per productive hour(£12.71 × 40 × 52) ÷ 1,796.8£14.71
Total cost of employment per hour£14.71 + £8.00 overhead£22.71
Cables tested per year50 × 44.922,246 cables
Manual testing hours2,246 ÷ (3,600 ÷ 240)149.7 hours
Manual labour cost per year149.7 × £22.71£3,401
Manual cost per cable£3,401 ÷ 2,246£1.51
CableEye testing hours2,246 ÷ (3,600 ÷ 15)9.4 hours
CableEye labour cost per year9.4 × £22.71£213
CableEye cost per cable£213 ÷ 2,246£0.09
Hours saved per year149.7 − 9.4140.4 hours (3.5 working weeks)
Labour saved per year£3,401 − £213£3,188

In plain terms: the same 50 cables a week drop from £1.51 to £0.09 each to test, and the operator gets three and a half working weeks a year back. Payback isn’t shown here because it depends on the price you are quoted; enter that price in the calculator to see it.

“Measure twice, cut once.”

Common questions

How do I work out the cost of testing a cable by hand?

Multiply the seconds spent per cable by your full hourly cost of employment, then divide by 3,600. At 240 seconds and £22.71 an hour, one cable costs £1.51 to test.

Why is the hourly cost higher than the wage rate?

Holidays, bank holidays and sick days are paid but not worked, so every worked hour carries a share of them. National Insurance, benefits, factory space and management time add to it.

How many checks does a full manual test need?

A full manual test checks every conductor for continuity and every pair of conductors for isolation. For n conductors that is n + n(n−1)/2 checks: 325 for a 25-pin connector, 1,176 for 48 pins. The Manual Test Complexity Calculator works this out for your pin count.

How long does automated cable testing take?

The calculator starts at 15 seconds per cable, including handling. Your own time depends on the cable and how quickly the operator can connect it, so enter a figure you have measured.

Can I have cables tested without buying a tester?

Yes. Cimbian UK’s subcontract testing service tests cables on a CableEye system and supplies a report for each batch. Contact Cimbian UK to discuss your requirements.

Does the calculator store my figures?

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you enter is saved or sent.

Talk through your own figures

If the numbers suggest your testing is costing more than it should, the next step is to check them against your own cables. Cimbian UK can go through the calculator with your real volumes and test times, look at the test your cables actually need, and tell you whether automated testing, a hipot tester or subcontract testing makes most sense for you.

Call +44 1243 582555 or email sales@cimbian.co.uk.

Written by Steve Hooper, founder of Cimbian UK Ltd.  Steve has supplied, supported and calibrated CableEye cable and harness testers in the UK and Ireland for over 15 years. He trained as an electronics service engineer, moved into software and sales, and has worked with manufacturers in 43 countries.

Last reviewed October 2026.

If you found this page interesting please share it with your friends and colleagues.