The business case for getting setup right
What does a delayed opening actually cost?
Enter your program's numbers. See what every day of slip costs, what a forced-but-unready opening costs, and how small the readiness investment looks next to either one. Built to print as a one-page business case for a sponsor.
Your program
Pick a facility type to load starting figures, then adjust.
Operating value
What the facility generates once it is open and running.
Carrying & burn costs
What the program costs while it is delayed and not yet earning.
Model the slip
How far might the opening move?
Your ORAT investment
What it costs to run the discipline well: governance, the team, the trials, the evidence.
If you force the date instead
Opening on time but not operationally ready. The Heathrow Terminal 5 scenario.
Cost of delay
Where the daily cost comes from
The leverage
The choice is not delay vs. free
Forcing an unready opening does not avoid the cost.
It converts a controlled delay into an uncontrolled recovery.
Neither failure mode is free. The third option — opening ready — is the only one that protects both the date and the business case. That is what the discipline buys.
How this is calculated
Daily cost of delay sums four parts: capital × cost-of-capital ÷ 365 (financing the asset that is not yet earning), annual revenue × margin ÷ 365 (forgone operating contribution), plus the daily share of the monthly idle-facility holding cost and monthly extended program cost. Forced-open cost = recovery weeks × [ forgone contribution at the lost-capacity rate + extended program burn ]. This is deliberately conservative: it excludes reputational, safety, regulatory, and liquidated-damages exposure, which are real but program-specific.
Why this is the cost of not knowing early enough
The cheapest delay is the one you prevent.
Delay and failed openings are rarely caused by one big surprise. They are caused by small risks that aged quietly, compounded, and surfaced when they were already expensive to fix. That is what CitiriOS is built to catch:
- →Risk Engine + Opti Solve — surface today the compound risk a team would catch next month.
- →Ready Score — a continuous, evidence-based read on whether the date is real.
- →Predictive Go / No-Go — readiness correlated with the construction schedule.
- →Evidence Packs — defend the date, or make the early call, on proof.
This calculator is an educational tool from Citiri. Figures are illustrative and processed entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted or stored. It is a planning aid, not financial advice.