Design To Cost

COURSE OBJECTIVES
- To provide the skills and tools to help engineers to design a new product to a cost target
- To focus on specific costing models, and provide
concise financial awareness of wider commercial
issues and the impact of the design phase in determining the financial outcome of new product design

Course Content

Measuring Performance
- Profit, profitability and cash
- What are the business objectives?
- Do they match your objectives?
- A balanced look at performance

Costing: The Basics
- Why does a company need costing information?
- Fixed and variable costs, contribution and breakeven
- Introduction to the overhead problem
- The role of the budget and the strategic plan

Different Approaches to Costing
- Job, batch and process approaches
- Traditional approaches to overheads
- Standard costing
- Activity-based costing

Costs and the Implication for Design
- Design objectives
- Life cycle costing
- Target costing
- Designing to cost
- Understanding and allowing for risk

The Importance of the Value Chain
- Understanding the chain and the companies in the chain
- Selecting suppliers
- Selecting customers
- Identifying the "weakest link" and possible solutions
- Understanding the impact of competitors

Making Decisions
- Different approaches
- Cost-based pricing
- Target pricing
- Identifying the key selling points and the key qualifies
- Learning from past experiences with a customer
- Make or buy decisions
- Financial angles and commercial considerations