Title: A should costing approach for manufacturing companies

Authors: Marco Mandolini; Claudio Favi; Margherita Peruzzini; Michele Germani

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131, Ancona, Italy ' Department of Engineering and Architecture, Università di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A,43124, Parma, Italy ' Department of Engineering 'Enzo Ferrari', University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Vivarelli 10, 41125 Modena, Italy ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131, Ancona, Italy

Abstract: One of the most important drivers for developing competitive products is cost. However, scientific and industrial communities are missing an effective cost management framework (including a solid method and a reliable tool) for supporting the product development process, from the initial design phases to procurement. For this reason, the paper presents a holistic 'should costing' methodology able to foster collaboration on cost-oriented solutions among company's departments. The 'should costing' methodology and the related tool enable a systematic review of cost evolution, focusing on the opportunities to reduce costs, from the conceptual design stage through the overall production stages. In addition, the paper presents requirements for efficient implementation of a should-cost tool considering enterprise software solutions already available in manufacturing companies. A couple of companies (product manufacturers) adopted the recommended 'should costing' framework and quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the deployment process are presented as results. The benefits related with the adoption of the proposed should costing approach in relation with the traditional product development process is presented as well.

Keywords: should costing; design to cost; cost estimation; product development process; PDP; product design; suppliers selection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2019.104591

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2019 Vol.12 No.4, pp.382 - 406

Received: 14 Dec 2018
Accepted: 16 Jul 2019
Published online: 21 Jan 2020 *

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