Cost Controlling Methodology: Design to Cost 2019-26-0077

Current Global Economic scenario is driven by high quality and innovative products and services available at lower cost. With the volatility in the cost drivers market of 3M’s (man, material and manufacturing), Industry needs a methodology which can control cost and assists in increasing research and development efficiencies, robust quality, shared volumes for lower cost and investment, aligned manufacturing sequences and a consistent customer experiences across Global market. This Paper uses the ideology of design to cost as its basis, since a substantial portion of the product’s cost is dictated by decisions with regards to its design. Design to cost is a management strategy and supporting methodologies to achieve an affordable product by focusing on target cost as an independent design parameter that needs to be achieved with the development of a product. The approach emphasizes on Customer Affordability and Competitive Pricing with balance in Product Features. It is a trade-off between cost and performance for competing product alternative at the early stage of the design process. The process/approach aids in evaluation of how the ‘cost of product’ likely to alter with changes to the system design, product components and processes. Product Cost can be optimized, keeping in focus different parameters likes material utilization, design for manufacturing, reduction in Scrap, complexity in system and sharing volumes across portfolio of Products. The Paper includes illustration of Design to Cost methodology applied to structural cost reduction in Agriculture Industry to achieve cost optimization.