1069. Engineering Cost Control

Paper

Abstract

This paper is offered as a general philosophical approach to Design-to-Cost and shows how the Weight Engineer’s area of expertise
fits in to the total Engineering Cost Control picture. Several companies are operating Design-to-Cost concepts for
their commercial programs as well as their military programs.
The objectives of Design-to-Cost summarized are as follows:
1. To seek the best balance between performance and cost.
2. Seek capability requirements within a band bounded by minimum acceptable hardware performance and maximum
acceptable cost. The performance and cost bounds represent acceptability cutoffs.
3. Initial contract goals to be set in terms of unit production costs.
4. Life cycle cost is the overriding determinant – Designs must not lower unit production costs to meet DTC
goals if there is an uneconomical increase in operating and maintenance costs.
5. Allow manufacturers/designers to retain flexibility of configuration by contractually describing mission
and performance capabilities required rather than spelling out detailed design specifications.
The organization of a Design-to-Cost team is the marrying of several engineering disciplines and cuts through
departmental boundaries to obtain the essential team effort.
The difference between Engineering Cost Control Group and Design-to-Cost team is explained.
Specific references are given to the efforts expended on Bell Helicopter’s new commercial Model 222 in the interests
of meeting Target Costs and Target Weights.