Preliminary cost analysis

The term cost analysis refers to a detailed analysis of cost items assigned to a product or service. Despite in the early stages of development there is a high degree of uncertainty in cost estimations, it is better to take care of costs early, before the decision in favour of solution is made, in order to be effective in the cost reduction effort (Ehrlenspiel, 2010, p. 62). The obvious main problem of early cost calculation is that we want to determine cost in the development process quickly and early, even if the complete design documents containing parts lists and work schedules are not yet complete and requirements are not very clear at this stage. In RESOLVE project the preliminary cost analysis allows to calculate the cost for the two demonstrators, L2 and L6, in order to have a preliminary amount of production cost, useful to coordinate development activities toward the planned target cost range. In this way, it is possible to support the development of low cost design solutions, combining functionalities with economic sustainability.