Automate Bottom-Up Costing with 3D CAD to Boost Engineering Efficiency and Speed

Key Takeaways:

• Bottom-up and top-down costing approaches are most effective when used together
• When bottom-up cost analysis leverages 3D CAD, it provides faster, more accurate estimates that reduce design iterations and costly delays

The Full Article:

Cost and value engineering teams at global manufacturers utilize advanced digital technology to enhance their design to cost (DTC) strategies, improve estimation accuracy, and ensure timely product launches.

Top-down costing provides early directional estimates in the design process, while bottom-up costing offers more accurate component-level calculations. Augmenting these approaches with digital manufacturing insights software helps teams remain within target costs and improve profitability outcomes.

Many leading companies leverage technologies like aPriori, which connects with 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software to extract and assess the geometry of digital models automatically. This integration enables fast and precise estimates, boosting agility in product development and helping to prevent costly delays.

Explore how teams use aPriori’s manufacturing insights, integrated with 3D CAD, to complement bottom-up and top-down costing and streamline product design calculations.

What Is a Traditional Bottom-Up Costing Approach in Product Development?

In the manufacturing industry, the conventional bottom-up approach analyzes and estimates the cost of individual components within a product assembly. Cost engineers then add these estimates to calculate and determine the total cost of the final product.

While this bottom-up costing approach is essential, it can be a time-consuming, manual endeavor that often relies on expert input. However, by increasing automation, teams can accelerate these efforts and provide valuable and actionable insights to the right teams at the right time.

Utilization of Manual Tools and Inefficient Databases for Bottom-Up Costing

Teams relying on bottom-up costing without 3D CAD software often use conventional, error-prone, time-consuming tools like Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets lack scalability when managing vast amounts of complex and crucial manufacturing data.

Moreover, users may accidentally input incorrect or outdated data into various spreadsheet files, resulting in inaccurate cost estimates. The basic and limited collaboration capabilities of spreadsheets make it a challenge for manufacturers to break down departmental silos when it comes to product cost management.

To improve performance, many companies can benefit from incorporating 3D CAD manufacturing software into their workflows, especially if they do not currently perform bottom-up costing. By leveraging the aPriori and 3D CAD integration, engineers can obtain accurate product costs before components are even manufactured. This allows teams to optimize designs early, minimizing the risk of costly redesigns and delays in the manufacturing process.

These bottom-up estimates inform top-down costing, empowering organizations to establish target costs and pricing strategies more accurately.

Examine the Traditional Top-Down Costing Approach in Product Development

Powerful top-down costing allows engineers to quickly and efficiently calculate expenses during the early stages of product conceptualization. This approach helps teams set direction and guidelines; however, there is usually uncertainty about feasibility, especially in new product areas.

Validating whether a specific profit margin is achievable often requires actual design work, CAD modeling, or obtaining quotes from suppliers. By complementing top-down costing with the integration of 3D CAD and aPriori’s Manufacturing Insights platform, engineering teams can:

• Gain both strategic pricing insights and holistic, granular views of individual components
• Consider the actual expenses of production processes and materials to avoid unexpected costs
• Improve re-design decisions to ensure they align with the target costs established by project management and other stakeholders

Transform Your Product Costing Efforts with aPriori’s Automated, Precise Estimates

aPriori’s Manufacturing Insights platform provides three levels of automation that enable engineers to generate precise and actionable estimates. These three levels include the following:

• Part/assembly 3D CAD geometry analysis. aPriori connects seamlessly with 3D CAD software, enabling engineers to automatically assess the geometry and measurements of a digital product twin (virtual models/replicas of physical products). The platform generates precise, real-time cost estimates and provides actionable feedback on manufacturability within seconds. These insights empower engineering teams to refine and optimize their designs from the outset.

• Bulk costing analysis. aPriori’s automated bulk costing capabilities allow teams to evaluate multiple components and assemblies simultaneously, helping them to identify more opportunities for cost savings.

• PLM integration-based analysis. Engineering teams can streamline their workflows by integrating aPriori’s automation-driven insights into their existing product lifecycle management (PLM) systems.

Moreover, engineers can create digital factories by leveraging aPriori’s nearly 90 real-world Regional Data Libraries (RDLs) and 400+ Manufacturing Process Models (MPMs). These digital factories provide a virtual representation of physical manufacturing facilities, enabling teams to assess the actual costs, manufacturability, and sustainability impacts of various factors, including:

• Raw materials
• Machinery
• Manufacturing processes
• Labor
• Overhead

Time to Elevate Product Costing Efficiency with aPriori and 3D CAD Integration

Engineering teams that integrate aPriori’s automated solution with 3D CAD manufacturing systems can augment their conventional bottom-up and top-down costing methodologies. This powerful integration allows engineers to generate rapid, precise, and real-time insights that improve decisions for cost, manufacturability, and sustainability while accelerating time to market.