Engineers Design for Cost When Someone Holds Them to It

Key Takeaways:

• Design engineering teams are responsible for product cost, but companies rarely hold individual engineers accountable for it
• Management expects engineers to design for cost, but doesn’t give them the tools or visibility to see it when they make decisions
• The deadline is the one clear, achievable target, so engineers focus on it instead

The Full Article:

You’re finishing a design, the launch date is set, and there’s no time left to check what the part will cost to manufacture. You want to design for cost, but the deadline is here, so you move forward with what you have.

You’re not the problem, because most companies give you a deadline but no cost target and no way to see the estimates as you design.

Responsible for Cost, Rarely Accountable for It

Design engineering teams are responsible for the cost of what they build, but companies rarely make individual engineers answer for it. Organizations give most design engineers a launch date but no cost target, so when the two compete, the deadline wins.

A survey by the Society of Product Cost Engineering & Analytics (SPCEA) found that estimation usually sits outside design. Finance holds it at 38% of companies, procurement at 22%, and product development at 24%. Even there, a cost engineer owns it, not the person designing the part.

That structure rarely reaches the individual engineer’s goals. A design engineer can hit every deadline on a project and still never learn whether their part met its cost target.

Companies track whether products ship on time, along with engineering change orders (ECOs) and BOM accuracy, and they judge engineers by those metrics. Cost isn’t one of them, though it shows a design decision’s full impact on manufacturability and product quality.

Management may want engineers to design for cost, but they work toward the deadline, the only goal they can see and reach.

What Stands Between Engineers and Cost Management

Even where a broader cost function exists, it rarely influences the individual engineer’s day-to-day decisions. Design engineers already balance fit, weight, thermal requirements, and material selection on every component. Cost competes with all of that for attention, and no personal target gives it priority.

Getting a manufacturing cost estimate typically means reaching out to someone else. A supplier, buyer, or cost engineer has to weigh in first, and waiting on that estimate takes time away from the launch. The estimate can also include factors like overhead that design engineers don’t typically work with.

For many manufacturers, estimates still live in traditional spreadsheets rather than cost models that work directly from 3D CAD files. Engineers need to step outside their CAD software to get the cost data they need.

Without that data in front of them, engineers can’t design for cost.

Cost Visibility Comes Too Late

Studies show that early design decisions account for 70 to 80% of a product’s cost, before a formal review ever happens.

By the time an estimate comes back, engineers have already made many design decisions that set the cost. They have limited time to identify cost drivers while the design can still change. For example, a design engineer chooses machining because it’s familiar and the timeline is tight. Weeks later, feedback shows that the part is the biggest cost driver on the BOM. Switching the manufacturing process at this stage means a full redesign.

The problem isn’t willingness or effort. Design teams get the information too late to make appropriate changes, resulting in a costly, late-stage ECO that can delay the launch date.

A Manufacturability Issue Can Become a Time Problem

Cost isn’t the only consideration. Engineers also need to know whether they can produce the part as designed.

Cost and manufacturability are closely related, but they aren’t interchangeable. Design for manufacturing (DFM) helps engineers design parts that manufacturers can produce efficiently and cost-effectively while meeting form, fit, and function requirements.

Manufacturability also affects cost and schedule. Tight tolerances and thin walls can make a component harder to manufacture and increase both cost and lead time. DFM feedback identifies these issues early, so engineers can make changes before rework begins.

The Gap Between Design and Cost Isn’t New

In 1989, Harvard Business Review described the same issue: engineers sent their designs to manufacturing with little coordination beforehand. Since then, manufacturers have used design to cost (DTC) programs, cost reduction efforts, and cost optimization tools. Yet many engineers still don’t get the information they need early enough to act.

What Changes When You Can See Cost Before It’s Locked In

When design engineers can see cost and manufacturability feedback in the CAD software they already use, they can act while changes are still possible. They don’t have to wait days for a spreadsheet or a supplier response. The information they need is already available as they work.

Four things change once engineers get that information on time:

• They identify problems before they impact the launch schedule
• Design changes that used to take days now take minutes
• They rework fewer parts they thought were already finished
• What they learn carries over to future components, so they can continue meeting deadlines

See how aPriori analyzes 3D CAD models to provide real-time cost and manufacturability insights with aP Design.

CNH Turned Early Cost Visibility Into $9 Million in Savings

CNH builds harvesting equipment, and its engineers faced a familiar problem. They had to make cost decisions early, but feedback came too late to act on them. As part of its Design-to-Value work, CNH used aPriori’s product DFM intelligence to give engineers cost and manufacturability insights while they could still change a part.

After one year of using aPriori, CNH identified $9 million in cost savings opportunities. CNH engineers reduced design iterations from more than 40 hours to just a few minutes, and some parts now cost half as much to produce.

CNH’s chief engineer described what used to happen without that real-time, actionable feedback. A missed cost target meant redoing the tooling, supply chain, and validation work, the same disconnect described in the 1989 HBR report. CNH now gives engineers cost estimates early, helping them improve cost efficiency and design for cost as they work, not after launch.

Engineers who find cost and manufacturability issues early can avoid late changes that disrupt the schedule or delay a product launch.

Learn how Design for Excellence (DfX) helps teams address cost and manufacturability early in the product development process.

Keeping the Design on Schedule

Design engineers focus on keeping projects on schedule. When cost and manufacturability insights come late, they have less time to act.

Giving engineers that information as they work lets them make changes without slowing down the design or creating late-stage rework.