Companies all around the world have realized that labor and pricing negotiations have a relatively small influence on total product cost. By the time when they hire someone to manufacture their products or negotiate prices, 70% or more of the product price has already been set previously: at the Engineering design stage.
Comes from this fact the importance of observing the cost perspective since the very beginning of the development phase, throughout it, as well as in all product technical change process. This is a matter of conscience and survival for the modern companies, in particular, the automotive ones, as part of one of the most competitive and contested markets. But how do we ensure that such an assignment has been carried out? It is easier said than done.
The purpose of this paper is to present a Design to Cost (D2C) methodology, currently used by the company, and working within an electronic workflow, which has stimulated an intense scenarios analysis of the possible design alternatives, created evidences, monitored product cost metrics, generated a huge data bank, and ensured that the pre-set product cost targets be achieved at the design stage.