Design to Cost is a development process focused on product creation within a fixed budget. Besides having clear targets a team should work to, it's also a mindset the engineers & designers involved must have.
Designing to Cost & Manufacturing helps you create cost aware, easily manufacturable and thus profitable products. 6 tips to make it a success:
- Start with a clear budget. It all starts by properly defining which costs you'll be designing to
- Be critical in your requirement setting. Often, every requirement introduces a level of costs. Make sure to keep them at the bare minimum.
- Divergate first! Investigate all feasible alternatives before getting biased to one particuar option.
- Design to Manufacturing. Always design with a specific manufacturing process in mind and optimize for it.
- Apples to Apples: Use one consistent estimation method while costing. (e.g. the ShouldCoster estimation module)
- Monitor the gap. Create a systematic method to frequently compare the current cost status to the budget. This way you can take direct action when needed.
