Arriving at a meaningful overall cost picture at an early stage is a challenge for the company departments involved.
At the interface between design/production on the one hand and controlling on the other, technical development and commercial aspects come together.
Accurate costing is crucial for satisfied customers and companies. After all, it is not only function and quality that are decisive purchasing criteria, but also the price. However, with individual projects and extensive parts lists, it is easier said than done to arrive at an early plan-cost overall picture. Based on this framework, the digital Erfa “Commercial management of development projects” provided participants with practical examples of how companies can meet the challenge of obtaining a meaningful overall cost picture at an early stage by means of three keynote speeches.
Rafael Schröder, design controller at Tracto-Technik, gave an insight under the headline “Calculating complex engineering projects” into how the manufacturer of special machines for the underground laying of pipelines for an HDD system with up to 5,000 parts list items obtains an early plan-cost overall picture from CAD and ERP.
Ulrich Schmager, Head of Engineering Controlling at KraussMaffei, used specific examples to present his controlling activities in engineering. Based on SAP data, the actual situation of key figures such as adherence to delivery dates, capacity planning, quality reports, productivity and construction hours is analyzed. The data is evaluated in ready-made Excel forms, which are then used by employees and team leaders for easier tracking.
Timo Monscheuer, Engineering Controller at Atlas Copco subsidiary Leybold, gave the Erfa participants an impulse presentation on “Product development costs for vacuum pumps and systems”. In the presentation, he showed, among other things, the information basis on which Leybold plans and controls projects in order to achieve cost-efficient and timely engineering.
The final discussion brought the exchange of experiences to a successful conclusion, with participants reporting on their challenges or asking questions about specific software applications or mechanical engineering aspects.
Organizer
The event was organized by ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is organized by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW sees itself as a platform for networking, informing and marketing companies, institutions and networks with each other and along the value chain. Significant parts of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.