1. 1. Cost Concepts & Design Economics
Summer 2017
1. Cost Concepts & Design Economics
Session 1
06/13/2017

2. Objective The objectives of today’s class are:
to illustrate the concept of engineers cost-driven optimization
to analyze short-term alternatives when the time value of money is not a factor
Explain prototyping and why it is relevant in the design stage
Minimum Viable Product
Also G, g -- introduced later

3. Cost Categorization
Fixed cost: unaffected by changes in activity level
Variable cost: vary in total with the quantity of output (or similar measure of activity)
Incremental cost: additional cost resulting from increasing output of a system by one (or more) units

4. Other Categories
Direct: can be measured and allocated to a specific work activity – cost of materials
Indirect: difficult to attribute or allocate to a specific output or work activity (also overhead or burden) – equipment maintenance
Standard cost: cost per unit of output, established in advance of production or service delivery – future manufacturing costs

5. Cost Terminology Cash cost: a cost that involves a payment of cash
Book cost: a cost that does not involve a cash transaction but is reflected in the accounting system
Sunk cost: a cost that has occurred in the past and has no relevance to estimates of future costs and revenues related to an alternative course of action

6. Pop Quiz
An equipment originally costs $50,000, but it is registered in the company’s account as worth $20,000 due to depreciation. It has a market value of only $5,000. What is the sunk cost of this equipment?
$5,000
$20,000
$50,000
$15,000

7. Common Cost Terms Opportunity cost
the monetary advantage foregone due to limited resources
the cost of the best rejected opportunity
Life-cycle cost
the summation of all costs related to a product, structure, system, or service during its life span

8. Pop Quiz
An equipment originally costs $50,000, but it is registered in the company’s account as worth $20,000 due to depreciation. It has a market value of only $5,000. What is the opportunity cost of this equipment?
$5,000
$20,000
$50,000
$15,000

9. Phases of the Life Cycle & Their Relative Cost

10. Price-Demand Relationship
The demand for a product or service is directly related to its price according to p=a-bD where p is price, D is demand, and a and b are constants that depend on the particular product or service.

11. Revenue = f(price, demand)
Total revenue is the product of the selling price per unit, p, and the number of units sold, D

12. Maximize Revenue
Solving, the optimal demand is

13. Maximize Profit Profit is revenue minus cost, so for
Differentiating, we can find the value of D that maximizes profit,

14. Example
Acme Manufacturing is a major player in the lawn sprinkler business
Their high-end sprinkler is used commercially, and is quite popular with golf course greens keepers
In producing these sprinklers Acme’s fixed cost is $55,000 per month with a variable cost of $15.50 per unit
The selling price for these high-end sprinklers is described by the equation
What is the optimal volume of sprinklers? Does Acme make a profit at that volume?
What is the range of profitable demand?

15. Breakeven Breakeven is found when total revenue = total cost
Solving, we find the demand at which this occurs

16. Engineers’ Cost Considerations
Engineers must consider costs in the design of products, processes and services
“Cost-driven design optimization” is critical in today’s competitive business environment
In our brief examination we examine discrete and continuous problems that consider a single primary cost driver

17. Tasks in Cost-Driven Optimization
Determine the optimal value for a certain alternative’s design variable.
Select the best alternative, each with its own unique value for the design variable.
Cost models are developed around the design variable, X

18. 4-Step Design Optimization Process
Identify the design variable that is the primary cost driver
Express the cost model in terms of the design variable
For continuous cost functions, differentiate to find the optimal value
For discrete functions, calculate cost over a range of values of the design variable
Solve the equation in step 3 for a continuous function
For discrete, the optimum value has the minimum cost value found in step 3

19. Simplified Cost Function
where,
a is a parameter that represents the directly varying cost(s),
b is a parameter that represents the indirectly varying cost(s),
k is a parameter that represents the fixed cost(s), and
X represents the design variable in question

20. Example: Demand is a Function of Price
A company produces an electronic timing switch that is used in consumer and commercial products
The fixed cost is $73,000 per month, and the variable cost is $83 per unit
The selling price per unit is
Determine the optimal volume for this product and confirm that a profit occurs (instead of a loss) at this demand
Find the volumes at which breakeven occurs, i.e., what is the range of profitable demand?

21. Solution

22. Investing in Electrical Efficiency
Two pumps capable of delivering 100 hp to an agricultural application are being evaluated in a present economy study. The selected pump will only be utilized for one year, and it will have no market value at the end of the year. Pertinent data are summarized as follows:
ABC Pump XYZ Pump
Purchase price $2, $6,200
Annual maintenance $ $510
Efficiency 80% %
If electric power costs $0.10 per kWh and the pump will be operated 4,000 hours per year, which pump should be chosen?
Hint: 1 hp = kW

23. PROTOTYPING YOUR IDEA

24. What is prototyping?
Prototyping is the iterative process of quickly putting together working models in order to represent ideas, test various aspects of a design, and gather early customer feedback, over and over again until obtaining the most suitable product. The core purpose of the prototyping process and developing a prototype is to get a response from a target customer or user -- in other words, feedback which can be acted on.

25. Why prototyping?
Introducing a new product or service involves substantial risk, and upwards of 50-90% of innovations fail
There is often a large gap between what the entrepreneur believes is valuable and what the target customer perceives.
Prototyping, both products and services alike, is one strategy to test key assumptions about what a customer will value and be willing to buy.

26. Prototyping should answer the following questions
Does my target customer want the new product I propose creating?
How might I alter the product or service to make it more attractive to my target market?
And how does my proposed innovation compare against existing solutions in the marketplace?

27. The prototyping process
Representing Assumptions Make tangible or livable the value your product or service will offer so that the target customer can see, try or experiment with it.
Testing Assumptions
Test what you have made tangible or livable by having your target customers use your prototype.
Learning and Iterating
Collect feedback from target customers and act on it by creating a new version of the prototype and repeating the process until you obtain a final product.

28. Some kinds of prototypes are:
Low or High Fidelity
Looks-like or Works-like
Paper Prototyping
3D printing
Electronic prototyping
Service simulators
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

29. Low-fidelity Vs High-fidelity prototypes
Quickly getting ideas out
Seeking early feedback from customers
Representing a final, polished product concept
Making final decisions about marketing and production

30. Looks-like prototype Test looks, design.
Valuable to test market acceptance of the design, before costly, detailed product development is started.
A looks-like prototype

31. Works-like prototypes
Test the functionality of the product.
Test the usability with the target customer before programing or manufacturing.

32. Paper prototype
To quickly and directionally correct the basic idea of the product.
To explore what is valuable to the target customer.

33. 3D printing To create looks-like and even works-like prototypes.
Its getting cheaper and cheaper.
There are companies that provide 3D printing services.
A color 3D printed model. This model was created by
taking a 3D digital scan of the man shown in the picture.

34. Electronic prototype
2 open-sourced projects, Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
Arduino is a platform with microcontrollers that allow DIY’s and hackers to connect sensors and actuators to test.
Raspberry Pi is a chip with which you can test computing
They are low cost.
Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

35. Prototyping and crowdfunding
Kickstarter and Indiegogo highlight the value of prototypes in securing funding.
Entrepreneur must develop and feature looks-like to convey to their creative vision, and more importantly, to signal their professionalism and dedication to their project.

36. Prototyping = Co-creating
The most valuable step of prototyping is to design with, meaning alongside, your target audience to not only validate their needs but also to discover unexpected entrepreneurial opportunities.
Customer engagement is at the center of the product design process
Target customers must be engaged early and continuously in the process of idea generation and product development.

37. Service Simulator
Major elements of services can be prototyped as well. For example:
A plumbing company wishing to experiment with a new 30-minute ‘arrival guarantee’ for plumbing emergencies can set aside a plumber for rapid response to test the desirability of this new service.
An entrepreneur with a new pickup-and-delivery concept for a dry cleaner can first experiment with just the pickup-and-delivery aspect of the service without building and operating an entire cleaning operation. For example, an existing dry cleaner/cleaning operation can be used to do the cleaning itself.

38. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Eric Reis defines a minimum viable product as that version of a new product concept which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort1.
Others view a minimum viable product as a more evolved prototype that can be used by the customer and actually deliver value to a customer, even in a rough form.
Ries, Eric. Minimum Viable Product: A Guide,
August 3, 2009.

39. Summary
In sum, prototyping is a process and prototypes can be thought of in many ways:
As market research and exploration tools
As physical embodiments of a set of assumptions
As fundraising tools for Crowdfunding efforts
As coordination device within an entrepreneurial team to identify research and development priorities

40. Reflection points
How might you leverage prototyping to explore your idea for an entrepreneurial venture?
What simple prototype could you develop today, or this week, to test some core aspect of your concept?
How might you develop multiple prototypes to seek a wide range of feedback from your target customer?
How do you think 3D printing might change how entrepreneurs develop prototypes as well as final products?
How might you co-create opportunities with your target customer, i.e., involve them early on in your idea generation?
How might you develop and test a minimum viable product (MVP) for your product or service concept?

41. Web exercises
Watch this 2-minute video on how to get started with simple paper prototyping: Remember, simple, low fidelity prototyping is always the place to start.
Look at Fiverr.com to discover a wide range of affordable design services including graphic design, industrial/product design, 3D design and web development.
If you did not already, look at 3Dhubs.com and Shapeways.com to learn more about 3D printing services, some which are likely available in your city.