Manufacturing of composites are based on highly specialized processes and niche specific to Industry. Given that scenario, simulating manufacturing costs and developing related cost structures have been a black box. In recent days, we can see that buyers are forced to rely upon competitive quotes to arrive at the best price for parts made from composites. From our experience, we observed that very high-priced quotes have been received from manufacturers/suppliers for composite parts.
Additionally, existing Cost estimation software when applied, result in unreasonable/unrealistic gap in relation to actual part cost, as they do not account for part complexities like bend, radius, curve, etc. and other cost drivers like layup kits, consumable prices, etc. The biggest need of the hour is therefore to develop scientific cost models for composites, due to the absence of which, assessing ideal cost of parts and products has not been reliable and there is no rationale to baseline upon for price negotiations.
Typical Should costing or Cost estimation process for any product, sub-system or component calls for: Assessing the raw material costs, Taking into account the Cost of manufacturing process, the related overheads, and other elements such as profits. For conventional commodities such as Castings, Sheet metal, machined parts, etc. the methods of arriving at these costs are well established. However, employing such methods for composites are not so straightforward. Through this whitepaper we are presenting an approach to estimate and simulate manufacturing cost for Composites. Download whitepaper to know more,