Mathias Jönsson

A General Economic Model for Manufacturing Cost Simulation

The described technical-economic model clarifies the influence of different production technological factors on the processing cost of a part. Influential factors can be weighted against each other, which leads to different production development scenarios and their effects on the processing cost can be studied. This implies a way to generate a basis of decision by which a company can base their production related development goals. The model describes influence of technical factors on the manufacturing cost and thereby represents the important link between technical development and economy.

Implementation of an Economic Model to Simulate Manufacturing Costs

An economic model describing manufacturing costs is implemented within the frame of a case study. The implemented economic model is developed to enable analyses of the cost items and parameters influencing the cost of a part or a batch and also to make simulations for the purpose of investigating the economic outcome of future development activities. The aim of the case study was to identify activities in a production unit that could lead lower manufacturing costs by using the method described in this paper.

Conditions for and development of an information technology-support tool for manufacturing cost calculations and analyses

Collecting data on manufacturing performance and making the results known to those involved could support efforts to improve manufacturing processes. This article describes the conditions for and development of manufacturing cost software developed for analysing connections between manufacturing performance parameters and economic parameters. The conditions for the software were investigated in two pre-studies. The first found that there are commercial software products for manufacturing data collection that support the collection of the data needed for the applied model. The second study demonstrated that the manufacturing companies participating in the second study were largely able to collect the needed data. The developed software, preliminary in character and needing further development, provides information on how the manufacturing performance of a company affects its manufacturing costs. It takes account of six categories of manufacturing cost. A what-if section is included, making it possible to alter the values of various parameters that affect costs in order to analyse how the part cost of a certain component changes with the use of new parameter values compared with historic values.