METHOD FOR REFERENCE-BASED MANUFACTURING COST ESTIMATION – EVALUATION STUDY USING A PROTOTYPE

Abstract Within product development, manufacturing cost estimation provides a sound basis for design and management decisions. This secures companies profitability, but the effort is high deep knowledge at interface of design, costs needed. These issues can be eased with automation enabled by semantic technologies. Therefore, authors developed method reference-based created prototype. research evaluates Observation, interview questionnaire were conducted ten experienced engineers large German company. Based on its results, study shows methods contribution to lower effort, while impact transparency base was only partly verified. The steps show different potential, so an incremental should considered. Even though technologies potential identifying reference system elements in this study, limiting factor remains low availability information missing connection within development.