Costing Support and Cost Control in Manufacturing a Cost Estimation Tool Applied in the Sheet Metal Domain

Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door: de promotor prof.dr.ir. A cost estimation tool applied in the sheet metal domain Erik ten Brinke Preface This thesis is the result of five years of research in the field of costing support and cost control in manufacturing. been a continuation of two previous research projects at the laboratory mentioned above. The result of the project " An architecture for cost control in manufacturing: the use of cost information in order-related decisions " by Arthur Liebers has been a starting point for this research. In addition, the results of the project " Manufacturing integration based on information management " by Eric Lutters have been employed in this research. I could not have accomplished this research without the help of others. First, I want to thank Prof. Kals and Ton Streppel for their support. Though our discussions weren't that frequent and easy, they helped me to find a proper path in my research. Further, I want to thank Arthur Liebers for passing on the results of his research including his library of cost literature. Also, I want to thank Eric Lutters for his, sometimes philosophical and sometimes repeatedly, explanations of some of the principles of his Information Management approach. Furthermore, I want to thank all of my colleagues at the laboratory. I have appreciated their companionship at work, at activities outside work and at activities outside work at work. Within this research, two students finished their master assignment, resulting in valuable input for my research. Therefore, I want to thank René Veltman and Alex Huttinga for accomplishing their, in their eyes abstract, assignments. In spite of their lack of interest and lack of experience in programming, they made a valuable contribution to the prototype implementation. Finally, I want to thank my parents and sister for their support and patience. Erik ten Brinke ii iii Summary In the product development cycle several engineering tasks like design, process planning and production planning have to be executed. The execution of these tasks mainly involves information processing and decision-making. Because costs is an important factor in manufacturing, adequate information about costs is extremely valuable for all engineering tasks. Therefore, a cost estimation system for the generation of cost information and for cost control, integrated in the product development cycle, is required. The integration of engineering tasks in the product development cycle has been a major research topic in the last …