Part Cost Computer Modeung of Job Shops as a Function of Manufacturing Parameters

To regain market share in the competitive jet engine business, Pratt & Whitney has focused renewed emphasis upon cost reduction in engine development and manufacturing. Employing improved cost estimating techniques is complementary to achieving a reduction in total manufacturing cost. An increased awareness of relevant cost drivers will facilitate tradeoff decisions among competing alternatives, thereby uncovering the most economical process/design and providing the largest profit margin. Existing systems lack essential process costing features; they do not have the ability to employ process parameter linked costing on job shops or flowlines. Consequently, this research focused on devising, both a methodology and a working demonstrator for obtaining manufacturing costs reflective of the processes employed. The system is a non-iterative, analytical model with process parameter linked costing; it outputs the manufacturing performance and part costs of both job shops and flowlines with unlimited queue lengths. Numerous manufacturing layouts, including looping, branching, inspection, and rework, processing both single and multiple part type, are capable of being modeled by the system. The validation studies included an existing, conventional production part process, the diffuser case, and a venture, non-conventional production process, the hollow fan blade. The diffuser case verified the solution techniques employed by the system. The hollow fan blade scenarios validated the model's ability to make relative comparisons among the different model runs. Thesis Supervisors: Mark Jakiela Mechanical Engineering Steven Eppinger Management