Cost analysis software development for injection moulding in the concurrent engineering environment

Abstract

To establish sound part is essential in product designing. The delay to introduce to introduce the product into the market, will affect the overall development plan, production and marketing plan. To produce product at the right cost, designer must has a tool or system that could determine the part cost in real-time. Failure to achieve the targeted cost will result in part re-design that eventually will delay the development schedule and increase the total investment cost in term of die modification cost. Based on this requirement a simple prototype software to calculate part cost being introduced. In developing the software, the approached that the program developer took are involving the identification of cost influence factors, arithemetical cost modeling establishment, user interface layout and design development, VB6 software calculation programming, post-programming result validation and software calculation accuracy. Post-programming case study results recommended the calculation accuracy are consistent with cost target, but to further additional improvement to increase cost accuracy, which include real-time material cost update, die amortization cost, various overhead expenses calculations, secondary process cost requirement, and transportation packaging cost calculations.