Title: Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating
1Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating
- Costs
- Fixed and Variable
- Direct and Indirect
- Marginal and Average
- Sunk and Opportunity
- Recurring and Non-Recurring
- Incremental
- Cash and Book
- Life-Cycle
Cost Indices Estimating Benefits Cash Flow
Diagrams
2Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating
- Fixed Costs
- are constant and unchanging regardless of the
level of the activity over a feasible range of
operations for the capacity or capability
available. - Variable costs
- operating costs that vary in total with the
quantity of output or other measures of activity
level. - Direct Costs
- cost that can be reasonably measured and
allocated to a specific output or work activity. - Indirect/Overhead Cost
- cost that it is difficult to attribute or
allocate to a specific output or work activity.
3Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating
- Key Question Where do the numbers come from that
we use in engineering economic analysis? - Cost estimating is necessary in an economic
analysis - When working in industry, you may need to
consult with professional accountants to obtain
such information
4Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating
- Example 2-1. Alberts Charter Bus Venture
- Albert plans to charter a bus to take people to
see a wrestling match show in Jacksonville. His
wealthy uncle will reimburse him for his personal
time, so his time cost can be ignored.
- Item Cost Item Cost
- Bus Rental 80 Ticket 12.50
- Gas Expense 75 Refreshments
7.50 - Other Fuel Costs 20
- Bus Driver 50
-
- Total Costs 225.00 Total Costs
20.00 - Which of the above are fixed and which are
variable costs? - How do we compute Alberts total cost if he takes
n people to Jacksonville?
5Alberts Charter Bus Venture (example)
- Answer Total Cost 225 20 n.
- Graph of Total Cost Equation
Total cost
n
6Alberts Charter Bus Venture (example)
- marginal cost (marginal tax)
- -The cost to take one more person
- average cost
- - Average cost the cost per person
- Avg. Cost TC/n
- Avg. Cost (22520n)/n
- For n 30, TC 885
- Avg. Cost 885/30 29.50
- Total cost cannot be calculated
- from an average cost value
- For n 35, TC ? 35(29.50) 1,032.50
- Suppose Alberts ticket cost drops to 10 per
person if he brings 20 or more people. What is
the total cost equation? What is the total cost
if number of people exceeds capacity of 1 bus
(bus capacity 40)? What is the marginal cost in
this case?
7Alberts Charter Bus Venture (example)
- Question Do we have enough information yet to
decide how much money Albert will make on his
venture? What else must we know? - Albert needs to know his total revenue
- Albert knows that similar ventures in the past
have charged 35 per person, so that is what he
decides to charge - Total Revenue 35n (for n people)
- Total profit
- Total Revenue Total Cost
- 35n (225 20n) 15n 225
- Question
- How many people does
- Albert need to break even?
- (not lose money on his venture)
- Solve 15 n 225 0 gt n15
8Alberts Charter Bus Venture (example)
- Where is the Loss Region?
- Where is the Profit Region?
- Where is the Breakeven point?
- Can you make this chart in Excel?
9Sunk Costs
- A sunk cost is money already spent due to a past
decision. - As engineering economists we deal with present
and future opportunities - We must be careful not to be influenced by the
past - Disregard sunk costs in engineering economic
analysis - Example
- Suppose that three years ago your parents bought
you a laptop PC for 2000. - How likely is it that you can sell it today for
what it cost? - Suppose you can sell the laptop today for 400.
Does the 2000 purchase cost have any effect on
the selling price today? -
- The 2000 is a sunk cost. It has no influence on
the present opportunity to sell the laptop for
400. ( stock costs now 20 you bought for 80)
10Opportunity Cost
- An opportunity cost is the benefit that is
foregone by engaging a business resource in a
chosen activity instead of engaging that same
resource in the foregone activity. - Example Suppose your wealthy uncle gives you
75,000 when you graduate from high school. It
is enough to put you through college - (5 years at 15,000 per year). It is also
enough for you to open a business making web
pages for small companies instead of going to
college. You estimate you would make 20,000 per
year with this business. - If you decide to go to college you give up the
opportunity to make 20,000 per year - Your opportunity cost is 20,000
- Your total cost per year is 35,000
11Sunk and Opportunity Cost
- Example 2-3. A distributor has a case of
electric pumps. The pumps are unused, but are
three years old. They are becoming obsolete.
Some pricing information is available as follows. - Item Amount Type of Costs
Price for case 3 years ago 7,000
Sunk cost
Sunk cost
Storage costs to date 1,000
List price today for a case of new and up to
date pumps 12,000
Can be used to help determine what the lot is
worth today.
Amount buyer offered for case 2 years ago
5,000
A foregone opportunity
Case can currently be sold for 3,000
Actual market value today
12Recurring and Non-Recurring Costs
- Recurring costs are those expenses that are
known, anticipated, and occur at regular
intervals. These costs can be modeled as cash
flows. - Non-recurring costs are one-of-a-kind and occur
at irregular intervals. They are difficult to
plan for or anticipate. - Example. You decide to landscape a lot of ground
and then care for it. Which are recurring and
which are non-recurring costs you incur? - Remove existing trees, vegetation
- Have land graded with bulldozer
- Have yard planted with grass
- Plant shrubs, trees
- Mow grass
- Fertilize grass, shrubs
- Water grass, shrubs
13Incremental Cost
- Incremental Cost is the additional cost that
results from - Increasing the output of a system by one (or
more) units - Selecting one alternative over another
- Example 2-4. Philip can choose between model A
or model B. The following information is
available. - Cost Items Model A Model B Incremental
Cost of
B
Purchase price 10,000 17,500
7,500
Installation cost 3,500 5,000
1,500
Annual maintenance cost 2,500 750
-1,750/yr
800/yr
Annual utility expense
1,200 2,000
-200
Disposal cost after useful life 700 500
- Can we conclude that model B is more expensive
than model A?
14Cash Costs vs. Book Costs
- Cash costs
- require the cash transaction of dollars from
one pocket to another. - Book costs
- are cost effects from past decisions that are
recorded in the books (accounting books) of a
firm - Do not represent cash flows
- Not included in engineering economic analysis
- One exception is for asset depreciation (used for
tax purposes). - Example You might use Edmonds Used Car Guide to
conclude the book value of your car is 6,000.
The book value can be thought of as the book
cost. If you actually sell the car to a friend
for 5,500, then the cash cost to your friend is
5,500.
15Life-Cycle Costs
- Life-cycle costs are the summation of all costs,
both recurring and nonrecurring, related to a
product, structure, system, or service during its
life span - Products go through a life cycle, just like
people -
- Assessment Justification Phase
- Conceptual or Preliminary Design Phase
- Detailed Design Phase
- Production or Construction Phase
- Operational Use Phase
- Decline and Retirement Phase
16Life-Cycle Costs
17Life-Cycle Costs
- Comments
-
- The later design changes are made in the
life-cycle, the higher the costs. - Decisions made early in the life-cycle tend to
lock in costs incurred later in the life cycle - Nearly 70 to 90 of all costs are set during
the design phases, while only 10 to 30 of the
cumulative life-cycle costs have been spent. - Question. When is the best time to consider all
life-cycle effects, and make design changes? - Bottom Line. Engineers should consider all
life-cycle costs when designing products and the
systems that produce them.
18Cost Indices
- The U.S. federal government publishes cost index
data through the Department of Commerce Bureau of
Statistics. - The Statistical Abstract of the United States
publishes cost indexes for labor, construction,
and materials. - The best-known example is the consumer price
index (CPI), a measure of inflation. - The measure is scaled, so it is only the relative
values of any two measures that are meaningful. - For example, in 1920, the measure was about 20
in 1997 it was about 160. The conclusion is that
one would have to spend 160/20, or 8 times as
much in 1997 as in 1920 for the same
consumables. - Cost indices work in the same way as price
indices. - Cost indices are dimensionless.
19Cost Indices
20Estimating Benefits
- For the most part, we can use exactly the same
approach to estimate benefits as to estimate
costs - Fixed and variable benefits
- Recurring and non-recurring benefits
- Incremental benefits
- Life-cycle benefits
- Rough, semi-detailed, and detailed benefit
estimates - Difficulties in estimation
- Segmentation and index models
- Major differences between benefit and cost
estimation - Costs are more likely to be underestimated
- Benefits are most likely to be overestimated
- Benefits tend to occur further in the future than
costs
21Example
- Two summer Camps have the following data for a
12-week session -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- a. Develop the mathematical relationships for
total cost and total revenue for camp A - b. What is the total number of campers that will
allow camp B to break even? - c. What is the profit or loss for the 12-week
session if camp A operates at 80 capacity? - d. Determine the breakeven number of campers for
the two camps to have equal total costs for a
12-week session.
Camp A Charge per camper 120 per
week Fixed costs 48,000
per session Variable cost per camper 80 per
week Capacity 200
campers
Camp B Charge per camper 100 per
week Fixed costs 60,600
per session Variable cost per camper 50 per
week Capacity 150
campers
22Cash Flow Diagrams
- Cash flow diagrams (CFD) summarize the costs and
benefits of projects - A CFD illustrates the size, sign,
- and timing of individual cash flows
-
- Periods may be months, quarters, years, etc.
Example Time Period Size of Cash Flow 0
(today) Receive 100 (positive CF) 1 Pay 100
(negative CF) 2 Positive CF of 100
3 Negative CF of 150 4 Negative CF of 150
5 Positive CF of 50
- COMMENTS
- The end of one period is the beginning of the
next one - Arrows point up for revenues or benefits, down
for costs - One persons payment (cash outflow w. neg. sign)
is another persons receipt (cash inflow w. pos.
sign) - It is essential to use only one perspective in
any CFD