Cost Analysis and Estimating, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1990 Tools and Techniques

Changes in production processes reflect the technological advances permeat­ ing our products and services. U. S. industry is modernizing and automating. In parallel, direct labor is fading as the primary cost driver while engineering and technology related cost elements loom ever larger. Traditional, labor-based ap­ proaches to estimating costs are losing their relevance. Old methods require aug­ mentation with new estimating tools and techniques that capture the emerging environment. This volume represents one of many responses to this challenge by the cost analysis profession. The Institute of Cost Analysis (lCA) is dedicated to improving the effective­ ness of cost and price analysis and enhancing the professional competence of its members. We encourage and promote exchange of research findings and appli­ cations between the academic community and cost professionals in industry and government. The 1990 National Meeting in Los Angeles, jointly spo~sored by ICA and the National Estimating Society (NES), provides such a forum. Presen­ tations will focus on new and improved tools and techniques of cost analysis. This volume is the second in a series. The first was produced in conjunction with the 1989 National Meeting of ICA/NES in Washington, D.C. The articles in this volume, all refereed, were selected from about 100 submitted for presen­ tation at the Los Angeles meeting.

I. Cost Estimating and Changing Technology.- Reestimating the Cost of Production in a Fuzzy Technological Environment.- Estimating and Explaining the Cost of High-Technology Systems.- II. Lot Sizing and Cost Control.- Allocated Cost Structures to Control Equipment Usage “Bottlenecks”.- The Effects of Different Production Rate Measures and Cost Structures on Rate Adjustment Models.- Production Lot Sizing in a Class of Batch Process Flow Shops.- III. Schedule Estimating.- Schedule Estimating Relationships for Air-Launched Missiles.- IV. Uncertainty in Cost Estimating.- A General Analytic Approach to System Cost Uncertainty Analysis.- The Incorporation of Uncertainty into Investment Evaluations.- Economic Design of Fraction Defective Control Charts: Simplification of the Multiple Assignable Causes Situation.- VI. Warranties and Repair Parts Costing.- An Active Decision Support System for Warranty Cost Estimation.- Parametric CERs for Replenishment Repair Parts.- VII. Test and Evaluation Issues.- Maintaining the Capital Stock at DoD Test and Evaluation Sites.