1、 外文翻译 原文 The language of cost Material Source: industrial engineer： IE Author:Cutler;Thomas Manufacturing in North America is under siege as companies struggle against increasing challenges to deliver quality products on time and at the required price. All these functions must be performed while man
2、aging the profitability and growth requirements of a demanding public marketplace. Observing the mechanical computer-aided design(MCAD) and product lifecycle management (PLM)product sectors, there is a maturing and saturated CAD market and a PLM market that continues to miss the hopeful expectations
3、 of industry pundits. There have not been significant advances in MCAD since the late 1980s. The industry changed with feature-based solid modeling and has now become a commodity since all of the providers are on an even playing field. The PLM market has underperformed for a variety of reasons. The
4、theory of product lifecycle management is sound, but the vision has eluded many companies, taken far longer, cost much more than expected and failed to deliver as promised. A central rationale for the failure is the inherent disconnect between the goals and objectives of the product-centric engineer
5、ing constituents and a companys financially based business objectives. The best example of this departmental conflict is the stark difference between the language of engineering and the language of business MCAD and PLM historically have focused on the engineering and design aspects of product deliv
6、ery. The language of engineering as spoken by MCAD and PLM is based on physical attributes of the product and technological capabilities of the software solutions used. The result is a series of conversations about features, rounds, fillets and chamfers. Business operations focus on financially rela
7、ted concerns such as margin, contribution and profit. The language of the business is time and money. It is no secret that the profit motive drives critical company decisions. It is also no secret that the ability for the product to achieve the expected financial goals is driven by design and manufa
8、cturing decisions that occur early in, and continually throughout, the product delivery process. The holy grail of collaboration is meaningless if the parties are not speaking a common language. The only way to translate the language of engineering into the language of business is cost, specifically
9、, product cost. Total cost management Major PLM and MCAD providers long for acceptance and penetration outside of engineering departments at the same time that the major enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors strive to enter the engineering and product delivery arena. In each of these applicatio
10、n platforms, PLM and ERP, cost can be managed. On the ERP side, costs are always historical; these costs are available to be managed only after production. While it is more difficult to manage costs on the PLM side of the house, it is often potentially more valuable. The need for real-time, predicti
11、ve costs are essential to allow design and manufacturing teams to avoid and eliminate costs early in the process, when critical cost-driving decisions are made.Currently the array of MCAD, PLM and ERP applications do not allow for the ability to generate this early cost knowledge. Extending beyond t
12、he design engineering value, accurate product cost estimates offload the estimating burden from manufacturing engineers and planners who already are challenged with demanding production schedules, decreasing capital investment and a dwindling experience base. Additionally, predictive cost assessment
13、s offer procurement and sourcing professionals much needed should cost data to make better, more efficient sourcing decisions while negotiating from a fact-based position. Finally, program and project management both benefit from real-time visibility to product cost information continually throughou
14、t the product development and delivery process, avoiding the sudden shock of bad news late in the process. Product cost knowledge is the common language spoken across the enterprise and is clearly focused on the business goals (as opposed to parochial product or feature-oriented goals) that reduce c
15、osts, increase margins and contribution, drive profits and support growth. AACE, the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, stated, Most people would agree that engineers and engineering or, more generally, the application of scientific principles and techniques are most often responsi
16、ble for creating functional things or strategic assets total cost manag ement. The organization acknowledged that industrial engineering has multiple dimensions. The calculation and analysis of tasks performed to support physical design are critical elements in cost estimating and good decision maki
17、ng. There are other important dimensions of money, timeand other resources that are invested in the creation of the designed asset, asserted John K. Hollmann, an AACE technical board member. Cost engineering and total cost management require that a professional must estimate the potential cost, dete
18、rmine the activities needed to design and build a product, as well as estimate how long these activities will take. Thomas Charkiewicz, president of MTI Systems, noted, Many of the worlds largest and most successful manufacturing. organizations utilize technology and lean methodologies to identify p
19、art cost reduction opportunities throughout the product development lifecycle, leading to millions of dollar. In cost savings. Companies must be able to quickly and easily identify the cost drivers in the products they design, manufacture and procure. Competitive-edge cost estimating To generate sav
20、ings and efficiency, original equipment manufacturers are looking at more than market-priced quotes from suppliers. They are learning the real cost of manufactured products. Solutions must allow designers and engineers to see quickly and accurately the real time and cost to make parts any place in t
21、he world, whether in-house or by a supplier. Companies must be able to justify to suppliers the prices one expects to pay. Ninety percent of industrial engineering organizations report using a spreadsheet as the central or primary method for cost estimation. The results are poorly bid jobs that resu
22、lt in lost business or jobs that deliver a lower margin than predicted. The amount of waste can be measured in time, labor, duplicative data entry and introduction of errors. Spreadsheets are the least lean method of cost estimation. An industry wide survey of more than 10,000 job shops nationwide r
23、egarding the effect that cost estimating has on business revealed that: Ninety-three percent have added a fudge factor to quotes because they were unsure of the pricing estimate accuracy. Seventy-nine percent have not responded to a request for quote because they did not have time to quote by the st
24、ated deadline. Seventy-one percent have customers requesting pricing justification, including a detailed cost breakout, when submitting a quote. Sixty-four percent of the respondents said their company has lost jobs because of overestimating what their costs would be to make a part during the quotin
25、g process. Ninety-three percent believed their company has lost money on a job because the actual cost of manufacturing the part was more than estimated. The majority of manufacturing organizations have no idea how impactful cost estimating is to their bottom line, Charkiewicz said. Most believe the
26、ir current system of estimating, usually a spreadsheet with numbers generated from experience, is working fine. However, those companies that take the time to analyze this method quickly discover the inefficiencies spreadsheets present when compared to database-driven tools that are designed specifi
27、cally for cost estimating. Companies need to be able to estimate product costs quickly, accurately and with consistency. Purchase-part cost savings To perform a real cost estimate, it is necessary to break down both the time to manufacture a part and the cost of labor or shop rate of the supplier. M
28、anufacturing times are generated through process and/or parametric estimating methods, and labor rates also must be carefully calculated. Estimators can analyze quickly how various manufacturing processes, tooling types and material changes will affect production time and cost. Technology solutions
29、must produce complete, detailed process plans, specifying the necessary set-up, tooling, machine times and more. The result of such efficiencies is a lean manufacturing plan that increases productivity and profitability. Whether a formal or information lean initiative is utilized, the ability to eva
30、luate whether a part can be made more cost effectively in house or by a supplier is critical. Industrial. engineers must have the analytical tools to know in-house capabilities versus those of suppliers. Only with these data can the cost-effective decision be made about whether to make or buy a part
31、. Reducing new design costs Side-by-side manufacturing time and cost comparisons based on part features or material changes allow design engineers to create the most functional yet cost-effective design of a new part. Discrete-part manufacturing companies are experiencing a demanding and difficult c
32、ombination of price pressure from customers, rising costs (internally and from vendors), international competition and income growth pressure from investors. Cost of goods sold has become an increasingly important metric as the largest expense item on the income statement; typically 70 percent to 90
33、 percent of revenue. Manufacturers are forced to focus on product cost and profit margins with renewed vigor. Cost targets, an important component of design-to-cost strategies, now are being defined early and with greater granularity, even down to the individual component level. Meeting these detail
34、ed cost targets at product launch (avoiding expensive, lengthy post-production cost reduction phases) is a new challenge, and manufacturers are struggling to find effective systems and tools to assist in this effort. New product introduction (NPI) refers to the complete business process within an or
35、ganization for introducing new products or product models to market. Todays NPI process is a cross-functional business process, including both internal functions and external suppliers or partners. Most manufacturers still are struggling to break the historical functional divisions or silos, notably
36、 between marketing, engineering, manufacturing and procurement. These struggles continue to exist because important product, process and customer information still is trapped in these functions, emerging only at serial release stages or gates. Product costs (material, direct labor, direct overhead a
37、nd tooling) and target costs (the costs that must be met to meet key business objectives) are key components and information central to the product development teams daily decisions. It is important that the NPI process includes mechanisms for providing information in a continuously refined and upda
38、ted manner as the project moves from conception through product launch to delivery. Cost estimating methods are characterized by incremental and offline operation as follows: Intuitive: based on the experience of the estimator Analogical: based on similar sets or systems Parametric: based on paramet
39、ers characterizing the product without describing it completely Analytical: based on a decomposition of the work required into elementary tasks The ability to model production facilities, including machine capabilities, raw materials and facility cost structure, and the specific cost accounting meth
40、ods allow forwardlooking, real-time cost estimates. This cost information leverages existing information and data systems in a single cost platform, captures company specific costing practices, and makes this information available across the enterprise and accessible by any user in the organization.
41、 Some methods are better than others depending on the context and stage in the product development process. There is a trade-off that exists between the level of cost detail and the time spent obtaining the cost information. Detailed analytical costing systems require knowledge of a wide array of ma
42、nufacturing parameters and are suited for use only in a cost estimating department. Such systems will not suit the needs of a designer, engineer or procurement professional since they rarely have the time or knowledge base to perform cost estimation at this detailed level. Practical costing in the p
43、roduct design phase must be accurate, flexible, simple, timely and economical. There must be a present and clear relationship between the designers decision and costs. Currently most manufacturers have the information needed to provide adequate and effective cost collaboration scattered across the o
44、rganization. It is very difficult to cascade timely information across departments. The knowledge to synthesize the many pieces of the cost puzzle often resides with a few cost experts in the organization, and they often do not have enough time to meet the needs of their many constituents. Discrete-
45、part manufacturing companies are looking for ways to streamline their NPI processes through improved product cost management and control. A solution is required to provide seamless cost analysis from early concept design through development, manufacturing planning, procurement sourcing, pilot produc
46、tion and on to full production and delivery after product launch. After completion of the NPI process, the team must support sales and service and engineering change in response to field problems. 译文 成本的语言 资料来源 : industrial engineer:IE 作者： 汤马斯 北美的制造业陷入了困境，因为公司受到了越来越大的挑战，要求准时运送优质的产品和制定价格的产品。这些功能必定能履行
47、并且管理赢利能力，然后发展一个需求量很高的市场。 通过计算机辅助设计和产品生命周期管理系统观察的产品扇形数据。权威人士分析，计算机辅助设计和产品生命周期管理的市场有段成熟期但是又趋于饱和，结果将又会失去一个很好的机会。自 1980 年后，计算机辅助设计就没有更加有意义的发展。行业改变只仅限于“给予形体特征实体造型”的模式 ，但现在已经变为一个整体，因为所有竞争者都在一个比赛场地。 产品生命周期管理市场由于一些原因表现不佳，它的理论大家都知道，但是很多公司都没有做到位，长此以往，成本超过了期望，未能像事先承诺的进行交货。 一个最主要的失败的理由是内在的一个关系，脱节的目标管理和公司的财务基础上的
48、业务目标的矛盾。最好的例子就是工程之间的语言和鲜明的商业语言的差异。 计算机辅助设计和产品生命周期管理在历史上都集中在产品配送的工程和设计方面。该工程由它们的语言都是基于物理属性的产品及所用的软件所具备解决方案的技术能力。 商业行动的重 点，如保证金、财政贡献和利润有关的一系列问题。该业务的语言是时间和金钱。总所周知，利润驱动着企业的决策。毫无疑问，事先预期的财务目标主要取决于它事先的设计和制造决策。在很久之前，这些决策就已经出现在产品交付的过程中。 假如当事人不说共同语言，那么合作是无意义的，然而“产品成本”是唯一能转化为商业语言的工程语言。 总成本管理 当计算机辅助设计和产品生命周期管理系
49、统的供应商渴望验收的同时，工程部以外的一些企业像企业资源规划供应商也力争进入工程与产品交付的舞台。在上述的各种应用平台中，通过产品生命周期管理和企业 资源规划系统，产品的成本是可以控制的。但分析资源规划系统，它的成本都是历史成本，这些花费都是产生于生产之后。但产品生命周期管理下，它的潜在价值比较高。对于实时需求，预测成本是必要的，以便设计和制造团队避免一些不必要的成本。当前以上这三个系统在应用阵列不允许成本的浪费。 当超出设计的工程应用价值延伸的时候，当制造工程师和划则者对于苛刻的生产计划提出质疑。准确的产品成本估算应该从减少资本投资，并减少经验为基础去估算。 此外，预测评估提供了采购成本和采购急需的专业人才，还有那些“应该成本”的数据。以便做出一个更好 ，更有效的采购决策，以一个事实为基础的谈判立场。 最后，方案和项目管理无论从实时性还是可视性方面去看有利于产品的成本信息，不断在产品开发和交付过程中，避免了一些坏消息，避免了一些问题。 产品成本的认识是共同的语言，整个企业明确地专注于业务目标（而不是狭隘的产品或功能为导向的目标），这有利于降低成
