Rule-based quotation costing of pressure die casting moulds

Abstract

An actual analysis in the tool and mould making sector showed that methods and programs insufficiently support the manufacturers of pressure die casting moulds in the quotation costing process. The primary aim of quotation costing is to generate many first-class bids in order to gain a high quantity of profitable orders. For this purpose companies have to achieve a high calculation precision with low expenditure. In addition, a comprehensible calculation is of great importance in order to enable an internal and external comparability and analysis as well as to permit the customer to assess the performance offered. In order to support companies of the tool and mould making concerning these matters, a working group from industry and science analyzed the quotation costing made by manufacturers of pressure die casting moulds. The article discusses the results of this analysis and describes the development of a rule-based calculation approach.The generation of first-class supplies is of special importance for enterprises of the tool and mould making sector since the fast submission of qualified offers represents the prerequisite for competitiveness [1]. At the same time, the calculation of an estimated price is, as a rule, carried out free of charge. For this reason, the creation expenditure of bids should not increase proportionally with the precision [2]. Apart from the demand for an effort-free creation with simultaneously high calculation quality, the qualitative representation of the performance profile represents another important task in the area of quotation costing. It is decisive for the success of a bid to communicate the competence of the company to the customer. A convincing technical description of the mould with logically presented costs supports an easy internal and external evaluation. It enables the customer to judge whether the offered conditions are superior to those of competitors regarding price and performance [3].Since present concepts and programs do not offer a sufficient solution for manufacturers of pressure die casting moulds, a working group consisting of 10 companies of the tool and mould making was founded in March 2007 at the Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools (IFW) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover. The group aims at analyzing the difficulties of quotation costing of pressure die casting moulds and developing a geometrybased quotation costing system. In order to develop this system, a method has to be found that renders possible to use the geometry information of the casting part for an accurate calculation.The following chapter shows the results of an analysis conducted by the working group regarding the quotation costing process of pressure die casting mould manufacturers. Furthermore, these results provide a basis to summarize the challenges of the quotation costing process of pressure mould producing companies.

Knowledge-based risk evaluation during the offer calculation of customised products

“…The existing information about the product does not match the final product specification in this early phase because the effort must correspond to the expected benefit. A detailed and comprehensive offer specification would imply rising financial and personnel costs for the enterprise because the creation of the offer is a nonpaid preparatory effort [15].…”

“…[15][16][17]). However, they are developed for variant products and therefore are too inflexible for individualised products.…”

“…Although the dependencies between the varying cost elements can be represented transparently, the estimation can be explained only by the experts. The approaches based on influencing factors and variables for the cost calculation [15,18,[37][38][39][40][41] show a good transparency. But the high complexity and the low flexibility of those models is often disadvantageous.…”

Neural Network-Based Model for Supporting the Expert Driven Project Estimation Process in Mold Manufacturing

“…The estimator's key competence is to properly collect and evaluate all significant information for making the project estimation successful. The contradiction lies in the fact that the estimator should spend minimal time necessary on estimation activity since usually less than 10% of all offers turn into orders in the mold making industry, as stated in [2] to [4].Estimations in the mold manufacturing business still rely heavily on intuitive methods, which are subjective and prone to reliability and repeatability problems. A solution for these problems is addressed in this article, with the development of a supported expert driven project estimation process.…”

“…The estimator's key competence is to properly collect and evaluate all significant information for making the project estimation successful. The contradiction lies in the fact that the estimator should spend minimal time necessary on estimation activity since usually less than 10% of all offers turn into orders in the mold making industry, as stated in [2] to [4].…”