C-O-S-T: Cost Optimization System and Technique

  • 6h 8m
  • Craig Theisen
  • Business Expert Press
  • 2022

“What a great way to communicate technical information and keep the reader’s attention.” –James Bischoff, CEO BS&C Corp.

“The reader observes C-O-S-T in action as the leadership team at Defender Products, Inc. learns to integrate the system into their business.” –Mike Gallico, Vice President Human Resources, JAC Products, Inc.

Why do companies exert high effort to reduce the costs of products that are production? Because they can! Because unnecessary product costs were not removed during product development.

C-O-S-T, short for Cost Optimization System and Technique, details how a company’s product development teams, their supporting functions, and company leaders can optimize product costs before production starts and thereby maximize lifecycle profits.

Since product development teams determine product costs imparted to new products, much of the book details how these teams optimize product costs. The book also includes ways company leaders can create and sustain company-wide engagement in optimizing product costs and keeping the resulting increased profit margins.

The reader is entertained while observing a three-day workshop where executives of a fictitious company, Defender Products, Inc. are being taught the C-O-S-T system by its developers. The story flows like a business workshop with slides, dialog, and break-out sessions.

The content will benefit all companies that design, develop and manufacture products.

About the Author

Craig Theisen enjoyed 35 years in the highly competitive automotive parts supply business. His experiences in product development, research, sales, quality, general management, and product management had a common element – automakers wanted parts to meet their requirements, have high quality, and low, total cost. Recognizing these customer wants, Craig led the development of a system to optimize product costs during the product development phase, before the products went to production. The system resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of lifecycle cost being removed prior to production starting.

In this Book

  • Description
  • Introduction
  • The Executive Workshop Kickoff
  • Potential Impact of the C-O-S-T Approach
  • C-O-S-T Overview
  • Best Competitive Strategy
  • Cost of Goods Sold
  • High-Impact Value Stream
  • Eight Types of Waste
  • Optimized Cost of Goods Sold
  • Innovation Through Production
  • Engaged CEO, Top, and Middle Management
  • Product Development Team
  • Cost Optimization Manager
  • Dinner at Terra Nelore
  • Cost Optimization Manager
  • Cost Optimization Executive
  • Support Functions
  • Cost Optimization Workshop
  • Idea Implementation
  • Master Ideas List
  • Methods Benchmarking
  • Advancing the Benchmark
  • Dinner at Bill and Carla’s
  • Value Engineering
  • Cost Optimization Key Measures
  • Reports/Reviews
  • Margin Protection
  • Aligned Operating Expenses
  • C-O-S-T Training
  • C-O-S-T Maturation and Culture
  • Notes
  • References
  • Glossary
SHOW MORE
FREE ACCESS