Value Engineering

How do we define our consulting approach?

In the last 20 years BERODE has intensively dealt with many concepts, approaches, methods and procedures for the reduction of product costs available on the market and has tried them out in a multitude of projects. Be it the classical value analysis according to VDI, target price analyses from the automotive industry, parametric cost estimations, system thinking or other disruptive optimisation approaches.

 

What can you expect from BERODE?

The expectation of our customers to fulfil high cost reductions in relation to the current series has risen strongly in the last years. In mechanical and plant engineering it is often minus 30 – 40 % in agricultural and construction machinery industry minus 10 %.

 

What are our success factors?

For this reason, we have defined the success factors for such project goals based on our experience and built our value engineering approach on them.

The following are among the key success factors:

  • A well-prepared initial situation, consisting of 3D models, priced parts lists and specifications and a first rough estimate of achievable cost reduction targets.
  • The commitment of all employees involved as well as the management and divisional management to achieve the cost optimization goal and to allow degrees of freedom in case of changes.
  • The product must be evaluated by means of cost analysis (independent of current purchase prices) in order to provide cost drivers and initial indications for an optimization strategy.
  • The development of a functional structure of the product results in a common understanding of the product and takes the identification of new solution ideas to another level.
  • Know-how and experience brought in from outside enrich the solution finding process and provide impulses that have not been known in the company before.
  • All new solution concepts are immediately evaluated by means of cost analysis in order to verify the right optimization strategy at an early stage and to avoid reactive power.
  • The implementation of the optimization concept must be accompanied by a consultant or employees assigned for this purpose. There is a very high risk that the motivation to further implement the concept will decrease. In addition, during the implementation process, lost potential can be compensated for by developing new ideas.

Taking these success factors into account, embedded in a comprehensive value engineering concept, we were able to achieve the goals agreed upon at the beginning of all our cost reduction projects. Frequently, product quality and product performance are also improved.

Our value engineering approach is based on three pillars

With our holistic approach, we consider the success factors in relation to the three relevant areas of engineering, procurement and manufacturing and thus include design, purchasing, production/assembly and quality in cost optimization.

ENGINEERING

  • Product value design and product cost optimization (value analysis)
  • Product function and performance optimization (QFD)
  • Product strategy and architecture
  • Platform strategies and component kits
  • Technology scouting, innovation management
  • CAD construction
  • FEM simulations
  • Topology optimization
  • Material laboratory (X-ray fluorescence analysis, paint thickness, hardness and roughness testing)

PROCUREMENT

  • Implementation of purchasing potential analyses and cost reduction initiatives
  • Development of purchasing and negotiation strategies
  • Optimization of the structural and process organization
  • Product group strategies and management
  • Supplier and risk management
  • Global Sourcing Initiatives
  • Procurement of complex material groups as well as prototypes and individual components on time and in the right quality
  • Delivery and acceptance of complete systems
  • Supplier auditing and development
  • Series Start-up Management
  • Structure of the quality management

MANUFACTURING

  • Development of manufacturing strategies
  • Establishment or development of the production organization (organizational structure)
  • Process design and optimization (process organization)
  • Warehouse and logistics optimization
  • Value stream analysis and design
  • Lean audits, lean management and lean production
  • Six Sigma and quality management
  • Production planning and control
  • Variant Management

Cost Estimating & Tear Down Studies

Transparency is the key, the basis, the foundation. No matter whether it is the development or optimization of products with precise target costs, the well-founded preparation and execution of price negotiations or the effective and efficient development of processes – transparency is the starting point.

What use are the boldest goals if we have no transparency about our initial situation? We will not be able to judge whether our goals are realistic, nor will we know which path to take to reach them.

For this reason, cost estimating is the basis, the foundation of our actions along the value chain at BERODE. No matter whether in target costing, price structure, product cost or process cost analysis: transparency of the cost structure is the key to success for us.

A prerequisite for a profound understanding of costs is a comprehensive knowledge of production technologies, necessary investments, processing times, material prices, markets, personnel costs, overhead cost structures as well as a differentiated know-how in the area of cost accounting.

We at BERODE can demonstrate all this in connection with years of experience and with the help of our own professional cost estimating software we can present and document the results at any time in an up-to-date, transparent and comprehensible way – down to the last detail.

Prototyping

At the beginning of the development phase of BERODE, we worked together with our customers on cost-efficient product solutions. Often, however, we found that the concepts were not implemented by our customers for various reasons, e.g. lack of design capacity, lack of project management or others. In this respect, we decided to support our customers during the design implementation up to the series launch in order to ensure that the identified potentials are implemented quickly.

In the course of these implementation projects we realized that the prototype phase is one of the longest parts of a project. It was therefore obvious to set up our own prototype workshop in order to be able to offer our customers the appropriate support for this task as well.

For about 6 years now we have been building prototypes and small series for various customers. These are mainly electromechanical assemblies, but also turned and milled parts as well as welded assemblies, plastic parts etc.

The advantage that we have gained in many projects as a result was a significant reduction in the prototype phase. This often enabled us to have installation samples available within a few days in order to test them.

Our available manufacturing processes include turning and milling, sheet metal working, MIG/MAG/WIG welding, 3D printing and painting.