On the 30th of September and the 1st of October the 20th EACE workshop took place at the ESTEC office in Noordwijk. EACE stands forEuropean Aerospace Working Group on Cost Engineering.The theme of this meeting is “Cost Engineering for Cost-effective Programmes”. Off course this theme stands for what the EACE is practicing, but they also embrace the possibility to review and discuss cost engineering in a wider perspective. ThereforeMr. Ko des Bouvrie, Technical Director, of Cost Engineering Consultancy was invited to give a presentation about cost engineering related to the petrochemical industry.
Cost engineering in the aerospace industry is based on parametric cost engineering and has a much more scientific approach. When you look at cost engineering in aerospace vs. the petrochemical industry you will notice that the basic principles they use are the same, but they are applied in a different way. The biggest similarity is MONEY, it is all about that! Although the appliance is different, there is also a parallel to be discovered. As well as in aerospace and in off-shore weight is an important factor in estimating costs.
The main difference is that in petrochemical cost engineering compared to the aerospace industry cost control is already on a higher level and plays an important role in the whole process. When you look at the 30%, 20% and 10% accuracy estimations, the information that is being revealed during the process of cost control is used as input to further increase the accuracy of the data used to compile an estimate.
This was an eye-opener and a lively discussion arises. From this vision even a new working group is formed to further mature cost control in the aerospace business, initialized by Mr. H. Jummier,Head of the Cost Engineering Office,of the ESA.The purpose of this working group is to write a white paper about the role of Cost Engineering/Cost Analyis in containing the cost growth and schedule slippage of major projects.
The main conclusion drawn: “Cost engineering is no rocket science”, keep it simple!
