Designing for cost In an aerospace company

Abstract

Companies take different approaches, and achieve different degrees of implementation, in designing products for cost. This thesis discusses Target Costing and its application at The Boeing Company. Target Costing is a design for cost framework that is widely used by auto manufacturers, but is still less widely used in the aerospace industry. This thesis observes the current state at The Boeing Company and provides recommendations for full implementation of Target Costing. Through research into best practices at companies that have implemented Target Costing, this thesis identifies five key enablers: culture, organizations involved, process, tools, and market. Additionally, this thesis discusses a potential barrier to implementation: organizational politics. Based on a project to implement a price visibility tool and on three value engineering case studies, this thesis identifies The Boeing Company's state relative to full scale Target Costing and provides recommendations for The Boeing Company to achieve full implementation of Target Costing through the use of the five key enablers.