Design-to-Cost

About

In today’s competitive market, cost efficiency must start at the design stage. Our Design-to-Cost service helps organizations optimize product costs without compromising performance, quality, or innovation.

Through a structured approach combining Product Teardown, Should-Costing, and Value Engineering, we uncover design and sourcing opportunities that drive measurable cost reductions and improve product value across the lifecycle.

We partner with cross-functional teams to integrate cost awareness early in the design process — enabling smarter decision-making, faster time-to-market, and improved profitability.

Benefits

Early Cost Visibility
Identify and influence cost drivers before production begins, ensuring maximum impact.

Data-Driven Decision Making
Use detailed cost insights and benchmarks to guide design and sourcing choices.

Sustainable Cost Reduction
Achieve lasting efficiency improvements through structured teardown and cost analysis.

Enhanced Product Value
Maintain or improve product performance while minimizing unnecessary cost.

Cross-Functional Alignment
Strengthen collaboration between Engineering, Procurement, and Supply Chain functions for holistic cost optimization.

Our approach

Product Teardown
We conduct detailed product disassembly to analyze components, materials, and manufacturing processes.
This provides insights into:

  • Cost reduction opportunities

  • Competitive benchmarking

  • New product development

Each teardown includes full documentation (photos, measurements, and Bill of Materials) to support engineering and sourcing decisions.

Should-Costing
Our should-cost analysis builds a transparent understanding of what a product should cost.
Through bottom-up modeling, we benchmark against market data to identify saving opportunities and support commercial negotiations.
Key activities include:

  • Benchmark analysis

  • Design-to-cost assessment

  • Make-or-buy evaluation

  • Target costing and supplier negotiations

Value Engineering
We apply systematic methods to enhance product value by balancing function, performance, and cost.
Working in multidisciplinary teams, we identify design simplifications, material alternatives, and process efficiencies.
Our value engineering process includes:

  • Functional and cost analysis

  • Concept development

  • Validation and implementation

  • Documentation and handover