Cost360™: Enterprise-wide Cost Modeling Tracking and Sensitivity Analyses

The inability of acquisition programs to effectively manage costs and curb cost growth has historically produced cost over-runs. One key reason for this cost escalation is the lack of total visibility into all the sources of cost within the enterprise. What is needed for “total cost knowledge” are accurate cost models that are integrated with the various business and engineering applications (e.g. ERP/ERM, PDM/PLM) in the enterprise. This SBIR project is concerned with developing methods and tools that maximize knowledge of total cost, enable cost sensitivity analysis, and facilitate interoperability and automatic integration of cost models with other enterprise applications including business systems and dependent model elements (such as mechanical part models with related material models and associated manufacturing process models) as part of a model-based enterprise. Phase I of this effort established a generic framework for weapon system lifecycle cost modeling and a cost modeling tool prototype. Phase II of this effort selects a set of commonly used commercial cost management applications and develops a methodology to integrate cost information from these applications into the generic cost modeling framework. It further develops and demonstrates prototype application software with the commercial cost management applications.