Cost Estimating Methodology for Advanced Air Vehicles

Cognition proposes to develop a Process Analysis Tool Kit for Affordability (PATA) consisting of: Cost and Prodicibility knowledge bases for specific manufacturing processes such as composite hand lay-up, metal machining, sheet metal fabrication and or assembly; A commercial expert system such as Cognitions's Cost Advantage (CA) to deploy the knowledge bases; A cost methodology that addresses cost as a function of design and process flow. The innovative extensions will include: Simplicity of tool kit use by early stage design engineers; Traceability of costs to design feature and costing methodology; Demonstration of near real time costing; and Integration with commercial CAD (design) software.