ABSTRACT
Among the most important indicators of the success of an engineering enterprise are the profit achieved and the return on investment. Therefore, economic considerations play a very important role in the decision-making processes that govern the design of a system. It is generally not enough to make a system technically feasible and to obtain the desired quality of the product. The costs incurred must be taken into account to make the effort economically viable. It is necessary to find a balance between the product quality and the cost, since the product would not sell at an excessive price even if the quality were exceptional. For a given item, there is obviously a limit on the price that the market will bear. As discussed in Chapter 1, the sales volume decreases with an increase in the price. Therefore, it is important to restrain the costs even if this means some sacrifice in the product quality. However, in some applications, the quality is extremely important and much higher costs are acceptable, as is the case, for instance, in racing cars, rocket engines, satellites, and defense equipment. Similarly, a poorquality product at a low price is not acceptable. The key aspect here is finding a proper balance between the quality and cost for a given application.
