ABSTRACT
The future of Cost Engineering is bright and already here. The companies with the most efficient Cost Engineering organizations and tools will be the most competitive and successful companies of the future. Cost engineering can be such a powerful competitive advantage that others will simply not be able to keep up. Some might argue that their company does not have the budget for resources above and beyond their core functions. The honest answer is that cost engineering is a core function, whether you acknowledge it or not, and you better find the budget for it. Any company manufacturing any product must already cost optimize it in order to make money, some are just doing it better than others. A consumer is willing to pay only so much for any given product, which means that a cost target is automatically established. Developing a product that costs more than the target means eroding or completely wiping out profit, therefore the product must be cost optimized to the target or better. If your company is not doing this basic thing, then it should not and will not be in business.
