Engineering Economics

Chapter 2

Engineering Costs and Cost Estimating

 COSTS

• Fixed and Variable

• Marginal and average
• Direct and Indirect
• Sunk and Opportunity
• Recurring and Non-recurring
• Incremental
• Cash and Book
• Life-Cycle

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 COSTS
• Fixed Costs
They are constant or unchanging regardless of the level of
output or activity
– e.g. Costs for factory floor space stays the same regardless of the
production quantity, number of employees, and the level of work-in-
process.
• Variable Costs
They vary with the level of output or activity
– e.g. Labor costs since they depend on the number of employees

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 COSTS
• Marginal Cost
The variable cost for one more unit
– Used to decide whether the additional unit should be made, purchased,
or enrolled in.
• Average Cost
The total cost divided by the number of units
– Used to attain an overall cost picture of the investment on a per unit
basis.

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 Example
• A university charges students a fixed cost for 12 to
18 hours and a cost per credit hour for each credit
hour over 18 (page 28)
– Variable cost for students taking > 18 hours.
– If a student is enrolled for 12-17 hours, adding one more is free; i.e. the
marginal cost is $0
– If a student is taking 18 hours, then the marginal cost equals the
variable cost of one more hour.
– Cost of 12 to 18 hours is $1800. Overload credits cost $120/hour.
12 hours 18 hours 21 credits
Average cost $150 $100 102.86
Marginal cost $0 $120 $120

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 COSTS

• Total cost = Total fixed cost + Total variable cost

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 Example 2-1
• DK is thinking of chartering a bus to take people to an
event in a large city. He is providing transportation, tickets
to the event, and refreshments on the bus. He predicted the
following expenses:
Bus rental $80 Event ticket $12.5 per person
Gas expense $75 Refreshments $ 7.5 per person
Other fuels $20
Bus driver $50

Total fixed costs and total variable costs?

►Fixed costs will be incurred regardless of how many people sign up for the
trip. Total fixed costs = 80 + 75 + 20 + 50 = $225.
►Variable costs depends on how many people sign up for the trip.
Total variable costs = 12.50 + 7.50 = $20 per person

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 Example 2-2
• Develop a formula for the total cost and evaluate the
potential to make money from the trip. DK believes that he
could attract 30 people at $35 per ticket.
Total cost = total fixed cost + total variable cost
Total cost = $225 + 20x x = number of people on the trip
Total revenue = (ticket price)(x) = 35x

Total profit = (Total revenue) – (Total costs) = 35x − (225 + 20x)

= 15x − 225
At x = 30
Total profit = 35× 30 − (225 + 20 × 30) = $225

So, if 30 people go for the trip, DK will make a net profit of $225

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 Example
• In the chartered bus example, find the number of people at
which costs and revenues are equal
Total cost = total revenue
225 + 20x = 35x
X = 15 people

x = 15 is the point that divides the regions into profit or loss.

If x > 15 , DK will make money
If x < 15, DK will lose money

x = 15 is called the breakeven point.

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Breakeven chart for DK chartered bus
1200

1000
Total revenue
y = 35x
800

Total cost
600
Cost

y = 20x + 225

400

200
Breakeven
point
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Customers

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 Sunk Costs
• Money already spent as a result of a past decision.
• Should be disregarded in our engineering economic analysis
(because current decision cannot change the past)
• As economists, we deal with present and future opportunities
Example
Share prices declined from $15 to $10 over the last 12 months.
 The $15 is a sunk cost that has no influence on present opportunities
 Current decisions must focus on the current price ($10), as well as
the future price potential.
Example
Laptop for $2000 three years ago. Nowadays, the most that anyone
would pay you for the laptop is $400.
 The $2000 is a sunk cost that has no influence on your present

opportunity to sell the laptop

 The $400 is called the current market value.
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 Opportunity Cost

• It is the benefit that is forgone by engaging a business

resource in a chosen activity instead of engaging that same
resource in the forgone activity.
(A business resource can be equipment, money, manpower, or any other resource)

Example
Friends invited you to Europe. You calculated the cost of the 10-week
trip to be $3000. You have the money and decided to go.
 By taking the trip, you give up the opportunity to earn $5000 as a
summer intern.
 True cost = $3000 + opportunity cost of $5000 = $8000

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 Example 2-3
A distributor purchased a lot of old pumps 3 years ago. Newer pumps
are now available in the market due to advances made in technology.
Comment
– Purchase price 3 yrs ago $ 7,000 - Sunk cost
– Storage costs to date $ 1,000 - Sunk cost
– Distributor's list price 3 yrs ago $ 9,500 - Too old
– Current list price of new pumps $12,000 - Misleading
– Amount offered for the old - Forgone
pumps 2 yrs ago $ 5,000 opportunity
– Current price the old pumps
would bring $ 3,000 - Market value

Pricing manager’s opinion: $8000 (to at least recover the cost)

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 Recurring and Nonrecurring Costs
• Recurring Costs
– Costs referring to any expense that is known, anticipated, and
occurs at regular intervals.
– Modeled as cash flows that occur at regular intervals.
– e.g. resurfacing a highway, annual operation and maintenance
expenses
• Nonrecurring Costs
– One-of-a-kind expenses that occur at irregular intervals .
– Difficult to plan for or anticipate from a budgeting perspective, both
in terms of timing and size.
– You don’t need to worry about paying them again and again.
– e.g. fire or theft losses, installing a new machine, emergency
maintenance expenses, moving expenses.

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 Incremental Costs

• When making a choice among competing

alternatives, focus should be placed on the differences
between those alternatives, i.e. incremental costs, not
on the costs that are the same.

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 Example
What incremental costs would you incur if you chose model B
instead of the less expensive model A? Model B has more
features and a higher purchase price.
Cost Items Model A Model B Incremental
Cost of B

Purchase price $10,000 $17,500 $7,500

Installation cost $3,500 $5,000 $1,500
Annual maintenance cost $2,500 $750 $-1,750/yr
Annual utility expense $1,200 $2,000 $800/yr
Disposal cost after useful life $700 $500 $-200

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 Cash Costs versus Book Costs
Cash Costs
•A cash cost requires the cash transaction of dollars
“out of one person’s pocket” into “the pocket of
someone else”.
–i.e. you are incurring a cash cost or cash flow.
–Cash costs and cash flows are the basis for
engineering economic analysis

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 Cash Costs versus Book Costs
Book Costs
They are cost effects from past decisions that are recorded in in
the books (accounting books). They are costs reflected in the
accounting system only.
Don’t represent cash flows
Not included in the engineering economic analysis

Example: You might use Edmond’s Used Car Guide to

conclude the book value of your car is $6,000. The
book value can be thought of as the book cost. If you
actually sell the car to a friend for $5,500, then the
cash cost to your friend is $5,500.

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 Life-Cycle Costs
• Similar to humans; goods, products, and services designed by
engineers progress through a life cycle.

Typical Life Cycle

1. Needs definition
2. Conceptual design
3. Detailed design
4. Production
5. Operation use
6. Decline and retirement

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 Life-Cycle Costs
• Life-cycle costing: Refers to the concept of designing products,
goods, and services with a full and explicit recognition of the
associated costs over the various phases of their life cycles.
• Engineers should consider all life-cycle costs when designing
products and the systems that produce them.
• Life-cycle cost: It is the summation of all costs related to a
product, structure, system, or service during its life span. All
amounts are expressed in dollars and they must be time
equivalent.
• This time-equivalency is important because a dollar today is
worth more than a dollar next year because of the interest
(profit) it can earn.

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 Cumulative life-cycle costs committed and dollars spent
100%

Life-Cycle Costs Committed

80%
Note:
Total Life Cycle Cost

70-90% of all costs are

set during the design
60% phases. At the same time
only 10-30% of
cumulative life-cycle
costs have been spent
40%

Life-Cycle Costs Spent

20%

0%

Project Phase

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 Life-Cycle Costs

• Two key concepts in life-cycle costing

–The later design changes are made, the higher
the costs
–Decisions made early in the life cycle tend to
lock in costs that are incurred later.

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 Life-Cycle Design Change Costs and Ease of Change
High
Ease or Cost of Change

Ease of Changing
Design

Cost of Design
Changes

Low

Note:
Downstream changes
vs. upstream changes
Project Phase

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 Costs Estimating

• Difficult because future is unknown

• It is the foundation of economic analysis

–If poor data are used, the analysis will be grossly
inaccurate – no matter how detailed your
economic analysis was. This means that it is
crucial to make careful estimates.
–In other words: The outcome is only as good as
the quality of the numbers used.

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 Costs Estimating
Three Types of Estimate:

Rough Estimate Semidetailed Estimate Detailed Estimate

For high-level planning. For budgeting purposes at a Used during the detailed
To determine the project’s conceptual or design and contract
macrofeasibility. preliminary design stages. bidding phases
Used in a project’s initial Accuracy is -15% to +20% Made from detailed
planning phases. quantitative models,
Accuracy is -30% to +60%. blueprints, product
specification sheets, and
vendor quotes
Accuracy is -3% to +5%

The more detailed you are, the more resources (people, time, money) you will need. So, be
careful to justify the resources you spent (e.g. detailed estimate for unfeasible alternatives!)

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 Estimating Models
• Per-Unit Model
• Segmenting Model
• Cost indexes
• Power-sizing Model

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 Estimating Models

Per-Unit Model
• Uses a per unit factor (e.g. cost per square meter)
• Commonly used in the construction industry
• Other examples: Gasoline cost per 1 km or how many km
per 1L of gas

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 Estimating Models

Segmenting Model
• Estimate is segmented into its individual
components
• Then the estimates are aggregated back together.

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 Cost Indexes
• Cost indexes are dimensionless numerical values
that reflect historical change in costs.

Cost at time A = Index value at time A

Cost at time B Index value at time B

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 Example 2-7
Miriam is interested in estimating the annual labor and material
costs for a new production facility. She obtained the following
data:
• Labor costs:
– Labor cost index value was 124 ten years ago and is 188 today
– Annual labor costs for a similar facility were $575,500 ten years ago
• Material costs
– Material cost index value was at 544 three years ago and is 715 today
– Annual material costs for a similar facility were $2,455,000 three years
ago

Annual Cost today = Index value today

Annual cost 10 yrs ago Index value 10 yrs ago
Annual cost today = (188/124) x ($575,500) = $871,800

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 Power-Sizing Model
• Used to estimate the costs of industrial plants and equipment
• It scales up or scales down costs
– Would it cost twice as much to build the same facility with double the
capacity → It is unlikely
x
Cost of equipment A = Size or capacity of equipment A
Cost of equipment B Size or capacity of equipment B

If x=1 → linear cost-size relationship

Where x is the power-sizing exponent If x>1 → diseconomies of scale
Usually x<1 → economies of scale

(Look at table 2-1 in your text for power-sizing exponent values)

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 Example 2-8
Miriam needs to estimate the cost of a 2500 ft2 heat exchange
system.
• $50,000 for a 1000 ft2 heat exchanger 5 yrs ago
• Power sizing exponent x = 0.55
• Five years ago cost index was 1306; it is 1487 today

Cost of 2500 ft2 equipment = 2500 ft20.55

Cost of 1000 ft2 equipment 1000 ft2

Cost of the 2500 ft2 equipment (five yrs ago) = 2500

0.55 × 50,000 = $82,800
1000
Equipment cost today = $82,800 × 1487 = $94,300
1306

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 Estimating Benefits
• An important part of the economic analysis that should not
be overlooked
• Similar to concepts and models used in estimating costs
• Benefits are more likely to be overestimated while costs
are more likely to be underestimated
• Benefits continue in the future while costs are incurred in
the near future

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 Cash Flow Diagrams (CFD)
• Costs & benefits of engineering products occur over time
– Use Cash Flow Diagram to represent them.
• CFD illustrates the size, sign, and timing of individual cash
flows.
• Use one perspective: One person’s cash outflow is another
person’s inflow

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