Modern Cost Engineering

Frank Weinert, a graduate engineer, has more than 35 years' experience in cost engineering, purchasing, production and controlling in virtually all sectors of the manufacturing industry. He studied production engineering in Cologne and began his career as a trainee at Ford-Werke AG, where he was responsible for purchasing a wide range of product groups. He worked for Autoeuropa, the then joint venture between VW and Ford, in Portugal from 1994 to 1996. As Senior Buyer, he sourced the first navigation systems from a supplier and helped produce the Escort convertible. In his final years at Ford, he worked extensively on product cost analysis, leading to significant price reductions. After 10 years at Ford, he became self-employed and founded costdata GmbH. The company went on to develop the standard software, costdata® calculation, and other software programs for cost engineering, purchasing, controlling, development and production. The costdata® market data is the world's largest cost database and contains the latest prices for all product cost estimates and competitiveness analyses. Frank Weinert has been responsible for over 600 cost reduction and calculation projects, as well as setting up and developing cost engineering departments. He developed a method for controlled profit maximisation which costdata GmbH implements as a controlling instrument in companies. He is a guest lecturer at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences and heads the Institute for Cost Engineering, which aims to raise awareness of cost engineering principles and thereby improve the efficiency of all manufacturing industries.

With a focus on growth and constant market changes, costdata has developed the world's largest cost database. Through continuous research of market prices, costdata can achieve an average cost saving of 12% for its clients using its database. In this book, you will learn everything you need to know about what modern cost engineering means in practical application to keep your company competitive in the long term. By the time you reach the end of this book, you will be familiar with specific cost engineering key figures that you can immediately integrate into your strategy development and implementation. You will gain insights into tools, organisational structures, and leadership practices that enable sustainable economic results, such as optimising operating costs, increasing efficiency and maximising return on investment.