Saturday, April 7, 2012

Value Analysis: Construction Cost (of a car, etc.)

A car Primary Function is to carry passengers and load from one point to another;  it has however many Secondary demanded Functions, such as its comfort, safety, etc.  The combination of all functions (weighted according to their relative importance for its user) expresses its "Quality" (on its user point of view).
A car Cost encompasses its manufacturing cost, its running cost, etc.
 To adress the user's Quality demand at the lowest possible Cost, the designer combines a number of elements, such as engine(s), seats, wheels, etc.  Assembling and properly linking these elements bear a cost, labelled the Construction Cost.
The same Construction Cost occurs when the employees of a service company spend time and expenses to internally communicate:  there is a Construction Cost to fulfilling the Functions demanded by a user of the service company.
 Although such construction costs can hardly be avoided, by themselves they do not serve the demanded Functions. a fact the product or service designer should remain aware of!

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