Feature-based system for cost estimation in production networks

As customer demands become more and more individualised, also the process of providing estimates and tendering offers is becoming increasingly complicated. In the future, apart from technological feasibility, order placement will to a great extent depend on the bidder's ability to respond to individual customer requests. Automated pre-calculation of production times and costs is thus becoming more and more significant for the enterprises' profitability in terms of order placement within production networks. This paper introduces a paradigm based on integrated feature modeling, which permits a pre-estimation of production costs at the proposal stage in an automated and almost real-time manner.