Engineering Effort Estimation for Product Development Projects

Cost estimation is an essential process for gaining competitive advantage in the bidding phase of every project. Besides, cost estimates are also vital for effective project control. For product development projects engineering hours is the main cost item and hence estimating engineering hours for potential product development projects is an important task. In this paper a case study, which is carried out at one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of tracked and wheeled armored vehicles and weapon systems for the Turkish and Allied Armed Forces, is presented. In the company, currently there is no structured method for this purpose. The aim of this study is to create a method for estimating design engineering hours for potential projects based on available past data. Regression tree and k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) algorithm using Attribute Weighted Value Difference Metric methods are used for this purpose and the results are reported and discussed.