A cost estimation model for advanced manufacturing systems

As manufacturers continue to automate their factories, they discover that existing cost measures should be updated. Much of the existing literature has discussed the ‘why’s’ but there is little about the ‘how’s’. This paper expands the cost concept to include quality and flexibility because they are critical factors for performance evaluation and project justification of advanced manufacturing systems. Then, a quantitative method of estimating the cost elements is illustrated. Finally, various approaches to collecting parametric values of the cost model and applications of the cost model are presented.