Deploy (Re)Design-To-Value and design-to-Cost

Design-To-Cost, long considered as a technician’s operation, is now part of the toolbox of cost control and value creation tools of the quasi-total manufacturing leadership teams. Resulting from the Value Analysis, this process gives rise to the development of multiple variants and extensions, the most convincing being undoubtedly the ReDesign-To-Cost.

Our experience of more than 30 years allows us to adapt to the new requirements of markets that have seen Design-To-Cost expand into other fields of application:

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  1. Design-To-MarketTo reduce/secure the release schedule of a new product on the market
  2. Design-To-WeightTo reduce/master the weight of the product (Aeronautics, Defence, Automotive, etc.).
  3. Design-To-Value and Cost
    To bring additional perceived value and strengthen a product’s competitive position in its segment
  4. Design-To-PerformanceTo increase the performance of a product at minimum to iso costs
  5. Design-To-Total Cost of OwnershipTo optimize the costs of the entire product life cycle by integrating maintenance costs (Maintenance in MCO Operational Conditions / Preventive Maintenance, after-sales service, depending on the field of application) or Lean Engineering to optimize resources and development planning.

    In addition to these various names, it is essential to choose the Design-To-Cost approach adapted to your competition challenges.

Our 1,600 DtC and RDtC missions give us the hindsight and confidence to define a relevant and customized approach that responds to your needs according to context and issues.

A response to your needs on new products for:

  • Compete several concepts and guide your choices
  • Develop a new competitive product to animate/energize your product range
  • Give yourself every chance to win a Call for Tenders and this in a very short time
  • Secure the launch schedule of a new product
  • Stand out from the competition with innovative solutions

A response to your needs on existing products for :

  • Increase your operating margins and win new market shares
  • Adapt product design to new sales projections
  • Adding value for the customer through innovative developments
  • Develop standardized technological bricks or modules

Involving as early as possible all the actors who define the need and formulate the technical responses makes it possible to obtain convincing results

Design-To-Cost advocates a vision of integration, seeking savings by aligning with the right customer need. Simultaneous engineering breaks the implicit distribution of roles where resources dedicated to product design are concerned with customer value, while cost control is the responsibility of Supply Chain actors.

This approach makes it possible to activate the levers of specifications, product design and its industrialization in the broad sense to tackle all the direct costs of a product.

Unlike most Cost Killing techniques, (Re)Design-To-Cost has the advantage of preserving or even improving the value perceived by the customer

Our teams are the players in the creation or restoration of product competitiveness by fully activating the levers of cost reduction and innovation

Our methodology in 7 steps :

  1. Set systematically ambitious objectivesIn consultation with the Project Manager or General Management, ambitious but achievable goals should be set in advance for any (Re)Design-To-Cost initiative, objectives that must be shared with all team members. Our Managers, through a first phase of listening, diagnosis but also through the use of past references and proprietary tools of the firm, formulate a proposal of objectives to carry out the project and transform the initiative into future success.
  2. Ensure the cooperation of all actorsWorking together takes on all its importance in this type of approach. You thus release the resources necessary to ensure the commitment of the trades according to the stakes. Our team applies the “just need” principle to its mode of intervention and defines a customized workload plan with time devoted to “small committee” discussions and other time devoted to “extended team” work sessions.
  3. Ensure the mobilization of suppliers and partnersThe need to involve key partners is no longer debatable: not doing so most often means depriving oneself of more than 50% of the scope of investigation. Our experience and network enable us to integrate existing partners or involve new experts on targeted projects. When the subject lends itself to it, we are catalysts for meetings between teams of companies that are not directly competitors to exchange on their best practices.
  4. Spreading the understanding of cost driversThe reluctance of teams to quickly cost a new technical solution often leads to diverting the spirit of Design-To-Cost. Our experience and our internal Reverse Costing, Benchmarking, and Sourcing tools allow, on the contrary, to explore in parallel several alternatives until the necessary stage to compare them between them and to guide the decisions
  5. Take the trade-offs and assume the risksAs soon as the assigned objective is ambitious, the proposed solutions are likely to shake up habits and bring new risks to light: the brake, or the alert that can come from all the functions of the company in connection with the product (Commercial, Technical, Production, Purchasing, etc.) or suppliers. Our teams have this culture to help your teams, your experts to structure scenarios with levels of gains, questioning and associated risks to enable you to guide, arbitrate, make decisions by having an enlightened vision going from the simple optimization to the most innovative solutions.
  6. Stay involved until implementationExperience shows that turning the gains identified “on paper” into “stumbling” savings requires strong vigilance. Our firm is focused on concrete and measurable results, and our compensation system provides for partial payment based on the achievement of tangible results.
  7. Anchoring the approach in the company’s cultureOur teams are used to systematically question the expressed need, to dialogue as much as possible with the client in “B to B” or marketing in “B to C”, in order to guide the design of a product just as necessary. Finally, it is a question of changing the sensitivities and behaviours of entire populations within the company and, by highlighting the results obtained, encouraging future initiatives.

For more than 30 years, IAC Partners has been providing rhythm and method thanks to a methodology certified by Afnor.

Our OPQCM certification guarantees our clients concrete results and integrates techniques related to new industry challenges:

  • Additive manufacturing
  • Ecodesign
  • Internet of Things (Iot)
  • Customization
  • Etc.

For example, an ecodesign approach can be implemented in parallel, so that a product already on the market incorporates environmentally friendly features. A manufacturer will be able to review his product policy and the associated marketing promise while increasing margins and perceiving value.

From a financial point of view, Design to Cost or Redesign to Cost projects can, under certain conditions, reduce costs by 20% to 30% (depending on the sector). Thanks to the deep questioning of specifications and technological choices there are porjects that have exceeded 50 % of earnings. Reducing environmental impact and improving quality and timelines are some of the associated interests with this approach.

Many companies also choose to relocate part of their production. The application of this methodology then makes sense because it makes it possible to break down costs and thus identify the functions to be retained, improved or eliminated. There are many examples of successful relocations. Let us mention the case of Atol, SEB or Veloscoot. These successful relocations require a redefinition of production processes to reduce manual interventions to a minimum and thus cancel the competitive advantage of BCCs (see our publication “Relocation in France: Yes we Can!“)

Thanks to their multi-sector experience, our experts offer you the benefit of bold solutions that have proven their worth in other projects. Their experience also guarantees the commitment of all stakeholders. Indeed, a new process only works if it integrates the constraints of all stakeholders.

 Tangible results at each mission

Discover our case studies

July 20, 2022

Secure the development schedule of a new compressor

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Addressing a robust claim of 2M€ to the contractor of a structural work

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Redesign the quality audit policy to improve the perceived value of products

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Transfer the entire production of electronic boards in a short period of time

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Reduce by 70% the number of references managed without reducing the variety of the offer of a hydraulic motor manufacturer

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Implement Design-To-Cost Methodology on the disposable card of a PCR testing instrument to reduce costs by 65%

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Reduce by 25% the execution process of a global inverter manufacturer

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Reduce CAPEX / OPEX / delays of a nuclear site decommissioning project by 20%.

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Carry out the competitiveness audit of the future participation of an investment fund in Due Diligence phase

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