20-25%
Potential savings identified across the total product portfolio
Driving Cost Efficiency and Product Innovation Through Advanced Cost Engineering
Industry: Industrial Manufacturing
Service: Cost and Value Engineering
Our Client
A global premium company with a portfolio of high-end home and personal-care products with major operations in Asia and Europe and annual revenues of approximately half a billion euros. The company designs, produces, and distributes a broad portfolio of consumer products, including legacy items, current models, and new series.
The Challenge
The client faced significant barriers in achieving cost-efficient product development and portfolio management:
- Target costs could not be reflected early in development, as market-driven cost expectations were not aligned with initial design phases.
- A diverse product portfolio from legacy to new series—made accurate and consistent cost assessment difficult.
- Complex technical and sourcing requirements across Taiwan, China, and the Philippines increased overall cost uncertainty.
- Insufficient integration between cost engineering, purchasing, and production planning limited the ability to meet new cost targets and tooling requirements.
External support was required to:
- Generate cost transparency on actual designs as a baseline.
- Identify actionable cost-saving opportunities.
- Improve alignment between cross-functional departments.
Real Results Achieved Together
The cost engineering program delivered clear visibility over the full product range and established a solid foundation for long-term cost optimization.
The project led to a significant increase in supplier negotiation readiness, improved the accuracy of cost calculations to enable fact-based decision-making, and strengthened collaboration among design, engineering, purchasing, and manufacturing teams.
+600
Product components analyzed with full cost transparency
Transformation Impact
- Achieved clear visibility on cost structures to target specific areas for optimization.
- Strengthened alignment across design, engineering, and production functions.
- Enabled fact-based negotiation readiness for sourcing and supplier discussions.
- Embedded design-to-cost and design-for-assembly principles for sustainable cost optimization.
Our Approach
EFESO conducted a multi-phase cost engineering program covering the client’s entire product range—from legacy items to upcoming launches.
- Holistic Cost Analysis
• Bottom-up cost calculations and component-level breakdowns.
• Comprehensive review of materials, processes, tooling, surcharges, packaging, and logistics. - Design-to-Cost and Design-for-Manufacturing Assessment
• Value assessments to identify design-optimization opportunities.
• Identification of improvement levers for manufacturability and assembly. - Supplier and Sourcing Optimization
• Assessment of supplier processes to enhance negotiation readiness.
• Improved transparency for multi-regional sourcing decisions. - Cross-Functional Collaboration and Workshops
• Workshops uniting cost engineering, purchasing, and production planning.
• Iterative reviews to refine measures and ensure practical implementation. - Quantitative Opportunity Identification
• Prioritized cost-saving opportunities aligned with internal stakeholders.
• Practical measures integrated into ongoing cost-management processes.
Related Services
Cost and Value Engineering
Rising costs demand optimization from design through production. We apply cross-functional value engineering, zero-based redesign, and continuous cost tracking to protect margins.
Facing Similar Cost-Engineering or Product-Value Challenges?
- Struggling to meet market-driven target costs early in development.
- Managing complex, multi-regional product portfolios with limited cost visibility.
- Seeking stronger integration between engineering, purchasing, and production planning.
- Needing fact-based cost structures to support supplier negotiations and design choices.
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