Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH

When it comes to determining costs at an early stage as well as identifying optimisation potential, the Engineering Services department at Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH has been relying on 4cost’s innovative software solutions since 2021.

Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH specialises in the development and production of tower cranes for a wide range of applications – from the construction of a single-family home to extensive large-scale construction sites.

Mapping products transparently in terms of costs across all phases is one of the core tasks of the Engineering Services department, which supports the development departments in all questions related to development, including the field of cost engineering. For this purpose, the department relies on the combined use of 4cost-aces for parametric cost estimates already in early phases and 4cost-structure for the creation of detailed bottom-up calculations.

Martin Klotz, Product Cost Engineer at Liebherr, is a user of the 4cost costing software and reports on how 4cost’s solutions support him in his daily work. Mr Klotz and his colleagues are regularly faced with the challenge of estimating product costs as accurately as possible during the concept phase, when often only little information is available. This is where 4cost-aces‘ universal parametric cost estimation model comes to their aid. This innovative approach enables fast and valid cost estimates by entering five standardised parameters, which are determined with the help of intelligent input wizards in the software. “The early breakdown of product and project costs with 4cost-aces not only provides us with a high level of cost transparency, but in particular shows us optimisation potential for development and design,” says Martin Klotz. “On the one hand, we are thus able to validly forecast future manufacturing costs in the case of design changes, and on the other hand, to independently check manufacturing costs of already existing designs.” The costing software from 4cost is also used to simulate quantity and country scenarios.

Every 4cost tool has a powerful report generator that provides well-founded results on cost and value analyses in real time as needed. Thanks to these reliable reports, the profitability of a project can be assessed at an early stage. “The values determined with 4cost-aces and 4cost-structure help us decide whether or not to pursue a proposed solution or even an entire project. In addition, the software provides us with a better negotiating basis for purchasing through the parametric calculation of purchased parts”, Mr Klotz summarises the advantages of 4cost’s costing software. Mr Klotz also sees the possibility of easily importing and processing the data in the company’s own ERP system into the 4cost applications as a great strength of the software.