4cost-structure
4cost-structure

4cost-structure

Standardised bottom-up calculations with high comfort and maximum transparency

What is 4cost-structure?

The costing software 4cost-structure enables you to quickly create consistent, transparent, comprehensible detailed calculations with the highest cost accuracy. Through a company-wide standardisation of costing methods, you optimise your company processes and create a common understanding of costs.

4cost-structure significantly reduces the workload of all project participants throughout the company by simplifying complex entries with the help of wizards, check logics and templates. This minimises errors right from the start, increases the quality of calculations and accelerates the achievement of usable results. For more cost control and assured profitability.

  • Standardised cost calculation

  • Any level of detail

  • Integrated benchmark data

Areas of application

  • Multi-level overhead costing

  • Preliminary costing, final costing

  • Quotation costing

  • Development-accompanying costing, Design to Cost

  • Should cost analysis, purchase price analysis

  • Target costing

  • Value analysis

4cost White paper: Advantages of a costing software

Free white paper

Consistent mapping of price and cost calculations throughout the company

In this white paper you will learn:

  • How to speed up the creation of price and cost calculations

  • How to increase the quality, accuracy and transparency of your calculations

  • How to avoid calculation errors from the start

  • How to standardise your cost management company-wide and promote teamwork

Transparent, consistent calculations with any level of detail

Understanding complex cost structures completely and making them usable for all relevant departments is the essence of profitable cost management. This is the only way to ensure that everyone involved can work together to sustainably way towards the overarching of corporate goals and remain successful in the future.

4cost-structure was specially developed as a standardised costing application to bundle and control the complex data of the different company divisions in an integrated and cross-departmental manner, in order to provide companies with consistent cost representations with the highest degree of accuracy.

Adapted to your needs and habits, you can create your products in 4cost-structure with any bottom-up structure as well as a level of detail according to your needs. Elements such as material, processes, target costs, one-off costs and measures are flexible in their arrangement. Doing this, you continue to work in an environment that is familiar to you.

Fully represent real-life situations. Setting up work systems in 4cost-structure enables you to take a complete and controlled view of several machines, production islands and production lines. The software takes into account the number of persons and their share of the various time categories (multi-machine operation), qualification and hourly rate.

Bring transparency into your calculation by displaying individual processes and work steps as well as calculating the associated processing times (cycle times, operating times, non-productive times, set-up times etc.).

In 4cost-structure you achieve detailing at the same level as in leading ERP systems and thus map complete actual situations. The software differentiates between internal and external overhead surcharges in order to represent supplier shares in the cost structures and to be able to treat them differently in terms of calculation. The nomenclature of overheads can be individually adapted to your company-specific requirements. In addition, 4cost-structure offers the possibility to preassign individual overheads across projects. Overheads that deviate from the standard are visually highlighted.

The schemes required for your costing can be individually defined and stored in 4cost-structure. For a quick mapping of business cases, you can also apply several costing templates to your project.

4cost-structure has a powerful wizard for the mathematical calculation of cycle times, weights, volumes, surfaces and quantities. The software already comes with a standard repertoire of formulas, so less technical expertise is required at this point. 4cost-structure also allows you to create and reuse your own formulas, for example to reflect in-house know-how. Thanks to the formula wizard, you achieve and get transparent, always comprehensible quantity calculations in all your projects.

4cost-structure saves the formulas in a database so that all users have easy central access to them. The administrative effort for distributing and updating the formulas is thus reduced.

The software automatically signals a hint when technology formulas generate a negative result. In conjunction with the other integrated checking and control mechanisms, this increases the quality of your calculations.

Use the finder integrated in 4cost-structure to find inconsistencies and logical errors in your calculation with just a few clicks in order to check the plausibility of your inputs.

Always keep an overview even in complex projects thanks to the interactive tree structure in 4cost-structure. You can move or copy individual elements and entire groups within the tree structure simply via drag & drop. To focus on the essentials, you can expand and collapse individual branches. Within the project tree, the software offers you the possibility to search for text as well as for colour markers.

Request a product demonstration

Experience 4cost-structure live

We would be happy to demonstrate the capabilities of our costing software 4cost-structure to you in person.

Request a no-obligation online product demonstration now. Our sales team will contact you shortly.

Our clients report on their success with 4cost

“The comparison of providers revealed, that 4cost achieved the highest score. We were particularly convinced by the fact that 4cost’s solutions can be used for all commodities, regardless of technology. Equally decisive was the enormous speed with which cost estimates are possible despite limited information.” Christian Ahrens Team leader of the Value Engineering department, Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH “A major advantage of the 4cost software is the seamless interlocking of the two costing approaches, top-down and bottom-up. This appeals to a wide variety of cost estimators and ensures a consistent cost view without losing information across all project phases.” Alexander Nordmeyer Value Engineer, Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH “The departments experience made with the costing software from 4cost are very positive and associated with high savings. By increasing transparency in the cost structures, a monetary benefit in the seven-digit range can already be recorded. We have made the right decision in our selection process and are very happy about our success!” Manfred Billes Department head of the EEPC team, MAN “From small start-ups to large corporations, costs must be constantly kept in view and controlled, especially in these difficult times. This succeeds very well with the 4cost software and I believe we can generate real added value for our companies.” Sarah Wörz Officer, Digitalisierungszentrum Ostwürttemberg “The consistent calculation method of the 4cost tools convinced us right from the start. Very quickly we realised, that this methodology supports our needs in calculation, value engineering, purchasing and engineering excellently.” Frank Hoffmann Head of Supply Chain Management, Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH “With 4cost's modern parametric calculation models it is possible to estimate good and valid costs already in phases with limited detail of knowledge. In order to establish this, we not only made use of 4cost's software solutions, but also using their expertise in value engineering.” Senior staff member Purchasing department, Rolls-Royce “The 4cost-aces interface is user-friendly and logically structured, especially when compared to other cost estimation tools. This makes it easier to use the tool even for occasional users.” Thomas Fiedler Head of Cost Architecture A30X, Future Projects & Costing Performance, Airbus Deutschland “We decided on 4cost because we see a significant added value for our calculation and value analysis in a consistent approach from quick cost estimates to detailed calculations. We focus now on the main cost drivers and identify areas with the greatest potential for cost optimization.” Werner Seifried Technical Director, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH (2009) “With 4cost we have a partner with whom we are implementing our objective of a long-term partnership in the areas of cost estimation, value analysis and cost structure analysis. We will continue to establish 4cost's solutions and use them even more intensively in the future, because the added value is obvious.” Werner Seifried Technical Director, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH (2009) “With the parametric cost estimate from 4cost-aces, we are fast and reliably in estimating new assemblies and examine scenarios.” “With the 4cost-structure calculation tool, we are tracking target costs and manage our projects, including history and versioning.” Peter Schmidt Value analysis department, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH (2009) “The partnership-based cooperation with 4cost enables us to arrive at rapid cost estimates for our projects both in-house and directly at our customers site. I would not have expected a calculation of the costs at such an early stage in the product development process with such depth, consideration of variants and meaningfulness of the answers!” Matthias Miesbeck Project engineer, HOLZER Firmengruppe “We were enthusiastic about the speed and cost transparency during the 4cost workshops. We used the results from the workshops as a base for our business case analysis. We froze the cost target as cost reference for the subsequent development process and continuously referenced and checked on them.” Hinrik Weber Head of the optoelectronics business unit, Pepperl+Fuchs “The speed in which the costs are determined is impressive with this method. Elaborate work plans do not have to be predefined and evaluated, because the parametric approach of 4cost-aces is based on material and value-added approaches.” Ernst Tabel Project manager, Pepperl+Fuchs “With 4cost-aces we are able to arrive at valid cost statements very quickly. Compared to a bottom-up calculation that typically takes several weeks, we only need one to three days for the first cost assessment.” Gregor Schwab Head of Orders & Offers, Production, EADS Defence & Security “In addition to the drastic time advantage of this costing method, the workshops have another effect that should not be underestimated: all participants agree on a common costing basis during the meetings and evaluate it in detail. The acceptance of the calculated cost values is very high due to the involvement of all participants.” Gregor Schwab Head of Orders & Offers, Production, EADS Defence & Security “The workshop with the 4cost team was convincing both in terms of methodology and result. We were getting an idea of how the parametric approach of the 4cost-aces costing software works. Many new possibilities could now be approached in our daily work.” Stefan Buchwald Strategic buyer, BARD Engineering “The 4cost solutions enable us to become an extended workbench to the costing departments of companies in our region.” Peter Schmidt Head, Digitalisierungszentrum Ostwürttemberg “The early breakdown of product and project costs with 4cost-aces not only offers us a high level of cost transparency, but in particular shows us optimisation potential for development and design. On the one hand, we are thus able to forecast future manufacturing costs in the case of design changes and on the other hand, to independently check manufacturing costs of already existing designs.” Martin Klotz Product Cost Engineer, Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH “The simplicity and speed of creating and comparing different technical, location and quantity scenarios in 4cost-aces is impressive.” Andreas Müller Senior Operations and Procurement Manager, AutoFlight Europe “Thanks to the workshop with 4cost, we received meaningful and transparent results in a short time, which allows us to take measures at an early stage to secure the profitability of our products.” Andreas Müller Senior Operations and Procurement Manager, AutoFlight Europe “The use of 4cost-aces has led to a considerable improvement in our efficiency, as we calculate up to 75 % faster. Cost calculations that would otherwise take us several weeks to complete are done within a few days with 4cost-aces.” Hanno Pieles Director Business Unit Performance, newboxes “4cost-aces has become a valuable tool for our company because we use it to help our clients increase their cost transparency significantly and take their cost management to the next level.” Hanno Pieles Director Business Unit Performance, newboxes "Parametric costing enables us to create valid calculations in the early quotation phases with relatively little effort." Tim Wiedemann Systems Engineer, MT Aerospace AG “Thanks to 4cost-aces, we can plan and implement our projects more efficiently. The software has established itself as an indispensable tool in our development process and contributes significantly to the success of our projects.” Hannes Büttner Head of Projects & Value Analysis, BAUER Maschinen GmbH “The calculations using parametrics are incredibly fast compared to the bottom-up approach, which allows us to react quickly to new requirements and designs. The design-to-cost process is streamlined and requires fewer resources.” Hannes Büttner Head of Projects & Value Analysis, BAUER Maschinen GmbH “With the introduction of 4cost-aces, we have consistently enhanced our established processes. Following an intensive testing and implementation phase, nearly all cost estimates at MTG are now carried out using 4cost-aces.” Michael Rudius Head of Operations, MTG Marinetechnik GmbH “With 4cost-aces, we can now perform calculations even in areas where we previously had to rely on approximate values—such as for project management, documentation, software, and maintenance costs.” Michael Rudius Head of Operations, MTG Marinetechnik GmbH Rheinmetall MAN digiZ Rolls-Royce Airbus Liebherr Holzer Pepperl+Fuchs EADS BARD AutoFlight Europe GmbH newboxes GmbH MT Aerospace AG BAUER Maschinen GmbH MTG Marinetechnik GmbH

Fast simulations and detailed analyses

In order to be competitive as a company in a global environment and to identify growth potential, comprehensive analyses of the profitability of products and projects are required.

4cost-structure offers numerous possibilities to map different scenarios in a short time and to evaluate their profitability. All results are processed by the software according to the needs of the management and other project participants and made available for well-founded decision-making.

4cost-structure has a powerful report generator that automatically provides you with the most important information. All generated reports can be exported as PDF. This provides you with meaningful results that the management can use to quickly derive measures, identify opportunities and minimise risks.

4cost-structure includes numerous reporting templates, such as the ABC analysis for identifying cost drivers. In addition, the reports can be adapted to your company-specific needs.

A quick report function provides you with ad hoc detailed cost outputs and results overviews at any level.

Expand your cost analyses by transferring your detailed calculations from 4cost-structure to 4cost-aces via drag & drop to take advantage of the fast simulation and variant design with the parametric approach.

4cost-structure enables transparent variant analyses that support you in design-to-cost costing, reveal opportunities and risks and provide management with a secure basis for business case decisions, make-or-buy decisions and bid/no-bid decisions, among others.

4cost-structure includes a comprehensive “Search, Replace & Calculate” function that allows you to quickly make any changes in your project to examine their impact on the costing. The cost scenarios generated in this way are presented separately from each other and can be compared and evaluated comprehensibly at a glance using the report function.

Consider all options and find the optimal solution. 4cost-structure lets you explore scenarios based on numerous parameters. These include countries, quantities, batch sizes, locations, technologies, greenfield, brownfield. You can create neutral variants (without individual options) as well as variants with all options (surcharges, etc.).

For a particularly quick comparison of variants, you can switch individual elements on and off within your calculation with one click.

4cost-structure helps you to validate supplier purchase prices in a comprehensible way by examining purchased parts in the software in full detail with regards to their pricing structure. The generated results serve to you as a basis for argumentation in negotiations with suppliers for the reduction of your purchase prices.

4cost-structure contains many functions with which you can comfortably increase the quality of your calculation.

  • Machine hourly rate calculator for identifying potential for reducing machine hourly rates, for plausibility checks and validation of supplier machine hourly rates and as a negotiation support for purchasing
  • Calculation of material usage and reimbursement with any reference values and units
  • Consideration of inflation rates and project durations (escalation)
  • Consideration of uncertainties in the calculation (degrees of hardness)
  • Choice of currency at any level

Efficient calculation as a team

Innovative processes and software-supported solutions are needed to increase the output of the company’s own value engineering and to gain a speeding advantage over the competition.

As a central functional unit for costing, 4cost-structure facilitates joint work on cost analysis projects and promotes the exchange of knowledge and information within the company. Doing this, the use of the software contributes to a constant optimisation of your costing processes, which is reflected in higher speeds of execution and a shortened decision cycle.

Save a lot of time by eliminating time-consuming research and quickly obtain usable results for well-founded decision-making. 4cost-structure provides you with comprehensive, up-to-date, country-specific benchmark data on materials, machines and personnel, which we update regularly. All databases can be customised and extended by you according to your company’s specific needs. In addition, you have the option of keeping all your projects up to date in a matter of seconds via a central database – for consistent data transparency throughout the entire team.
Increase the effectiveness of your work by using the reusable templates for work plans, process sequences and standard technologies integrated in 4cost-structure. These can be easily inserted into your existing project structure via drag & drop and individually adapted to your requirements and situations.

Create your own templates for frequently used process sequences and share them centrally with your team to standardise calculations across the company and the reduction of errors.

Bring transparency to your calculations with 4cost-structure by inserting notes. Entering information in this way, calculation paths and premises are documented transparently and comprehensibly for your team.

The option of setting colour markers and sorting according to them provides additional orientation in the calculation and makes it easier for you to keep track.

Cross-system data exchange

Companies usually use numerous software systems that provide information in different file formats.

4cost-structure supports data exchange with all common and known systems. A unique feature is the ability to switch easily between the top-down and bottom-up calculation approaches.

Thanks to a bidirectional interface, you can transfer results generated in 4cost-aces for components and assemblies to 4cost-structure via drag & drop for closer examination and further refinement. For a consistent cost view without loss of information across all project phases.

In particular, development-accompanying costing benefits from the bidirectional approach, as early phases with limited information are combined with late phases with a high degree of information. For a consistent cost view without loss of information across all project phases.

4cost-structure offers numerous options for importing your data from Excel files, including quick import, sublevel import and target import. Based on the imported information, the software automatically builds the project structure including substructures for material, machines, personnel and target costs. Thanks to a sophisticated mapping function, a standardised import configuration is guaranteed.

All data and results generated in 4cost-structure can be exported as Excel files and thus made usable for further processing in other software applications.