Costing manufacturing product

Figure 10.8 (a) Relevant cost factors, (b) Costing manufacturing products... 

Many compounds explode when triggered by a suitable stimulus however, most are either too sensitive or fail to meet cost and production-scale standards, requirements for safety in transportation, and storage stability. Propellants and explosives in large-scale use are based mosdy on a relatively small number of well-proven iagredients. Propellants and explosives for military systems are manufactured ia the United States primarily ia government owned plants where they are also loaded iato munitions. Composite propellants for large rockets are produced mainly by private iadustry, as are small arms propellants for sporting weapons. 

Because most fuel ethanol manufactured ia the United States is made from com, price plays a cmcial role ia determining the competitive position of ethanol ia an open market. With com priced at about 2.50/bu, the embedded feedstock cost of product ethanol is about 0.14—0.23/L ( 0.52—0.87 gal), depending on over-all yield and by-products ignored (125). Euel ethanol plants may have contingency plans to close if com prices rise to a certain level, eg, 3.50/bu or above (126). 

These factors can all be shown to influence the operating and/or capital costs of the plant (1). In addition a key concern is to reproducibly manufacture products having the desired physical and chemical properties. 

SPC on manufactured products SQC on laboratory operations communicate with corporate CIM system improved QA/QC on products reduced testing costs correlate laboratory analyses and process measurements faster solutions to production problems tested in laboratory faster notification of backlog problems improved electronic data interchange capabiUties automated communication with inventory, ordering, and materials planning systems... 

Dry Milk. Dry milk provides long-term storage capabHities, suppHes a product that can be used for food manufacturing operations, and because of its reduced volume and weight, transportation and storage costs are reduced. Dry milk has been used for manufactured products, but is used to a much greater extent for beverage products. Its properties are Hsted in Table 15. 

Whereas the manufacturing cost is strongly influenced by energy prices, cost of money, and capital investment, ammonia selling prices are usually deterrnined by supply and demand. Therefore, the profitabiUty of ammonia plants is deterrnined by the margin between cost of production and ammonia price. 

The bulk of synthetic industrial diamond production consists of the smaller crystal sizes up to 0.7-mm particle size (25 mesh). This size range has wide utihty in industry, and a significant fraction of the world s need for diamond abrasive grit is now met by synthetic production yielding thousands of kilograms per year. Because the raw materials are plentiful, synthetic production could, if necessary, supply the world demand for diamond abrasive. Development work continues in order to improve size and utility of the manufactured product and to realize the full potential of diamonds at minimum cost. An appreciable increase in performance has been obtained by coating the diamonds with a thin layer of nickel or copper, before incorporating them into wheels. The thin layer of metal apparendy improves adhesion and heat transfer. 

In the cubicle construction of a switchgear assembly the busbar chamber is normally located at the top of the assembly and runs through the length of it. It is usually suitable for extension, through fish joints at either end, if required at a later date. For installations having top cable entry, the busbar chamber may also be located at the bottom of the assembly or the depth of the panel increased, with an additional shroud between the top busbar chamber and cable chamber. From these main busbars are tapped the vertical buses for each vertical panel. Manufacturers may adopt different practices for horizontal and vertical busbar arrangements to economize on their cost of production. We illustrate the most common types of busbar arrangements. 

Micro-scaling or bottom up approach to quality costs, where it is possible to calculate the cost of losses involved in manufacture and due to returns and/or claims. This method requires a great deal of experience and relies on the availability of detailed cost data throughout a product s life-cycle. While this is a crucial activity for a business, it is also not a practical approach for estimating the quality cost for product in the early stages of product development. 

The cost of equipment determines the capital investment for a process operation. However, there is no direct relationship to profits. That is, more expensive equipment may mean better quality, more durability and, hence, longer service and maintenance factors. These characteristics can produce higher operating efficiencies, fewer consumption coefficients and operational expenses and, thus, fewer net production costs. The net cost of production characterizes the perfection rate of the total technological process and reflects the influences of design indices. Therefore, it is possible to compare different pieces of equipment when they are used in the manufacture of these same products. 

In addition to the fixed capital investment needed to purchase and install process equipment and auxiliaries, there is a continuous expenditure referred to as operating cost, which is needed to operate the process. The operating cost (or manufacturing cost or production cost) includes raw materials, mass-separating agents, utilities (fuel, electricity, steam, water, refrigerants, air, etc.), catalysts, additives, labor, and maintenance. The total annualized cost of a process is defined as follows ... 

Cost of business interruption. The cost of business interruption is significantly influenced by various commercial factors. For example, if you are not producing at fiill capacity it may be possible to make up lost production at other facilities or when the plant comes back into operation. The business interruption costs will only be the additional costs of production, transportation and any lost sales. As these conditions can vary from month to month it may be more appropriate to adopt a standard method of calculating business interruption costs for PSM and ESH purposes. One commonly adopted approach is to estimate the tonnage of production lost and calculate the cost as being the difference between the sale price and all manufacturing, storage and transportation costs. 

Standard costing is usually thought of in connection with manufacturing production but can be used with advantage in the measurement of the efficiency of supporting plant and equipment. Most readers of this book will already be familiar with the measurement of efficiencies against, for example, manufacturers standards for a specific item of equipment. The standards related to such plant will themselves play a part in setting the production standards mentioned above. 

Due to its versatile properties and low cost, sulfuric acid is the most important product of the chemical industry. It is involved somewhere in the production of almost all manufactured products. For many years, sulfuric acid production was used as an indication of the strength of a country s economy, but now it is more indicative of a country s agricultural vitality because of its high use in the manufacture of fertilizers. 

These requirements have special implications with regard to immunoassay methods. Eirst, the lack of commercial availability of reagents precludes preparing antibody-coated tubes or plates on-site, which may require knowledge of special skills. Commercial availability also ensures the analyst access to a reproducibly manufactured product. Therefore, the method must be based on an immunoassay that is a commercial product. Method developers may choose to introduce an in-house assay to the marketplace by partnering with a manufacturer, although this approach is costly and time-consuming. 

Domier has developed a production route for continuous fiber-reinforced ceramics based on the impregnation and pyrolysis of Si-polymers. This process is related to the manufacturing of fiber-reinforced plastics and allows the cost-effective production of large and complex CMC-structures. 

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