Costing model development

The simplified cost models developed for total capital investment and operating costs allows a quick analysis of profitability. For instance, the gross profit before taxes can be obtained by subtracting total operating costs TOC (Eq. 15.30) from sales S ... 

Model run Cost profile is developed by running cost models developed in an LCC analysis with input data. Computer tools can be used to run a model or it could be manual calculations in a spreadsheet. 

Cost Model Development - Robotic versus Fixed lamp Systems... 

Figure 13. Cost model developed by UV Robotics, LLC shows the costs of fixed and robotic UV curing alternatives. For most applications the robotic design is more capital cost effective when four or more lamps are required. Operating cost nearly always favors the robotic solution. 

Limited Data First, plant data are limited. Unfortunately, those easiest to obtain are not necessarily the most useful. In many cases, the measurements that are absolutely required for accurate model development are unavailable. For those that are available, the sensitivity of the parameter estimate, model evaluation, and/or subsequent conclusion to a particiilar measurement may be very low. Design or control engineers seldom look at model development as the primaiy reason for placing sensors. Further, because equipment is frequently not operated in the intended region, the sensitive locations in space and time have shifted. Finally, because the cost-effectiveness of measurements can be difficult to justify, many plants are underinstru-mented. 

To evaluate the economics of this process, a cost model has been developed to estimate the separation costs for a specific racemate [68, 69]. For this purpose, the sensitivity of the separation costs for several key process parameters have been established as compared to a base-case separation in which a purity of 99 % is required at an enantioselectivity of 1.15. The maximum solubility of the drug is set... 

However, if you extend this notion to an extreme and make 100,000 production runs of one unit each (actually one unit every 315 seconds), the decision obviously is impractical, since the cost of producing 100,000 units, one unit at a time, will be exorbitant. It therefore appears that the desired operating procedure lies somewhere in between the two extremes. To arrive at some quantitative answer to this problem, first define the three operating variables that appear to be important number of units of each run (D), the number of runs per year (n), and the total number of units produced per year (Q). Then you must obtain details about the costs of operations. In so doing, a cost (objective) function and a mathematical model will be developed, as discussed later on. After obtaining a cost model, any constraints on the variables are identified, which allows selection of independent and dependent variables. 

EXAMPLE 2.4 APPLICATION OF LEAST SQUARES TO DEVELOP A COST MODEL FOR THE COST OF HEAT EXCHANGERS... 

The delivered hydrogen cost over time is given by the aggregate hydrogen cost curve developed from our infrastructure modelling for this same vehicle introduction rate (Fig. 15.6). 

Arthur D. Little has carried out cost structure studies for a variety of fuel cell technologies for a wide range of applications, including SOFC tubular, planar and PEM technologies. Because phenomena at many levels of abstraction have a significant impact on performance and cost, they have developed a multi-level system performance and cost modeling approach (see Figure 1-15). At the most elementary level, it includes fundamental chemical reachon/reactor models for the fuel processor and fuel cell as one-dimensional systems. 

Section 5.2.2 include composites and metals. From a cost reduction point of view, it is estimated, according to the cost model, that the cost percentage of the plate in a stack can be reduced from -60 to 15-29% if the graphite plate were replaced by the composite plate or metal plate [15]. However, many uncertain factors are involved in the estimation. The progress and major challenges in development of bipolar plates fabricated by these candidate materials will be introduced in the following parf of this section. 

Computers costing in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 can execute most of the widely available modeling software packages. This is quite inexpensive compared to the cost of developing major software, or even of continuously converting new releases of progrsims written for another computer. Therefore, it may be quite reasonable to buy a... 

In general, developing cost models of production system expansions only as a function of the unit flow rate does not provide a good capital cost estimate. For this reason, and as we mentioned earlier, our formulation only allowed the addition of predetermined capacities whose price can be acquired a priori through design companies quotations. 

Fuzzy models may be slightly more difficult to program and develop than qualitative models, but they share all of the advantages. In addition, they provide smoother control. This may be a particular advantage in processes that require more rapid control decisions than autoclave curing. The cost of developing these controllers is relatively low and the data required to develop them is usually available from the development of the original process plan. Further, neural networks can be used to automate the development of control-process relationships. 

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