Cost Engineering - Bibliography

What is Cost Engineering?

Cost engineering

“Cost” is the collective term for resources such as: money and time. These resources are limited and should be utilized as efficient as possible. Cost engineering focuses on; “managing cost throughout the life cycle of any enterprise, (e.g. project or program).”

A cost engineer applies his engineering skills and experience to forecast the development of a project, seeking to predict the progress of a project and to spot deviations from the plan early on. To analyze a deviation in the original design, it is vital to understand what other parameters will be affected and how this impacts the rest of the design and planning. Trying to answer the question: ‘where will the current technical developments lead and how will they affect the economic prospects of this project?’

The activities of a cost engineer can broadly be presented into three separate categories: measure, control, improve.

Measure

In order to manage resources, they need to be defined, identified and their usage has to be  measured. This starts with gathering the data and  knowledge  from previous projects. The knowledge has to be made accessible  for use future projects. If stored correctly this information should give you a basis from which to perform your early risk and cost estimates. Risk estimates are used to get an idea of the threats facing a project. Initially, the accuracy of these estimates can vary substantially, but as the definition of the project scope becomes clearer the accuracy of the estimates will improve as well. 

Cost estimates are important to get an idea of the total amount of resources required for the project and will serve as input for the projects planning. (Think of the project as a product design project.)

Control

With the scope of the project defined and the resources allocated accordingly, it is now up to the cost engineer to control the resources. It is not sufficient to merely track any deviations from the initial baseline based on accounting; they ought to prevent them. Look for the right indicators and forecast  deviations early on. Find and analyze possible solutions to reduce the deviations and support the project manager in decision making, providing him the information he needs to choose between alternatives.

Improve

Looking back at a project it is important to learn from mistakes and to incorporate the lessons learned in your working methods and to communicate these findings. Change management is therefore also a vital part of a cost engineer’s responsibility in order to make sure the entire company will actually benefit.  Make sure you are using the best cost management tools and software for the job!

https://www.costengineering.eu/blog-article/what-is-cost-engineering

Basic Cost Engineering, Third Edition

Kenneth K. Humphreys

CRC Press, 05-Sept-1995 - Technology & Engineering - 360 pages

This work focuses on the application of fundamental cost engineering principles to the capital and operating costs estimation of major projects. It provides detailed coverage of profitability, risk, and sensitivity analysis. This third edition: discusses novel strategies for calculating preliminary estimates using MasterFormat; presents new information on estimating the retrofitting and extension of existing plants; contains current international cost data; and more.

Preview the book:

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=dKWBB87fZfgC

https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Basic_Cost_Engineering_Third_Edition.html?id=dKWBB87fZfgC

Cost Engineering for Pollution Prevention and Control

Paul Mac Berthouex, Linfield C. Brown

CRC Press, 13-May-2021 - Nature - 472 pages

Environmental engineers work to increase the level of health and happiness in the world by designing, building, and operating processes and systems for water treatment, water pollution control, air pollution control, and solid waste management. These projects compete for resources with projects in medicine, transportation, education, and other fields that have a similar objective. The challenge is to make the investments efficient – to get the best project outputs with a minimum of inputs. Cost Engineering for Pollution Prevention and Control examines how to identify the best solution by judging alternatives with respect to some measure of system performance, such as total capital cost, annual cost, annual net profit, return on investment, cost-benefit ratio, net present worth, minimum production time, maximum production rate, minimum energy utilization, and so on.

Key Features:

Explains how to estimate preliminary costs, how to compare the life cycle costs of alternative projects, how to find the optimal balance between capital costs and operating costs.

Emphasis is placed on formulating the problem rather than on the mathematical details of how the calculations are done.

The important concepts presented in this book can be understood by those students who have taken an introductory course in environmental engineering. Advanced knowledge of process design is not required. The material can also be utilized by engineers, managers, and others who would benefit from a better understanding of how engineers look at problems.

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=cO0lEAAAQBAJ

Cost Engineering: A Practical Method for Sustainable Profit Generation in Manufacturing

Chris Domanski

CRC Press, 28-Apr-2020 - Technology & Engineering - 162 pages

In today’s hyper-competitive, global marketplace, a manufacturing company needs a competitive edge if it is to survive and grow. That edge could be anything from superior manufacturing technology to innovative product design; from patent protection to solid, well-established customer relationships. One competitive edge available to all manufacturers, but realized by only a few, is the ability to accurately measure, control, and optimize costs throughout a product’s entire life cycle. The lack of a methodology to engineer cost optimization into every product makes attaining and maintaining profitability all that the more difficult.

(Interesting Table of Contents)

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=8C_gDwAAQBAJ

Ud. 15.1.2022

Pub 26.12.2021