A cost estimation tool integrated into FIPER

The estimation of a part's manufacturing cost in all phases of the design stage is crucial to concurrent engineering. To better estimate the cost for a product, data must be available from both engineering systems and business systems. This paper presents a cost estimation system being developed to support design time cost estimation using FIPER; the Federated Intelligent Product Environment, which is being developed as part of the NIST Advanced Technology Program. The FIPER project will be developing an architecture that interconnects design and analysis software tools in a peer level architecture using JAVA to support Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation, Design for Six Sigma and Robust Design.