Understand cost structures. Secure competitiveness.
The all-in-one platform for Cost Engineering: seamlessly integrating cost calculation, target costing, and BOM-based cost analysis.
Cost Engineering:
Calculate, control, and systematically optimize product costs
Cost Engineering ensures full transparency of product costs across the entire product development process.
Companies systematically calculate costs along the technical product structure, manage target costs, and identify cost drivers early – enabling informed decisions in engineering, procurement, and controlling.
What is Cost Engineering?
Cost Engineering is the systematic management of product costs throughout the entire product lifecycle – from initial concept to series production. The level of detail depends on your team: from simple factor-based estimates to parametric models and detailed bottom-up calculations at component level. The key question remains: What should our product cost – and how do we achieve this target?
Cost Engineering answers questions such as:
- What do individual components and assemblies cost in production?
- Which target costs are competitive in the market?
- Where are the main cost drivers – and how can we influence them?
- Which design alternatives or suppliers lead to lower costs?
The Challenge
Reports get archived.
- Cost calculations in Excel. Product structure in PLM.
- Costs are calculated separately from the technical BOM. Design changes reach cost calculations too late – or not at all.
- Each department works with different numbers.
- Engineering, procurement, and controlling rely on inconsistent cost bases. Target costing fails due to lack of data consistency.
- Cost targets are defined – but not tracked.
- Allowable costs are defined early, but whether target costs are achieved often becomes clear only shortly before production start.
The QTRIX solution
Cost Engineering digitalized
- Cost calculation directly within the BOM structure
- End-to-end target costing: define, track, and achieve target costs
- All calculation methods in one system
- Real-time visibility of cost deviations
Cost Engineering as a continuous process – seamlessly integrated with Benchmarking and Value Management.
Cost Engineering builds on Benchmarking and Value Management:
- Discover Benchmarking – derive competitive target costs from market data
- Discover Value Management – optimize costs based on functional value
The QTRIX Platform
Six features redefining benchmarking
QTRIX is the first platform to combine benchmarking, value management, and cost engineering in one system – on a shared data foundation. The depth of data capture adapts flexibly, from feature and catalog data to detailed teardown data at component level.
What you get:
- Technical BOM = cost BOM – no duplication
- Costs captured at component level and automatically aggregated
- Flexible calculation methods per component: factor-based, parametric, or bottom-up
- Parallel management of material, manufacturing, assembly, and overhead costs
- Interactive cost visualization with drill-down capability
- Automatic cost roll-up across the entire BOM
Your benefit:
- No more parallel spreadsheets. Your technical structure becomes your cost structure – changes in the BOM instantly impact total cost.
Use cases:
- From early concept estimation to detailed series costing – QTRIX grows with your product maturity.
What you get:
- Define target costs at component, assembly, and product level
- Automatic comparison of actual vs. target costs
- Visualization of cost gaps across all BOM levels
- Cost gaps directly linked to value engineering actions
- Seamless transition to Value Management
- Identify and prioritize cost gaps
- Continuous tracking of target cost achievement
- Overview: Where have cost targets been achieved? Where is action required?
Your benefit:
- Target costing becomes manageable and transparent throughout development – not just at the end.
Use cases:
- From allowable costs to full target cost achievement in series production.
What you get:
- Factor-based costing for early estimates
- Parametric costing based on technical parameters
- Detailed bottom-up costing
- Fully customizable calculation logic
- Scenarios & dynamic parameters: Flexible calculations per component using alternative values (supplier A vs. B, location X vs. Y, material alternatives)
- Integration of external datasets via Excel or API
- Scenario comparisons (suppliers, locations, materials)
- Seamless method switching across the entire product lifecycle without system discontinuities
Your benefit:
- Maximum flexibility. QTRIX adapts to your processes – not the other way around.
Use cases:
- From early feasibility studies to full production costing – all in one system.
What you get:
- Centralized cost data management
- Site-specific cost structures
- Excel imports and API integrations
- REST API for external data providers (material exchanges, market price services)
- Versioning and historical tracking
- Your data remains your data – QTRIX is the platform
Your benefit:
- Maintain data once, use it everywhere – consistent and always up to date.
Use cases:
- From individual calculations to company-wide cost standardization.
What you get:
- Cost breakdown by categories
- Comparison: actual vs. target vs. competitor costs
- Automated cost driver identification
- Benchmarking integration
- Standardized cost comparisons (€ / kg, € / kW, € / function)
- Automatic identification of cost drivers
Your benefit:
- From calculation to insight in seconds – identify optimization potential instantly.
Use cases:
- Cost reviews, design-to-cost workshops, and management reporting.
What you get:
- AI-powered analysis across all cost data
- Automatic creation of calculation models
- Identification of cost drivers and optimization potential
- Smart search across historical projects
- Supports the analysis of cost deviations and cost structures
- Suggests target cost allocations based on historical projects
- Optionally enabled – you decide when to use AI
Your benefit:
- From hours to minutes – accelerate analysis and decision-making significantly.
Use cases:
- From hours to minutes – accelerate analysis and decision-making significantly.
Why QTRIX?
What makes QTRIX the best Cost Engineering platform?
With QTRIX, cost engineering evolves from an isolated calculation tool into an integrated decision-making platform. Cost calculation, target costing, and product structure work seamlessly together—enabling transparent costs, well-founded decisions, and the sustainable safeguarding of competitiveness. Kostenberechnung, Target Costing und Produktstruktur greifen nahtlos ineinander – für transparente Kosten, fundierte Entscheidungen und eine nachhaltige Sicherung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit.
The decisive difference is
Without QTRIX
- Costs in Excel, BOM in PLM – disconnected systems
- Target costs defined but not tracked
- Inconsistent cost data across departments
- Late impact of design changes
- Loss of cost knowledge
With QTRIX
- BOM and costing fully integrated
- Real-time actual vs. target tracking
- One cost data foundation for all teams
- Immediate visibility of cost impact
- Maximum flexibility
- Continuous knowledge accumulation
“QTRIX is the most flexible platform on the market: custom logic, unlimited data integration, and AI support – all in one system.”
Comparison Table
| Your Requirement | Conventional Approach | With QTRIX |
|---|---|---|
| Cost calculation | Excel spreadsheets, separate from BOM | Costing directly integrated into the BOM |
| Target Costing | Targets defined but not tracked | Real-time actual vs. target at all levels |
| Calculation methods | One tool = one method | All methods in one system |
| Custom logic | Tool defines logic, limited flexibility | Fully configurable custom logic |
| Reference data | Manual copy-paste from multiple sources | Direct Excel import or API integration |
| From cost gap to action | Excel → email → meeting → separate tools | Cost gap → link to component → instant Value Management |
| Scenario comparison | New Excel file per scenario → Parallel scenarios within one BOM | Knowledge reuse: “Have we done this before?” → AI finds, analyzes, and generates |
Key Benefits
Faster access to precise costs
From idea to a reliable cost calculation in minutes.
- From concept to reliable costing in minutes.
- Automatic cost roll-ups across the BOM.
- Reports at the push of a button for management and engineering.
Seamless Integration
Cost engineering, benchmarking, and value management from a single source of data.
- Cost engineering, benchmarking, and value management on one data foundation.
- Competitor costs can be used directly as targets.
- Cost gaps are automatically linked to VA/VE workshops.
- Consistent data across all teams.
Integrated target costing
Define, track, and achieve target costs in one system.
- Establish, track, and deliver on target costs in one system.
- Cost deviations visible instantly.
- From allowable costs to target achievement without system breaks.
Knowledge retention
Every project enriches your cost database.
- Cost knowledge grows with every project.
- New employees benefit from historical data.
- AI actively leverages and even creates cost models.
Maximum flexibility
Your logic, your data, your processes.
- Fully customizable calculation logic.
- Integrate any data source via Excel or API.
- Optional expert datasets and models.
- QTRIX adapts to you—not the other way around.
Full cost transparency
Every cost element traceable – from component to product.
- Full transparency for every euro — from component to product.
- AI identifies cost drivers automatically.
- Data-driven decisions instead of guesswork.
The three pillars of QTRIX
Benchmarking
Analyze competitor costs and derive cost targets
Value Management
Optimize costs based on functions
Cost Engineering
Calculate product costs and control target costing
Who benefits from QTRIX?
Who benefits from QTRIX in Cost Engineering?
QTRIX connects cost engineering, development, procurement, and management on a shared cost data foundation — enabling informed decisions, transparent product costs, and consistent achievement of target costs.
Cost Engineering & Cost Analysts
Your daily work:
Calculate product costs, derive and track target costs, analyze cost structures, support design-to-cost workshops—and ensure that cost targets are not only defined but achieved. Some teams work with rough factors, others with parametric models, and others with detailed bottom-up costing. QTRIX adapts to your required level of detail.
With QTRIX:
From initial estimates to series costing—all in one workflow. Target costing becomes an active management tool, not an administrative burden.
Product Development and Engineering
Make design decisions with full cost transparency.
- Instantly understand cost impact of design decisions
- Evaluate alternative solutions
- Synchronize engineering and costing
- Make design decisions with direct cost implications
Procurement & Supplier Management
Negotiate based on reliable cost data.
- Evaluate supplier quotes reliably
- Make make-or-buy decisions with solid cost foundations
- Use target costs in negotiations
- Apply should-cost analysis as a negotiation basis
Management & Controlling
Monitor cost targets and performance in real time
- Manage cost engineering activities across locations
- Track target cost achievement
- Demonstrate ROI of cost optimization
- Access real-time dashboards and KPIs
Branchen:
Automotive
White Goods
Heating & Energy
Medical Technology
Tools & Equipment
Agricultural Technology
Construction Machinery
Electrical Engineering
Aerospace
QTRIX scales with you:
Small teams:
quick setup
Mid-sized companies:
Mehrere Produktlinien, ein System
Enterprises:
global scaling with 300+ users
Bereit für durchgängiges Cost Engineering?
Erleben Sie QTRIX in einer persönlichen Demo und entdecken Sie, wie einfach strukturiertes Cost Engineering sein kann – von der ersten Kalkulation bis zum Target Costing.