Cost Engineering

Cost Engineering is a profession that estimates and forecasts the cost of a product (including software) development and manufacture. Affordability Engineering is a process that enables companies to reduce costs and improve value throughout the whole life cycle of a product by the use of cost estimating and risk information, especially at the conceptual design stage.

Within the field of cost and affordability engineering, the Product and Service Innovation Centre at Cranfield offers Masters programmes, industrial short courses and a wide range of research activities. Short courses include:

Short courses cover a broad range of concepts and are available to all levels of Cost Engineer from novice to expert. They are also open to engineers, purchasers, suppliers, and project managers who want to gain a greater understanding of cost engineering practices and procedures. Hands-on training is also provided within the Cost Studio®, which is located within Enterprise Integration. Research is carried out in a wide range of areas, including software cost estimating, knowledge capture for cost modelling, risk analysis of cost estimates, and cost modelling for asset management. 

Further information, including a full list of courses and details of forthcoming dates, is available on the short course pages.

The Centre is particularly proud of its customer portfolio, which includes Ministry of Defence, Ford Motor Company, Airbus, Rolls-Royce plc, BAE Systems, Nissan, Corus, Lockheed Martin and British Telecom. We have completed over 300 Masters and Doctoral industrial projects (Research and Development), and hold a valuable legacy of applications experience, systems design, and business problem solving expertise.