If You Involve Cost Engineering Too Late in the Design Phase, You’re Wasting Money

Imagine being asked to reduce the cost of a product after it has already been designed, sourced, and approved. Now you need to make changes without delaying the timeline or compromising quality. For many cost engineers, this situation is sandly quite common. 

The main issue is timing. A Harvard Business Review article indicates that up to 80% of a product’s cost is determined by the time the design is finalized. This statistic emphasizes where companies should focus their efforts. Unfortunately, cost engineers are often brought into the process too late, when most cost-saving opportunities are no longer available. 

This reactive approach rarely results in significant savings. Instead, it wastes time, budget, and team energy. A better solution is to move cost analysis upstream, leveraging product costing software that allows for fast and reliable early-stage evaluations. By addressing cost concerns during the design phase, companies can create a more efficient and cost-effective product development process.  

What Happens When Cost Decisions Come After Design Freeze 

Once a design is frozen, most cost decisions have already been made: geometry, materials, manufacturing processes, and supplier quotes are all locked in. Requesting cost reductions at this point can only happen through costly changes. 

A study on engineering change costs found that late-stage design modifications can be 5 to 100 times more expensive than those made during early development. A simple design adjustment - like adding a structural rib - may cost only €500 in CAD time during concept phase. The same change after tooling could cost €50,000 and delay start-of-production by weeks. 

This way of working drains resources and frustrates teams. It also reinforces the perception of cost engineers as “fixers”, rather than as strategic contributors to product development. 

By influencing design decisions early - including material choice, part geometry, and manufacturing routes - companies can reduce costs, simplify assembly, and improve sustainability outcomes. All without last-minute compromises. 

Tset supports this shift by providing tools that make design-to-cost analysis possible during active development discussions. 

The High Cost of Missed Timing: Why Early Input Matters 

Industry studies and experience show that late-stage cost-downs are typically 30–50% less effective than early-phase optimizations. The limited flexibility after design freeze means cost engineers can only trim around the edges, rather than influence the core drivers. According to Deloitte’s study on cost transparency, early visibility into cost structures allows teams to identify improvement opportunities when changes are less costly and more impactful. 

The reason is simple. As the project progresses, the available options become more limited. By this stage, the product has already been defined, and making changes may lead to delays, increased tooling costs, or potential quality issues. In contrast, considering costs early in the process allows for more flexibility. Adjustments can be made quickly and with less friction. This approach empowers teams to make informed trade-offs instead of making reactive cuts. 

Tset's product costing software is specifically designed to support this type of early, iterative analysis, thereby enabling both design and procurement teams to test, compare, and simulate options well before the design freeze. 

Bringing Cost Engineering into the Design Phase - Faster, Easier, Smarter 

If the benefits of involving cost engineers early are so clear, why are they often brought in late? There are three main barriers: 

1. Lack of accessible data 
2. Inefficient tools, such as Excel 
3. The perception that early-stage cost estimates are too complex or inaccurate 

Early-stage cost estimation often suffers from missing data, limited tool support, and high manual effort. This discourages teams from engaging cost experts until the design is more stable. 

Tset’s cost engineering software removes the typical roadblocks to early-stage cost engineering by providing a modern, automated, and flexible solution: 

• Get full bottom-up cost calculations in seconds, powered by automated costing modules and a central knowledge base.  
• Simulate multiple design variants using early 3D models, shapes, or part families to compare material, process, and geometry choices - even without a complete BOM. 
• Evaluate cost impacts directly during design reviews, enabling fast decision-making across engineering and procurement. 
• Collaborate across teams in a centralized, cloud-based software, with consistent costing logic and automatic version control. 
• Onboard users quickly with an intuitive interface and role-based access, thereby enabling even semi-experts to contribute confidently to cost discussions. 
• Simulate scenarios in real-time to support faster trade-off decisions and avoid late-stage surprises. 

By replacing slow and fragmented processes with a purpose-built automated costing tool, Tset enables teams to act more quickly and confidently. 

Rethinking Cost Engineering: From Reactive to Proactive

As timelines shrink  and manufacturing grows more complex, early cost input is critical. Today’s cost engineers are strategic partners who guide design, sourcing and sustainability choices. As Harvard Business Review puts it, “Design is a strategic activity, whether by intention or by default.” Tset supports this shift by giving cost teams the tools to influence product costing decisions early - working alongside R&D and procurement to build smarter, leaner, and more sustainable products.