On November 5, 2025, over 100 cost engineering professionals, procurement leaders, and manufacturing decision-makers gathered in Munich for our very first edition of the Tset Summit. The theme ‘Shaping the Next Decade of Cost Engineering’ brought together voices from BMW Group, KTM, AGCO, RWTH Aachen, and leading consultancies A2MAC1 and EFESO Management Consultants Group to address a pressing question: How must cost engineering evolve to meet the demands of faster development cycles, rising sustainability pressures, and global competition?
Our event was specifically designed from cost engineers for cost engineers, and you could feel the energy in the room! Between sessions, potential customers connected with existing clients, partnerships were explored, and a genuine community began to form around shared challenges. The afternoon wrapped with networking drinks and casual conversations that extended the formal discussions into practical, real-world applications.
It was exactly the kind of environment where innovation happens: when people who rarely have the chance to meet face-to-face can finally compare notes and learn from each other's successes and struggles.
Keynote by Sasan Hashemi (CEO & Co-Founder, Tset) and Dr. Gerd Sauermann (CPTO, Tset)
Sasan Hashemi and Dr. Gerd Sauermann opened the summit by examining three major bottlenecks facing cost engineering: model creation requires excessive expert time, insights remain locked in detailed calculations, and manual overhead persists across every step. The solution requires rethinking system architecture with one central platform that balances standardization with the freedom to innovate.
Key takeaway: The future belongs to integrated systems where standardized capabilities meet customizable applications, all built on open, accessible data.
Session by Dr. Markus Storer (Cost Engineering, Datamanagement,
Digitalization, BMW Group) and Christoph Starringer (Specialist Cost Engineering, BMW Group)
The BMW Group demonstrated how modern cost engineering extends across diverse categories, each requiring different calculation approaches. To address this complexity, BMW leverages centralized master data with an API-first architecture that enables integration across multiple systems and departments.
This approach has enabled cross-functional collaboration and data accessibility throughout the organization, representing both a technical achievement and an organizational mindset shift.
Key takeaway: Open architecture and centralized data enable cost engineering to serve broader business needs.
Session by Prof. Dr. Jana Backes (Junior Professor for Sustainability and Futures Research, RWTH Aachen)
Prof. Dr. Jana Backes delivered a critical message: emissions have become an economic factor directly impacting technology planning. Rising CO₂ prices under regulations like the Emission Trading System are changing how manufacturers evaluate design decisions. She illustrated with an example where two identical-performing technologies have different cost and emission profiles. When factoring in CO₂ costs, the break-even point occurs at €67 per ton - above that price, the initially more expensive but lower-emission technology becomes cost-effective.
The challenge lies in lifecycle assessment standardization. Different databases provide vastly different emission values for identical materials, and different methodologies weight factors inconsistently. Prof. Backes argued that cost engineering must take ownership of carbon data with the same rigor applied to cost data.
Key takeaway: Cost engineers must govern both cost and carbon data, treating CO₂ as an economic parameter that reshapes technology decisions.
Session by Jürgen Gumpinger (Vice President Strategic Supply Chain Management, KTM)
Jürgen Gumpinger opened with a statement from a major OEM: "European manufacturing is dead." KTM has spent seven years building cost engineering capabilities to prove otherwise. Their journey expanded from basic should-costing to target costing, value analysis, and technology benchmarking, requiring new roles beyond traditional cost engineers: vehicle cost engineers who manage target costing and data engineers who build automation.
KTM now processes 500 calculations per day through automation combining Tset, machine learning for standard parts, and custom Python tools. Their system integrates with SAP, PLM, and multiple databases, enabling them to predict bike costs years in advance while accounting for supplier changes and material cost shifts.
Key takeaway: Speed through automation is essential, but only when built on accurate assumptions and proper system integration.
Session by Olli Harkoma (Global Director Supplier Cost and Tooling Engineering, AGCO)
Olli Harkoma addressed how to make cost engineering data accessible across functions and geographies. AGCO's answer involved embracing SaaS and building integration around open APIs. The shift freed resources from system administration, allowing focus on value-added activities like should-costing and supplier negotiations.
AGCO created a custom data browser integrating cost engineering data with PLM, ERP, and other systems. Currently, 1,500 users access this platform monthly. Engineers see cost implications in real-time, purchasing teams spot negotiation opportunities, and quality departments search by manufacturing technology. When asked about engineers bypassing cost engineers, Harkoma shared examples of the opposite: engineers spotted opportunities and informed buyers, while purchasing identified complexity reductions.
Key takeaway: Open APIs enable integration, integration enables data democratization, and democratization creates organization-wide value.
Panel Discussion moderated by Sasan Hashemi with Dr. Andreas Cornet (Former Senior Partner, McKinsey), Sascha Voglgsang (Director Costing and Insights, A2MAC1), Oliver Briegel (Partner, EFESO Management Consultants Group), and Dr. Gerd Sauermann (CPTO, Tset)
The closing panel tackled an uncomfortable question directly: Is European manufacturing dying? Dr. Andreas Cornet’s answer did not hold back: “Yes, it could be, if manufacturers don't fight back.” While European companies face disadvantages in energy costs and regulation, they can compensate by excelling in the 70-80% of costs from materials and purchased components”
Sascha Voglgsang explained that Chinese players are developing vehicles in extremely compressed timelines, forcing European manufacturers to make faster technology decisions with fewer resources. This pressure requires automating what can be automated while preserving human judgment.
Dr. Andreas Cornet then challenged conventional thinking on benchmarking. Tesla succeeded precisely because they refused to simply copy competitors. While benchmarking provides baseline data, true differentiation requires innovation-led approaches that model future possibilities rather than replicate existing solutions.
Oliver Briegel addressed where cost engineering must sit organizationally. Analysis can be distributed, but collaboration with R&D must happen in proximity. Cost engineering sitting next to R&D consistently outperforms remote setups, especially for target-setting.
The panel concluded with a strategic call to action: cost engineering must elevate from support function to strategic partner at the CXO level. Few activities create as much value as design-to-cost when executed well.
Key takeaway: European manufacturers can compete by making cost engineering strategic, empowering R&D with cost visibility, and moving faster while maintaining analytical rigor.
Several clear themes emerged across the summit sessions:
1. Invest in open systems and integration.Every speaker emphasized the impossibility of a single tool solving all problems. The path forward requires open APIs, modular services, and integration capabilities that allow best-of-breed solutions to work together.
2. Balance automation with explainability.
KTM's 500 calculations per day and BMW's automated workflows demonstrate the power of automation. However, as Gerd Sauermann and Jürgen Gumpinger both noted, teams must be able to explain where changes come from and validate that automated results make sense.
Prof. Jana Backes made clear that CO₂ is becoming an economic factor, not just an environmental one. Cost engineers must build the capability to assess both cost and carbon impacts of design decisions.
4. Democratize data across functions.Both BMW Group and AGCO demonstrated the value of opening cost engineering data to engineering, purchasing, quality, and other functions. When cost becomes a visible parameter like weight or performance, better decisions follow.
5. Think globally about assumptions.As Jürgen Gumpinger emphasized, process assumptions must reflect actual manufacturing realities in different regions. A European calculation framework will not accurately reflect Chinese or Indian cost structures without proper adjustment.
6. Elevate cost engineering's strategic role.The panel discussion reinforced that cost engineering creates massive value when involved early in development and treated as a strategic partner rather than a support function. Organizations that recognize this will gain competitive
The Tset Summit would not have been possible without the willingness of industry leaders to share their experiences openly. Special thanks to Dr. Markus Storer and Christoph Starringer from BMW Group, Prof. Dr. Jana Backes from RWTH Aachen, Jürgen Gumpinger from KTM, Olli Harkoma from AGCO, and our distinguished panelists: Dr. Andreas Cornet, Sascha Voglgsang from A2MAC1, Oliver Briegel from EFESO Management Consultants Group, and Dr. Gerd Sauermann and Sasan Hashemi from Tset. Your insights and candor made this event valuable for everyone in attendance.
We are grateful to our event sponsors, A2MAC1 and EFESO Management Consultants Group, for their support in making this gathering possible. Their commitment to advancing the cost engineering community helped create the environment where meaningful conversations could flourish.
Finally, thank you to the 100+ cost engineering professionals and industry leaders who joined us in Munich!
This is just the beginning. The Tset Summit will return in 2026, bringing together the cost engineering community once again to continue this essential conversation. Event recordings will be available soon. Stay tuned for announcements about how to access session videos and additional resources from the summit.
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