Product Development Cost Management in Aerospace SMEs

Product development in the aerospace industry involves a complex environment that demands a high level of integration to ensure that the final product cost adheres to the business plan. However, in the initial development phases, the work scope is immature and cannot be completely defined a priori. In this context, cost management is a real challenge, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have smaller margins for errors when defining their products’ pricing. This paper proposes a framework to manage costs during product development using a method based on the design structure matrix associated with the design to cost methodology. The analysis is based on the literature and the case study method, which is applied in an aerospace SME. The results indicate positive prospects for the application of the method, which can provide a holistic perspective of the development process while promoting better control of costs.