Cost Report Making no sense

[oz_olly]

I am sorry to post this here but, i doubt people look in the static events threads. Sorry to the people who do.

Hey to all,

How much fun is the cost report...

Just have a question. I am in charge of the suspension area and not too sure how to do it. Take and A arm for example, it consists of a spherical bearing house, pull rod attachment, tubes, circlip, bearing and the top and bottom arms have different rod end attachments. Do do a process description for the whole A arm or do i break it down into all of the sub components, i.e. bearing housing etc and then put in an assembly price for the whole control arm? I am sorry but i am quite confused. Maybe it is really obvious and i am just bamboozled.

Cheers in anticipation

Olly

[oz_olly]

I am sorry to post this here but, i doubt people look in the static events threads. Sorry to the people who do.

Hey to all,

How much fun is the cost report...

Just have a question. I am in charge of the suspension area and not too sure how to do it. Take and A arm for example, it consists of a spherical bearing house, pull rod attachment, tubes, circlip, bearing and the top and bottom arms have different rod end attachments. Do do a process description for the whole A arm or do i break it down into all of the sub components, i.e. bearing housing etc and then put in an assembly price for the whole control arm? I am sorry but i am quite confused. Maybe it is really obvious and i am just bamboozled.

Cheers in anticipation

Olly

[JerryLH3]

I did a process sheet for the whole A-arm last year which included its components (tube, bearing, rod end, etc) and the required labor (tube cuts and preps, weld, etc).

[oz_olly]

What I am not so sure about is that when I am listing the drilled holes do i put the holes for the whole entire A-arm as one line or do I list the holes for each bearing housing/ rod end insert seperately. My understanding is that the intent of the cost report is to detail how you made stuff. So I am assuming it should be as detailed as possible and broken down to the lowest possible list of operations.

Olly

[terra_dactile]

OZ_olly,
If you need assistance with the cost repot why dont you just check out the information available to all teams on the official Formula SAE site or on the Formula student site.
There are many pdf or word documents to explain how to do the cost report.

What i have trouble understanding however is that you used an example of a a-arm which if you read the rules is the exact example they use to explain your question.

Not to sound like an ass but reading the rules in depth always saves headaches, the rules are fairly clear if your read them over and over and over again,

i guess the forth time around gives me a slight advatage but every one starts out at the same level its just about using all of our resource to their full potential,

Hope this helps,

Jude Berthault
ETS Formula SAE
Vehicle Dynamics Leader

[Big Bird]

I'll agree with Jude here, there is no shortage of information on the FSAE sites, and there is quite a bit of info on here as well from memory. We all start off with the same task, and it is the way that we approach this task that is of interest to the judges.

Firstly, the rules ask for an end item - i.e one that bolts onto a car. (Think of how you would buy such a component if it was a spare part for your road car as an example). You wouldn't have seperate parts / items for the bearing cup, the front arm, the rear arm etc for your A-arm. There is some interpretation required, but that is life (and there would be no learning benefit from us all doing a completely "cookbook recipe" stepwise Cost Report format).

As for your questions regarding how to list processes - well think of if you were a cost report judge. What is the most concise amount of information required to describe how this part is made? "300g steel / 3 holes / 20cm weld" doesn't indicate that you understand anything about a-arm manufacture, nor does it truly justify your costing assumptions. But you don't need a three page essay either. The answer is something in between. Your task is to come up with a format that makes life as easy as you can for some poor guy who is going to have to read 30 of these reports before the event, and you don't want to leave him guessing about any of your assumptions, nor bore him with unnecessary detail.

I'm not meaning to be deliberately obtuse here, but how you interpret the task at hand is what defines you relative to the competition, and what will make you a good engineer. If you just want to do the bare minimum, then you will get the bare minimum points.

I'd also suggest writing down all your assumptions and processes so that the team next year has a better base to start from. The good teams aren't the ones who design the fastest car, they are the ones who ensure that the incoming team members have all the information at hand to go about the complete FSAE task. The Oz event has been going for 6 years now, and any team that doesn't have set processes in place to approach Cost / Pres / Design is making life stupidly hard for themselves. And if your team doesn't have such processes - well make a hero of yourself for being the one that turns things around.

Finally, and I hope this doesn't sound too smug or critical - but we are now one week away from Cost Report submission for the Oz event. These are questions that needed to have been addressed at least 6 months ago. I'm not pointing the finger as I've been dumped in the exact same position in the past. But it continually amuses me how teams will spend thousands chasing a 1% improvement in vehicle performance, but leave the cost report to the last week. This event is worth 10% of the overall score (20% if you count the penalty of not submitting), so it is something that deserves significant input from all team members over many months. The team management structure needs to accommodate this right from week 1 of the project.

Sorry if any of the above came across as blunt, or critical of Olly's team in particular - it wasn't meant to be!

Cheers all,

[Jersey Tom]

Cost report... wait, oh you must mean 'The Complete BS Report'

[oz_olly]

Thanks to Jude and Geoff for the advice.

I think you guys slightly misinterpreted my question, but the advice was good none the less. To be honest this is our third year and we have done poorly in the cost report in the past. This year however we have been keeping much tighter accounting records of all our purchases so hopefully we will be better off. I agree with you Geoff that if I was a cost judge then there would be a cetain level of detail I would expect, and that is what i am aiming for. I was just trying to ensure that I hadn't grossly misinterpreted the rules and submitted something with the wrong intent in mind. I figure from the fact that there are no cost reports posted on this forum that they are a very closely guarded team secret that the successful teams have spent a few years to hit the nail on the head.

In regards to team informaton flow I would be very greatful for any advice. I have been with our team since our first year in 2004 and have had increasing involvement each year. As a team we have tried to formalise the flow of information from year to year with increasing success, but we still have a way to go. Next year I will be the team leader and as my parting gift to the team I plan to do as you say and improve on our static events and get them to a point where they can be slightly honed each following year. What are some of your recommendations to aid in the flow of information and building team structure while not making the whole team bureaucratic and making it harder to build a car through laborious paperwork.

Cheers

Olly