FS2015 Cost Event Real Case Scenario
The special task is designed to put into practice what you have learnt during the course
of constructing your Formula Student vehicle in order to generate a full feasibility report
and production plan for a related real world automotive component.
2015 Brief:
A recent (but fictional) change in European law has dictated that all new family cars are
to be sold with a fully removable ISOFIX baby seat. Ford Motor Company has contracted
you as a 3rd party supplier to produce this unit to be bungled with their new Fiesta model
to meet the change in legislation.
You are on the verge of being awarded a contract by Ford to produce 100,000 units per
year for the next 5 years. All your cost calculations should be based on these numbers.
You have been pre-qualified to tender on this project and your special task (during cost
judging at the event) will take the form of a final pitch to the Ford Procurement
Department justifying the following, plus whatever else you feel is relevant:
Design consideration
 Fit of the seat into the vehicle (including installation and removal by the
customer).
 Fit of the baby into the seat (anthropometrics, ergonomics and fastening
of the baby to the seat).
 Ease of installing the baby into the car (consider all current market
solutions).
 Safety in use.
 Include a component drawing.
Manufacture
 Material specification.
 Material usage / part weight.
 Dimensions.
 Tolerances.
 Material selection & rationale.
 Functionality.
 Recyclability.
 Manufacturing process
(full appraisal from goods in to goods out and
ALL stages in between).
Cost Planning
 Process & tooling.
 No of Cavities/parts per cycle/cycle time (how many machines do you
require to complete the task?).
 Material usage (cost per unit / kg).
 Tooling cost (capital outlay and deprecation cost).
 Capital equipment cost (building, running costs, utilities ect).
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Labour costs (management, HR, line staff, transportation and logistics).
Secondary processes (QC).
Design for ease manufacture (cost).
Please note: This task forms part of your cost judging at FS2015. It’s important to keep
that in mind when considering how much time of your 15 minute presentation you
should allocate for each required element. The design of this part is important, but the
judges will rightly reward teams whose primary focus is on the manufacture and most
importantly the fully costed plan for materials, manufacturing and associated logistics.
Things and important factors to take in to account:
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This change is being forced on the automotive industry so they want to minimise
its impact in terms of cost.
This is a very visible safety critical item so it cannot be seen to supply an
inferior product.
This is an opportunity to innovate and give their customer added value. Don’t
be afraid to impress the judging team with new or novel solutions, but ensure
that if you do, you have justified the cost/quality impact element.
Ford is contracting you to outsource the whole project. You need to consider
every single element of this build and cost plan accordingly for when you present
your final costs for this.
Ford will not accept that you have current facilities (from the FS your project or
otherwise) that you can use free of charge. In the real work with these types of
volumes you will most likely need to tool up and staff up from scratch. Without
doing this Ford will likely see this as a big risk to their supply chain and not award
you the contract.
This project (special task) has zero relation to components on your FS car.
This task and the output that you will present are based as it would be in a real
world situation.
For this special task please use real world costs assumptions NOT
Formula Student cost tables or costing assumptions (e.g process times).
Please consider the costs and rates involved in production and
manufacture
at
current
market
rates
for
materials,
labour,
machinery/fixed assets and standardise these costs into US Dollars ($)
at the prevailing rate.
Use standard business/accounting practices (capital outlay, deprecation
and remaining asset NBV) to estimate the EXACT unit cost and
profitability of each of the baby seats.
Ford understands that companies need to make a profit. They also have very
clear expectations of what that profit margin should be. Carefully research the
market to understand what you should charge Ford per unit and profit as a
percentage and mark this up on your very detailed cost plan.
Identifying cost reduction opportunities (short/medium or long term) for your
chosen solution would be desirable to Ford.
The presentation will be made during the cost judging session, where your team will
present to the judges their recommendations.
Cost Event Special Task - Additional Guidelines
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This special task is for Class 1 car entries only.
15 minutes of the 45 minute Cost Event is allocated to the presentation.
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Do not over-run the 15 minutes. Points will not be awarded for any content
presented beyond this time.
The presentation carries 20 points.
No restriction on how the teams can present.
The use of props, parts, diagrams, charts, boards, laptop, etc. is encouraged.
This special task has been designed to test your real world manufacturing &
process knowledge.
Some baby / child seat examples: