Tag Archives: Target Costing

How to use “Target pricing” and „Target costing” in procurement and what is the difference?

All of you already have experienced the difference between cost and price. Before and after the holiday weekend the fuel price is significantly different while the cost stayed the same. In procurement we deal with supplier prices every day, but is there any value for us to investigate the potential price of our product? The following article will elaborate on the difference of cost and price and how we need to use it in our daily procurement world.

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Product Cost Management during an R&D Project – Part 1

Introduction to Product Cost Management

A company’s health and longevity are linked to how well it can sustain and grow its profits over time. From a simplified perspective, the company can achieve this longevity by (1) increasing its revenue, and/or (2) improving its profit margin. This six-part-series focuses on the later: improving profit margins via successful product cost management during an R&D project. The series includes the following sections:

  1. Set the Tone Early. Check Back with the Market Often.
  2. Create Transparency
  3. Communicate
  4. Teach & Empower
  5. Align Key Cost Decisions with Program Schedule
  6. Execute. And Document the Decision Logic.

The sections flow in chronological order, although it is important to know that many of these steps are only effective when they are sustained in parallel throughout the entire project timeline. This will become more clear as we progress through the sections together.

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Questions you should ask in a job interview with a potential Procurement Engineer


I expect that you as a reader of that blog are working in an environment where you either are running a Procurement Engineering Organization or you are interested in that topic because you want to build up such an Organization. In both cases there are job interviews are waiting for you and the following overview with some questions might help you.

These questions have been extensively used in various interviews and helped us to identify whether the candidate was or is the right one. Beside the focus on Procurement Engineering I would always recommend preparing a list of questions you want to ask as a kind of checklist to ensure that you ask the different candidates the same. Make notes during the interview. So more details you have so better. At the end of the interview make a summary. After you had all the interviews, sit down and review all interviews with your written notes. This prevents that you automatically select one of the last candidates as they are more present in your memory. I added to every question some background information why you should ask exactly this question and what is the expectation.

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