The 2nd prototype of innovative V-CES cost estimating services is now online for free of charge usage and will be demonstrated at the ICE 2006 in Milan the 27th of June

By: Lars Hansen

Cranfield, Itzehoe 2006-06-21

V-CES is implementing a varity of net based as well as offline services in order to support SMEs in achieving their goals, for holistic and efficient Cost Estimates, a best practice center and training in the different Cost Engineering methods, as parametric, bottom-up or analogy based techniques.

The 2nd prototype of the services, which is online now (http://www.v-ces.com)  has been improved significantly in order to further raise the value for its users.

The main improvements in the functionality of the services are:

1. Adding e-mentoring to the training path based on competences. The improvement resided in adding:
   - Guidance in Cost estimating technique selection. When the user enters the e-mentor is requested to fill a questionnaire to get guidance in the cost estimating technique to be used. The suggestion given is based on information about the level of project definition and data available D5.5 [6].
   - Guidance in Cost estimating e-training material selection. The user can get advice on the training path to enhance specific competences that have been identified as relevant for cost estimating. The suggestions given are based on information about the current user competences and the target to be achieved D5.5 [6].
2. The glossary of terms and the list of mentors have been increased. Adding new mentors enhances the areas of knowledge in which the user could request help.
3. Help Desk response has been improved. Specific guidelines have been defined and given to Help Desk personnel and people in the office where the Help Desk is located.

Moreover the GUI of the V-CES services has been improved resulting in an improved usabilty, as well as the V-CES help desk. Secured access to the services is now available via https://www.v-ces.com for the e-mentor and via https://vle.v-ces.com for the e-training and e-community site.

The V-CES innovative services for cost estimation will be demonstrated at the ICE 2006 in Milan the 27th of June. The objectives of the workshop are:

• To learn more about the V-CES web based Cost Engineering Services aiming to enhance cost practices and collaboration between OEMs and suppliers: e-practices, e-training and e-communitties, IT web based tools.
• Forum to discuss the challenges that manufacturing OEMs and SMEs in the automotive and aerospace sector face when collaborating with each other when product cost has to be agreed.
• Provide an answer for questions as: How current collaborative environments help in cost engineering collaboration? Which requirements do they have?

The workshop is targeted towards cost enginnering professionals and researchers as well as the manufacturing and design engineers.

More information about this workshop and an seminar focussing on the aerospace industry the 30th of June in London can be found under http://euproject.v-ces.com/Events.html

V-CES is funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme.