iCOST is a full-lifecycle product cost management platform purpose-built for manufacturing enterprises. Unlike ERP/SAP systems, which focus primarily on financial accounting, iCOST addresses product-level cost management across R&D, procurement, and manufacturing:
• Supports cost management for complex business models such as product families, configurable SuperBOMs, and hybrid models combining product development with project-based customization
• Covers cost management from complete vehicle/machine → system → part level
• Enables real-time cost control from concept, design, and change phases through mass production
• Helps medium-to-large manufacturers build an end-to-end cost transparency framework

ERP/PLM systems mainly focus on data management and financial accounting, but they cannot meet the following needs:
• Cost forecasting and simulation during the R&D phase
• Automatic cost calculation for configurable products
• Parametric and process-based cost estimation for parts
• Target cost decomposition and closed-loop achievement tracking
• Integration with early procurement processes and procurement cost data to enable early-stage cost control
As a result, more and more enterprises are introducing iCOST as a full-lifecycle cost management platform to achieve comprehensive cost management capabilities.

iCOST supports configurable Cost BOMs (Variant CostBOM) and integrates seamlessly with EarlyBOM, EBOM, and process/manufacturing BOM data. Based on configuration rules, the system can automatically generate the corresponding Cost BOM, making it suitable for:
• Configurable vehicle models
• Optional configuration schemes for engineering equipment
• Complex products with multiple variants and multiple product families
These capabilities are typically beyond the reach of traditional PCM systems and ERP platforms.

iCOST provides a full-process capability covering target cost definition → decomposition → tracking → achievement validation:
• Structured target cost decomposition based on the Cost BOM.
• Automatic updates of target cost impact from design changes and supplier quotations.
• Target cost achievement analysis across multiple models, factories, and fiscal years.
• Helps enterprises shift from “static targets” to “dynamic cost control”.

Yes. iCOST includes multiple built-in estimation models, such as analogy-based estimation, parametric estimation, process-routing estimation, and combined material + manufacturing cost models.
It supports scenarios such as new part design reviews, procurement cost analysis and negotiation, teardown analysis, and supplier quotation validation — making the cost estimation process transparent, traceable, and reusable.

Yes. iCOST is designed for large enterprises and supports:
• Hundreds of thousands of materials and BOMs with tens of thousands of hierarchical levels.
• Cost sharing across multiple platforms and business units.
• High-concurrency queries and batch cost calculations.iCOST has been successfully deployed in large enterprises across automotive, equipment manufacturing, and electronics industries.

No conflict. As a full-lifecycle product cost management platform, iCOST complements ERP, budgeting, and enterprise performance management systems:
• iCOST includes actual cost management, focusing on real-time tracking of actual product cost at each lifecycle stage, which forms the foundation for cost variance analysis, cost attribution, and continuous cost reduction.
• A full-lifecycle cost platform supports enterprise budgeting and performance management systems.
• ERP focuses more on collecting actual incurred costs during mass production, while iCOST works interactively with ERP cost modules to form a closed-loop “from planning to actual” cost management framework.

Yes. iCOST provides professional cost reduction proposal and project management capabilities:
• Cost reduction opportunity repository, proposal submission, and review.
• Cost reduction value calculation and implementation progress tracking.
• Cost reduction statistics by responsible department and supplier.
It supports scenarios such as vehicle-level cost reduction, supply chain cost reduction, and design-driven cost reduction.

It is recommended to evaluate solutions across the following dimensions:
1. Support for complex multi-level BOMs and configurable BOMs.
2. Part cost estimation capabilities.
3. Target cost decomposition and achievement monitoring.
4. Coverage across R&D, procurement, and manufacturing.
5. Seamless integration with existing ERP/PLM/MES systems.

To successfully implement full-lifecycle cost management, enterprises should have the following foundations:
A structured cost management mindset and clear ownership across R&D, procurement, and manufacturing — not driven solely by finance
2. Data: A foundational BOM, process, and material data system. Data does not need to be perfect at the start but must be continuously improvable; iCOST supports data maturation during implementation
3. Organization: Defined cost management roles and initial processes, with recognition that cost must span R&D–procurement–manufacturing end-to-end. iCOST helps “solidify processes and quantify accountability”
4. IT foundation: Existing PLM/BOM/SRM/ERP systems as data sources. iCOST is not a replacement for any single system and has a controllable deployment threshold
5. Executive sponsorship: Strong management support for cost transparency and refined cost management
The mission of iCOST is to help enterprises build an end-to-end, full-chain, and quantifiable product cost management capability.