Actalent Performs Benchmark Study to Compare Competitor Product Components
Cost transparency revealed and opportunities for reductions identified through analysis
The Client
A leading manufacturer of water coolers, based in the United States.
The Challenge
Our client, discovered that their product is priced higher than that of their competitors. They wanted to perform a benchmark study of their product and identify the top cost contributors. A cost analysis had to be done and reported in this regard. Additionally, the components from our client's product needed to be compared with that of the competitors to understand the difference in technology, material, serviceability, and performance.
The Actalent Approach
Actalent's technical team conducted a thorough analysis of the client's requirements and expectations. For benchmarking, we identified two competitor products available in the market for a lesser price than our client's cooler unit. All three cooler units were disassembled, and the parts were segregated based on functionality. Our team conducted reverse engineering (Scanning and 3D modelling) to perform a detailed study of each component regarding its function, mechanism, material, and design features.
A costed BOM analysis was prepared using the market price of each component and the top 20 parts contributing to 80% of BOM cost was identified. Similar parts from all three brands were studied closely for cost, quality, material, technology, features, and serviceability.
We then created a detailed report comparing the top 20 cost contributors from our client's product with other competitor products. This report elaborated the difference in cost, quality, material, technology, and serviceability of each component listed.
The Results
The output of this project, cost analysis, and comparison report gave our client a clear understanding of how the cost of their product was higher than their competitor's products and proposed a solution as to how they could reduce the overall cost of the cooler unit by redesigning/replacing highcost components.
Actalent's involvement in this project helped the client to execute another project - redesigning their cooler unit to replace some of the high-cost components, considerably reducing the overall price of their cooler unit.
The information from the comparison report provided details about serviceability and maintenance requirements for competitor products thereby enabling our client to set new targets and launch different initiatives.
Expertise: SOLIDWORKS 2015