CostX · BOM Costing Studio for automotive & commercial seating

How many spreadsheets does it take to answer one RFQ?

Industry average on a real seating program will surprise you. The answer is why quotes take weeks.

47 / program

v12_final_FINAL_updated_v3.xlsx — version chaos as a way of life

Costs travel by email; every handoff adds days of lag

Broken formulas and #REF! errors hide inside the quote

Margins exposed in files anyone can forward

21+

Days per RFQ

Chasing versions across Engineering, Procurement and Finance.

~90%

Accuracy, untraceable

Uncaptured cycle times and raw-material movement, with no path back to the source.

Root failures

Data complexity, manual process, zero integration — cascading into margin leaks and late quotes.

The fix · meet CostX

From BOM to quote,
one live number.

One platform where the entire seating program is costed, tracked and approved — from RFQ to final quote.

One BOM, one database

Every number carries an owner, a revision and a timestamp. There is no second version to reconcile.

Strict role isolation

Engineers fill in structure and never see a cost figure. Margin data stops circulating by attachment.

Physics-driven pricing

Cost computed from CAD geometry and a live materials database — not estimated from last year's quote.

Built-in approval chain

Nothing reaches the quote without a signed sign-off from every function that owns a number.

The RFQ lands

An OEM enquiry arrives with drawings, variants and volumes.

Design imports the BOM

The CAD structure and every seat variant come in from the existing Excel sheet.

Excel in

Each role fills in its own fields

Manufacturing enters cycle times, Purchase prices bought-out parts, Costing owns materials and overheads. Nobody sees anyone else's numbers.

6 roles

Cost computes itself from geometry

Dimensions and material grade drive the price. Change a dimension and the cost follows.

9 engines

The approval chain runs

Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchase and Finance sign off before the Costing Manager can release the number.

5 sign-offs

The quote goes out

Sales applies volumes and amortization and issues it — traceable to a person, a revision and a date.

Excel out

Role-based collaboration

Six roles, one source of truth

Each role sees exactly what it needs — and nothing it should not.

Design

Imports the CAD structure and seat variants.

Never sees a cost figure

Manufacturing

Defines welding, riveting and cycle-time process costs at the source.

Costing

Owns raw materials, labor, overheads and scrap rates per variant.

Purchase

Prices bought-out mechanisms with multi-supplier RFQs and quotes.

Manager

Runs side-by-side comparisons and locks the approved base cost.

Sales

Applies volumes and amortization, then issues the final quote.

Governance, not bureaucracy

Change one number — the system does the rest

Any change from any role bumps the revision, flags stale inputs and routes the sign-offs before a quote can be released.

An edit lands

A Design Engineer revises the DVP. Rev A becomes Rev B, and every dependent cost is flagged stale.

The right person is pinged

The notification feed tells the Test Engineer to resubmit against Rev B. Nobody chases anyone.

Five sign-offs, one gate

Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchase and Finance approve before the Costing Manager can release the number.

Every figure traces back to a person, a revision and a date — which is what makes the quote defensible when the OEM asks.

Tangible ROI · measured in a Tier-1 pilot

From weeks of chasing to days of decisions

21 → 4

Faster RFQ cycles

Weeks of email chasing became real-time approvals.

€1.2M

Margin recovered

Leakage from hidden weld cycle times and tooling amortization.

100%

Margin traceability

A fully auditable trail, from CAD import to final quote.

+1.5%

Bottom-line growth

Manual errors and uncaptured cycle-time costs, eradicated.

Measured in a six-week parallel run with a European Tier-1 seating supplier.
Costing teams at Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon run CostX on live programs today.