Patent ID: 7369970

Claim:
An apparatus for estimating a manufacturing cost for a product comprising: a first input device for receiving input data concerning physical characteristics of the product to be manufactured at multiple stages of design; a cost calculation processor adapted to calculate the manufacturing cost based on information received from said first input device for one or more process series; a first external input device capable of communicating with the cost calculation processor, and operable by a first external supplier to independently supply initial and updated cost data to the cost calculation processor; a second external input device capable of communicating with the cost calculation processor, and operable by a second external supplier to independently supply initial and updated cost data to the cost calculation processor; the cost calculation processor being adapted to recalculate the manufacturing cost each time updated cost factor data is supplied by each of the first and second external suppliers; a memory for storing each of the calculated manufacturing costs; and a display device adapted to simultaneously display revised calculated manufacturing costs for both of the first and second external suppliers each time either one or both of the first and second external suppliers supplies the initial or the updated cost data at the multiple stages of design, so that a user can determine which of the first and second external suppliers is better at each of the multiple stages of design.