The Cost Savings of Multiple Ship Production

Abstract

As presented to American Association of Cost Engineers and published in AACE Bullelzin, Vol. 6, No. 2.&&We are all aware that increased production tends to lower costs, especially in mass production industries. To a lesser degree, this is also true in shipbuilding. However, few of the publications on manufacturing cost_quantity relationships, which mathematically express this downward trend, acknowledge their application to the shipbuilding industry. This lack of available information, plus the author's participation in a recent student project related to the problem, provided the impetus for further research which is reported here. Then, the object of this paper is to discuss the relationship between units built and unit costs and to present a theory which, it is found, can be used to estimate the cost savings of multiple ship production.