Course Description
The Cost Reduction Strategies course draws from a variety of knowledge areas to effectively provide project managers with a true picture of cost reduction options at a given time on any project. Cost reduction can be considered a culmination of all efforts to increase efficiency and effectiveness, improve quality, reduce waste, and achieve optimization amongst all project activities undertaken.
Cost reduction also includes out-of-the-box thinking such as outsourcing, design simplification, value analysis, and other techniques. This course will focus on how cost reduction should be thought of as a policy, as a tool and technique, as a process, and as an integrity factor in running projects. This course gets into the technical, philosophical and pragmatic aspects of cost reduction in projects.
Course Outline
Day 1:
What constitutes costs in a project?
The different types of costs in a project?
Elements of cost
Methods of calculating costs in a project
Automated versus manual methods of calculating costs
Variances in Cost Calculations
Practical Exercise – Day 1
Day 2:
The basics of cost reduction
Reduction of direct costs
Reduction of indirect costs
Reduction of waste
Reduction of quality costs
Controlling budgeted costs
Practical Exercise – Day2
Day 3:
Systems approach to Cost Reduction
The Earned Value Management factor
Activity-based cost management
Continuous improvement strategies
Corporate culture and costs
Global strategies for cost reduction
Advanced cost reduction concepts
Practical Exercise – Day3
