The use of Target Costing and Value Engineering at ALSTOM Company

Abstract: Abstract   Title: The use of Target Costing and Value Engineering at ALSTOM Company   Due date: May 29, 2010   Course: 2FE08E, Bachelor Thesis, 15 Credits   Authors: Sandra Lange, Jacques du Boÿs, Karsten Seibert   Advisor: Paul Scarbrough   Examiner: Jan Alpenberg   Key terms: Value engineering; Target costing; Benchmarking; Product development process; Stage-Gate System   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify the use of value engineering and target costing at ALSTOM and to compare it to the current theory.   Method: The thesis is built on the case study approach. The empirical data is gathered in semi-structured interviews of ALSTOM employees. To analyse the data, the qualitative method is chosen.   Conclusion: The conclusion of this thesis is that ALSTOM is using a lot of target costing and value engineering tools. The use of these tools differ from department to department, even they have a standardize Stage-Gate process for the product development.