Design vs. Fabrication Costs
- Design costs are seen as one-time
  - NRE: Non-Recurring Engineering costs
  - Tooling costs
  - Software "maintenance" is an exception
- Manufacturing costs are seen as repetitive
  - Cost of components
  - Cost of assembly/test/shipping
- High-volume designs -- engineering cost is "free"
  - Goal is to minimize cost of goods
  - Availability of CAD tools may be low -- little incentive to
       optimize engineer's time
- Low-volume designs -- engineering costs may dominate
Design Challenges:
  - Trade off design time vs. product cost