Live should-cost vs last year's spreadsheet
Most manufacturers still walk into a negotiation with a clean-sheet someone built last year. The index has moved. The tail never got a number. DiscvrAI rebuilds the should-cost from your consumption and the real drivers, and re-prices when those drivers move.
Side by side
| Dimension | Annual cost-engineer spreadsheet | DiscvrAI |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the number | A cost engineer, once a year, on a handful of A-items | A named agent on your item master; your buyer still commits the price |
| Refresh cadence | Annual or when someone has bandwidth to reopen the file | The material line re-prices when the driving index moves, within a modelled lag |
| Coverage | A-items only; the tail is a supplier quote | Every item mapped to a driver; gaps ranked by rupee impact, not by who shouted |
| Human gate | The spreadsheet is the argument; no separate approval step | Agent drafts the comparison and brief. A human still awards and commits price |
| ERP | Exports pasted into Excel; the file is the system of record | Reads item, BOM, and PO history from the ERP you already run |
| Proof model | The last negotiation that went well | Shadow against a cost engineer's manual should-cost before the number is used live |
Keep your cost engineers. Add a live should-cost when the spreadsheet is stale before the meeting starts, and when the tail never got a defensible number at all.
Common questions
No. The Should-Cost & Rate Agent rebuilds the clean-sheet from your consumption and drivers so engineers spend time on exceptions and judgement, not on re-keying last year's file.
A spreadsheet is a file someone opens. The agent is a current number on the item master, with lineage, ranked gaps, and a brief that travels into the RFx. The index is a driver, not a cell someone forgot to refresh.
No. A human still awards the event and commits the price. The agent drafts the comparison and the negotiation brief.
Item master, BOM or spec, 12 months of PO price history, and the commodity or FX series that drive your A-items. CSV exports are enough for an assessment.
A guaranteed assessment runs the agent in shadow against your history and, where you have them, a cost engineer's manual should-costs. You see coverage and material-line error first.