How many times have you heard these comments?
“We're so busy we don’t have time to properly design and estimate all the vessels we have inquiries for.” “Joe's been our estimator for 20 years and he has all our costs in his head. I don’t know what we'd do without him.” “We have four estimators and they all estimate a little bit differently.” “The Sales Department got the job but when we passed it to the Engineering Department it turns out the shell was too thin because seismic wasn't considered. Now what do we do?” “Estimating standards? What estimating standards?”
We Have the Solution The Coster option for COMPRESS produces Excel® compatible vessel cost estimates from your COMPRESS files. Coster can be customized to reflect your organization and provides a company specific way to generate more consistent, accurate budget estimates and quotes. Using Coster promotes uniformity in your selling efforts as your pricing is based on your specific input costs as defined in one, central location. As Coster estimates are derived from COMPRESS checked models, you can also be certain that all the applicable ASME design rules have been included. Coster comes complete with a simplified version of COMPRESS called Vessel Modeler which allows Coster to be used when COMPRESS is not available. Estimates are created using libraries of data that contain material prices and fabrication labor hours. All raw cost data is supplied in Access database format allowing the information to be reviewed, revised and extended. During estimate creation, data from the tables is referenced for each component in the COMPRESS model. To minimize the amount of raw data required, Coster automatically provides missing costs for you by interpolation where required. Coster determines the fabrication welding labor required by dividing up the fabrication process into the sequence of steps typically performed. Longitudinal and circumferential seam welding hours are calculated separately using the applicable weld deposition rate and type of weld used. In addition to estimating a bottom line cost, each estimate also provides detailed cost information for each of the vessel components. This includes total labor hours for particular tasks, specific raw material costs and optional items not included in the COMPRESS model. Additional overhead costs such as those associated with sales, administration and shipping can also be included. All estimates include a bill of materials, detailed cost, and a summary report. The summary can be customized by you to fit your particular requirements. Depending on how you set it up, it can contain only the bottom line cost or include all of the details. Complementary Trial Software We encourage you to download a trial version of our Coster software and work with it yourself.