Munro Helps EPA Forecast the Real Cost for Greener Engines

TROY, Mich., Feb. 8, 2010 -- "Yes, we all want greener engines and less pollution, but we have to be sensitive to the costs or people just won't buy it," said Joe Feord, VP of Business Development at Munro & Associates. "The EPA wants to make real sure that they understand the real costs for new technology before they make any statements. We are pleased to partner in this effort with FEV to provide a rock-solid, bottoms-up engineering approach to estimating costs."

A recent report published by the EPA, "Light-Duty Technology Cost Analysis Pilot Study," details the methods and results to determine incremental direct manufacturing costs for a set of advanced, leading-edge light-duty vehicle technologies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in the future. Munro & Associates was selected as the subcontractor to FEV based on their expertise and robust methodologies in analyzing any and all manufacturing processes through the use of their Design Profit(R) software and detailed cost modeling tools.

"The EPA wants detailed engineering cost estimate projections based on actual, real-world manufacturing," said Greg Kolwich, Project Manager from FEV. "Munro's methods and tools enable very detailed accounting of all steps and operations that provide a solid, transparent and defendable foundation for the cost analysis."

"Cost estimating has been an essential part of our services for 22 years," said Al Steier, Lead Engine Cost Analyst at Munro. "Our software and methods provide a solid foundation generating detailed and accurate cost estimates. Additionally, we have enhanced our capabilities over the years with libraries of materials, labor rates, social economic factors, machine rates and other such data. The nice part is that our work is transparent and our results are very defendable and accurate."

Munro & Associates, Inc. and their affiliated company, Design Profit, Inc., deliver predictive tools, metrics and methods to expose drivers of potential downstream problems, provide direction for designing out high cost drivers, generate standardized metrics for early trade-off analyses, and manage the details for producibility through the development lifecycle. They continue to embed their experience and knowledge into tools that are used directly by manufactures and design companies for cost estimating, design and manufacturing optimization, reliability improvements, and most recently, manufacturing readiness level (MRL) assessments.

About Munro & Associates, Inc.

Munro & Associates, Inc., founded in 1988, is headquartered in Troy, Michigan and has offices in Europe, Canada and Japan. Munro is a world-class consulting engineering firm that specializes in upfront, predictive methods to increase profitability by improving quality, reliability and value while reducing total lifecycle costs. The Munro team delivers in-depth knowledge in product design, manufacturing, quality and technologies from a broad selection of industries around the world.

Munro's diverse customer list includes TACOM LCMC, Tata Motors, Chrysler, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Oldenburg Group, General Dynamics, Rubbermaid, Cardinal Health, Boeing, Raytheon, ATK, Nikon, Lockheed Martin, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, and many more.