The cost of design
Small design changes.
Millions at stake.
Pick a project like yours. See how much of its design work is done twice, and where better coordination pays back.
Ready-made projects
Coordination cost
of design work done twice
- Project investment
- €500m
- Design & engineering
- €40m
- Repeated design work
- €6m
15% of the design budget is repeated work.
Repeated work sits inside the design budget, not on top of it, and not all of it is avoidable. Construction rework, downtime and lost production come on top and are not counted here.
Where the value
shows up.
Coordination cost is the part you can count. The same work also changes how fast, how well and how safely the project runs.
Less design done twice.
Clarifications, re-issued drawings and late changes between disciplines. For this project: €6m of repeated design work under the assumptions above.
Design off the critical path.
New equipment lands next to a running mill. Tie-in and layout drawings ready when the installation window opens.
Issues found before site.
Interfaces with the existing line checked in the model before procurement, not found during installation.
Safety designed in, not added later.
Access, maintenance clearances and lifting routes around the new equipment reviewed while they can still move.
Published investments come from the companies named; reported currencies are converted where noted. They show project scale, not design or rework costs.
Research & assumptions behind the numbers
Measure the complete assignment. Our reading of AI productivity research is that results depend on the task and working environment. Compare accepted output and total effort—including preparation, checking and rework—before claiming a saving.
Peng et al. · AI developer productivity · 2023 ↗
METR · Experienced developer trial · 2025 ↗
METR · Follow-up and measurement limitations · 2026 ↗
These studies concern software development, not mill engineering. They do not supply the calculator’s 8% design share or 15% repeated-work assumption. Replace those inputs with your project data.
Eelon Lappalainen · Design is what the project waits for ↗
A working paper on design capacity and industrial project delivery.
Nordform’s published design benchmark ↗
Methods, cases and results for design generation. Benchmark performance is separate from customer cost and delivery outcomes.
A practical place to start
Start with the work that gets repeated.
Bring one recurring design task. We’ll identify the inputs, outputs and checks needed to scope it.
Bring us a change