David Krause

The foundation of all four tracks: solid hands-on experience in die casting/foundry and CNC machining (turning, milling, gantry milling). I understand how setup times, tool wear, scrap and machine utilization arise — and can cost, control and maintain them, because I know them from the machine up.

Track 1 — Costing: technical quotation and post-costing for machining, forming and surface technology; self-built machine-hour rates and BAB across 20+ cost centers. Estimates that win business — internationally documented.

Track 2 — Production: machine loading, routing and due-date planning as line responsibility in CNC manufacturing, plus commissioning of new production systems to project and schedule. The advantage: the setup and cycle times I planned are the same ones I later costed — planning and cost impact never drift apart.

Track 3 — Controlling: annual budgeting, monthly plan/actual analysis with variance commentary for management, contribution-margin and capital-expenditure controlling (ROI / NPV).

Track 4 — Engineering: developed a plant-wide TPM concept and led its rollout (ZF); maintenance as line responsibility in a CNC company. Equipment availability, OEE, fault diagnosis — plus the investment appraisal that gets a replacement approved.

Automating ERP data flows with Python and local AI models: DATEV mapping, machine-hour-rate/BAB updates and AI-assisted document recognition — GDPR-compliant, offline-first.

Technical quotation and post-costing for machining, forming and surface technology — calculated from first-hand production experience, not catalogue values. Estimates that won business: revenue doubled in Hungary, a market built from zero in Malaysia (both documented in references). The complete calculation path from P&L to quotation price is laid out in my book.

Developed a plant-wide TPM concept and led its implementation (ZF, die-casting business unit). Maintenance as line responsibility in a CNC company. Equipment availability, OEE, fault diagnosis, commissioning of new production systems — plus the investment appraisal behind it (ROI, NPV, replacement value).

Built the first full-cost accounting system including the overhead sheet from scratch (~20 cost centres) — the foundation of the machine-hour-rate models still in use today. Budgeting, plan-actual analysis reported directly to management, technical quotation and post-costing.

Ten yes/no questions about your own costing with live evaluation: every “no” shows the correction need in euros. Part of chapter 8 of the book, right in the browser.

Derives the accrual and imputed-cost adjustments straight from a DATEV trial balance: rule set plus a self-trained text classifier. Runs entirely offline in the browser, no sign-up, no upload.

Return on capital, economic profit against the cost of capital and the effect of a planned investment — including the minimum EBIT at which it destroys no value. In the browser, no data transfer.

The ten most expensive costing mistakes in manufacturing practice, each with a euro figure instead of theory, plus a ten-question self-diagnosis showing where hourly rates leak. 16 pages, PDF (German).

Desktop software that turns a DATEV P&L into a complete cost-centre calculation — a ten-step wizard through to internal cost allocation, 127 automated tests, offline and GDPR-compliant. A personal proof of craft, not a commercial product.