Owned by strategy & investment controlling
Profitability Analysis
A P&L across the life of the product — revenues, discounts, product cost, surcharges — built from time points, volumes, one-time costs and scenarios on the same costing structure, and resolved into the figures the decision rests on.
Does this earn out over its life?
Three challenges
The costing is in the costing tool and the case is in a spreadsheet, so the case is only as current as the day someone copied the numbers across.
One number,
No scenarios
A single volume assumption and a single price, when the decision actually depends on what happens if either is wrong.
Development cost disappears
Tooling, qualification and ramp-up are treated as sunk before the decision is made, so nothing shows when a product never pays them back.
How it works
Start from the costing structure
The same foundation the other questions use, so the case rests on what the product actually costs rather than on a figure typed into a spreadsheet.
Build the lifetime P&L
Resolve it into a decision
One-time costs pull the curve down before anything is sold. Volumes lift it back. A second scenario, with volumes twenty per cent lower, crosses break-even eleven months later — and that gap is what the decision is really about.
Break-even, month 19 Base case, against month 30 in the low case
IRR and NPV From the costing structure, not from a typed-in cost
Scenario spread The range the decision is actually taken across
In a plant this is a bill of materials and a routing. In a recipe house it is a recipe and its process steps.
Lifetime P&L Revenues, discounts, product cost and surcharges across the life of the product.
Business case analysis Time points, volumes, one-time costs and scenarios on the costing structure.
Investment KPIs Internal rate of return, net present value, payback.
Scenario comparison As many cases as the decision needs, side by side, with the spread visible.
One-time cost handling Tooling, qualification, development and ramp-up carried in the case, not written off before it.
Costing that stays joined The case moves when the costing moves; no copying figures into a spreadsheet.
What it needs
The shared line, plus: time points, volumes over the life of the product, price and discount assumptions, one-time costs, and the discount rate the business uses.
